"The total debt by the end of the financial year 2014-15 will be around Rs 2,74,800.12 crore," the Chief Minister said in the letter which she personally handed over to Modi during a half-an-hour meeting.
Seeking his personal intervention, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give the state a complete waiver of its Rs 2.74 crore debt burden. "For the sake of growth, development and empowerment of the common people of the state, I again urge you to kindly give the state a complete debt waiver for it to escape from the veritable debt trap," Banerjee said in a letter to the Prime Minister during a meeting at the Raj Bhavan here this evening.
"The total debt by the end of the financial year 2014-15 will be around Rs 2,74,800.12 crore," the Chief Minister said in the letter which she personally handed over to Modi during a half-an-hour meeting.
"The present government after coming to power has taken a debt of Rs 82,964.5 crore, out of which Rs 76,346.78 crore was taken only to service the debt obligations of debt taken by the previous government. In view of the highly debt-stressed condition of the state, West Bengal is caught in a vicious debt trap due to debt burden left by the previous Left Front government," she said.
Banerjee also demanded restoration of funds for centrally-sponsored schemes which she said have been curtailed drastically. She sought the "personal intervention" of the Prime Minister in the issues raised by her and requested "for early action in the interest of the common people of our state and the country at large."
"I would like to emphasise that the unilateral restructuring by the Centre of centrally-sponsored schemes completely wipes out any financial gain which would have accrued to the state on account of higher devolution from 32 per cent to 42 per cent recommended by the 14th Finance Commission," Banerjee said in her letter. "Providing higher amount of funds on one hand and taking back more funds on the other is likely to lead to financial and social development disaster, especially for the weaker sections of our society," Banerjee said.
Banerjee, in the letter, presented a 15-point charter of demands stating that the Centre's share should not be withdrawn or changed from the earlier pattern. "It is a matter of great concern that sharp changes on the pattern of funding and withdrawal of central funding have disabled the state in implementing the people-friendly developmental projects," the Chief Minister said.
Regarding the popular Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan scheme, she said budgetary allocation has been reduced from Rs 8,894 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 2,000 crore in 2015-16. "Such a drastic curtailment of the central share will very adversely affect the scheme."
Stating that the central share for Mid Day Meal scheme has been reduced by 67 per cent in the 2015-16 union budget, she said, "The massive cut in the budgetary allocation is bound to severely affect this important scheme." Banerjee sought restoration of funding for the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), which she said has been curtailed by 50 per cent of the previous financial year's budgetary allocation. She also demanded restoration of funding for schemes for farmers, Left Wing Extremism-affected districts, continuation of Backward Region Grant Fund and other important central schemes in West Bengal.
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