LF govt indulged in extreme corruption: CM

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday accused the previous Left Front government in the state of indulging in "extreme corruption" and claimed it had hidden several important files.

"As each day passes, we are discovering that more files are missing. To hide these files is big crime. In many cases, money had been spent on projects without floating tenders. We are having to conduct audits into it. There was extreme corruption," Banerjee said at a press conference.

Referring to the police firing on Forward Bloc activists at Dinhata in Cooch Behar district, she asked, "Where are the files on the inquiry into the incident?"

"Because the inquiry report went against the government, the files have been hidden in the (CPI-M) party office," she claimed.

Maintaining that there had not been any internal audit in the Information and Cultural Affairs department which was held by the then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, she said, "There are numerous instances where proper accounting had not been done in a number of departments."

Banerjee said the previous government had set up several Transport Corporations and recruited employees there without government approval.

Referring to allegations made by Bhattacharjee and CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose yesterday that the new government had not been able to attract new investment, Banerjee said the previous government had not implemented any proposal on investment. "The allegation is totally false. No company has come either in Nayachar, Jellingham or Sunderbans," Banerjee said. She said her government was having to deal with the technical hurdles left by the previous government regarding the proposed 10 million tonne steel plant at Salboni.