Kolkata: Despite the poll-time tirades, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is now looking forward to the newly formed Narendra Modi government to bail out West Bengal from its debt ridden state.
Speaking at a function organised by the state transport department, Banerjee said, “The the Centre is taking away most of the state’s revenue towards debt servicing). The new government is coming — let’s see what happens.”
The state government, she informed, was awaiting the report of the 14th Finance Commission on West Bengal’s financial demands.
“There is so much financial burden on the state leftover by the CPM government that every month we are worried about running the show. Hopefully the new government which has talked about centre state relation will give it a due thought,” the chief minister added.
West Bengal is groaning under a huge debt burden — projected to reach Rs2,750 billion by the end of the current fiscal — with more than 70 per cent of its revenues being consumed by debt servicing. Since 2011, after Banerjee took over, she had been pushing for a three-year moratorium on the interest payment, which can save the state more than Rs600 billion in interest alone. So far, she has failed to wrest any such special package from the Centre.
Though the possibility of talks between her and Modi is still uncertain, state finance minister Amit Mitra is already in talks with union finance minister Arun Jaitely over the state’s financial health and two are scheduled to meet in Delhi next week.
Already chief ministers of other states like N Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh, and Naveen Patnaik of Odisha have meet Modi, demanding special financial assistance for their states, but meeting between Modi and Mamata is still unscheduled.
“Give it sometime; since the duel between the two had reached such level during the election campaign that an immediate meeting would not be fruitful. Let the parliament commence, the two will surely meet,” said a Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader.
TMC leaders are also hopeful that BJP will leaders will take them into confidence as the party does not enjoy a majority in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament and may need their support to pass the critical legislators that the government wants to bring in.
“There are ideological differences between the two but not a personal one. Hence working with the new government should not be a problem unless they (BJP) take vindictive attitude. We hope they keep to their poll promise of strengthening the federal structure,” said a TMC leader close to the developments.
