Kolkata, Apr 8: Alleging that West Bengal was being deprived, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said she would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi tomorrow to seek justice and to protest an ‘economic blockade' by the Centre.
”I am going to Delhi to seek justice. We are not going to meet him (Singh) as a partyman. Manmohan Singh is the prime minister of the country. We want to know why Bengal is being deprived. We will also protest against an economic blockade by the Centre,” Banerjee told reporters here before leaving for Delhi.
”We are not begging. We are not demanding any special package. We are demanding our rightful share,” the chief minister said claiming that the state was at the top as far as performance was concerned.
She reiterated that the Centre was taking away Rs 25,000 crore annually in interest on loans besides Rs 40,000 crore in central taxes.
Banerjee said that the situation in Kerala and Punjab, the two other debt-stressed states, was not as bad as West Bengal as they did not have to pay such a huge amount of interest on loan.
She also alleged instead of giving more power to state governments, the Centre was ‘unilaterally' taking many decisions without consulting them.
The chief minister said that her visit to Delhi was not political and was solely on the state's financial
situation.
Banerjee said that before meeting the Prime Minister tomorrow, she would meet the Planning Commission.
“I will submit reports on our performance and achievements on various projects to the Commission,” she said.
She said she would meet Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday. “It is almost two years (of TMC government coming to power). How long should we wait for central funds I will ask the finance minister,” she said.
The chief minister was accompanied by state Finance minister Amit Mitra, Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee and senior officials.
”Some are saying we are getting so much, but when did they (Centre) give us funds?” the chief minister asked.
Blaming the previous Left Front government for the present financial situation of the state, Banerjee said that it did not implement Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) for financial discipline in the state.
”After coming to power, we did,” she said.
Stating that the LF government had done whatever it liked, the chief minister said, “There was no growth, no development, no proper planning and corruption was rampant.
We introduced e-tender in various departments to bring in transparency and expedited projects.”
She said that her administration blacklisted contractors involved in corrupt practices.
