Mamata heckled at Planning Commission meet

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's annual sojourn to the Planning Commission for fixing the plan size of her state turned into an ugly affair after a group of Students Federation of India (SFI) supporters heckled her and finance minister Amit Mitra while the duo were entering the Yojana Bhawan.

The workers of the students wing of CPI (M) were protesting against the alleged murder of SFI leader Sudipto Gupta in West Bengal a few days back.

 

A peeved Mamata said that she would not come to Delhi if the law and order in the national capital does not improve and the incident was reflective of the disorder in the capital. 

 

West Bengal's plan size for 2013-14 was fixed at Rs 30,314 crore, almost 17 per cent more than the 2012-13. 

 

On praise for the West Bengal Government by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, Banerjee said she is happy that a chief minister of some other state appreciated the work done by her. She, however, declined to comment on the proposed package for Bihar. 

 

Planning Commission deputy chairman Monek Singh Ahluwalia appreciated the state's effort in development work and said that he will discuss the issues related to environmental clearance for various stalled projects in the state. 

 

He said the State has the image of strong industrial centre and the Planning Commission was keen to extend support in improving business regulatory environment, encourage cluster approach in facilitating better use of technology and skill upgradation. 

 

It should also encourage garment industry which has great export potential. Ahluwalia also said that the Commission  will shortly move its proposal to introduce flexibility in the implementation of flagship programmes for the Cabinet approval. 

 

He said state governments should forward suggestions which are needed to make these schemes implementable in their State. Banerjee in her address to the Commission said that  achievements of West Bengal were  better than the national average. 

 

The Commission, meanwhile has filed an FIR on today's incidence.