Bengal not bankrupt: CM

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today discounted Opposition claims that his government was economically bankrupt and said that the situation had never been so under the Left Front regime. "It is true that the state has a debt burden of a little below Rs two lakh crore, but it is baseless to claim that the government has become bankrupt," he said during an interaction with students at Dinabandhu Andrews College in Garia in South 24-Parganas district.

Noting that the financial situation in the country was very complicated which was also true for states, he said, "But, the situation has not come to such a pass that we can't pay salaries to teachers and doctors. Never in the past has this happened and I can assure you that it will never happen.

"The debt burden in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh is higher than West Bengal and it was imperative that borrowings had to be made to keep the system going," Bhattacharjee said and asked if the Centre could be called a bankrupt government with a debt burden of Rs 39 lakh crore. He said that the state government would have higher planned outlay in the next budget and mop up resources to support different projects.

Replying to a variety of questions, Bhattacharjee said it was a myth that the democratic rights of the opposition parties were taken away by the Left Front and asserted that it was to the contrary.

"Opposition parties enjoy more such rights in our state and in some areas, it is even greater than the ruling Front," he said.