Mamata vows to free West Bengal from debt burden

Noting there has been a 30 per cent increase in revenue generation in West Bengal, state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today vowed to free the state from the crippling debt burden which had been passed on from by previous government.

Banerjee said that the revenue had gone up by 30%, but regretted that only 30 to 32 per cent of the money had been spent on development while the rest went to meet the interest on the 2.5 lakh crore debt.

"The revenue figures have gone up by 30 per cent. We have spent 32 to 30% in development. But the problem is that the Centre is deducting money for the loan borrowed by the previous government," she said at a state government programme here.

She attacked the Centre for "economically" depriving the state, saying, "We have debt and the creditors. And after meeting the debt, we will make Bengal not a debt-ridden state but a life-oriented one".

"The Centre would not be able to economically deprive us for long. You go on doing your work and we will show that what Bengal thinks today India will think tomorrow. It is deducting money from the state exchequer for the loan borrowed by the previous Left Front government," she said.

The Trinamool Congress government is consistently asking the Centre to allow a three-year moratorium on interest payment on loan taken by the previous government.

"Our annual revenue stands at Rs 21,000 crore but a sum of Rs 26,000 crore goes out to the central exchequer from our state," she had said earlier.

Banerjee reiterated her opposition to bandhs and work stoppages and noted that mandays lost had reduced to 5,000 till September, last year which she described as 'remarkable'.

She said that 78 lakh mandays were lost during the Left Front regime.