Left Front was a mountain of corruption: Mamata

Says CPI(M) is hatching conspiracies and spreading canards as it is restless being out of power

After her predecessor Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee questioned her honesty, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday hit back saying that the erstwhile Left Front regime was a 'mountain of corruption'.

"Many files are missing. The previous government which had taken loan of Rs 2.5 lakh crore was a mountain of corruption. Where has the money gone?" Banerjee told a programme here to give sops to the poor and minorities. "They (CPI(M)) are hatching conspiracies and spreading canards as they are restless being out of power. I urge you not to believe in the canards," Banerjee said.

In her first visit to the area after the recent violent incident in which CPI(M) leader Abdur Rezzak Mollah was allegedly attacked by local TMC leader Arabul Islam who has since been arrested, Banerjee said "The (previous) Left Front government is my friend. I call my enemies friends.

"They thought that our government will not survive beyond six months given the empty coffers left behind by them. But we have increased the government revenues by Rs 10,000 crore for the current year," the chief minister said. Claiming that the Left Front had thought coming back to power in six months, Banerjee said.

"They cannot touch me in terms of development work, be it for farmers, Muslims, industry and scheduled caste and scheduled tribe and common people.

"My life is full of challenges. I take it as challenge to put Bengal on the road to progress," she said. She claimed that the achievements of her government would be enough to complete the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

"If I start reading from morning to night the list of work we have completed during the past over one year and six months, would be enough to complete the Ramayana and Mahabharat," she said.

Criticizing the Marxists for mocking the recently inaugurated 'Mati Utsav' (Earth festival) at Panagarh in Burdwan district and other festivals as wasteful government expenditure, Banerjee asked "What we will observe then? Korean festival? Cuban festival?"