Centre playing politics of money: Mamata Banerjee

Accusing the Congress-led UPA government of "playing the politics of money" and "depriving" West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said it will get a fitting reply in the coming days.

"For the last one year and nine months, they are depriving Bengal. We will give a fitting reply to this politics in the coming days. We don't play the politics of money. We don't say we will give this to you, you give that to us. We work with the confidence of the people," Banerjee told a public meeting here in the West Midnapore district.

Reiterating that the Centre was taking away a huge sum as interest, Banerjee said the state's income stood at Rs 21,000 crore while the Centre took away 25,000 crore as interest.

"On the first of every month the Reserve Bank directly takes the money from our treasury.

They are not even asking us whether we have the funds, whether we can pay the interest," she said.

She said that she is always worried how government employees and teachers will get their salaries besides pensions, for which Rs 42,000 crore was required each month.

Blaming the earlier Left Front government for "ruining" the state, she said that the Marxists had perhaps thought that the new administration will not run for even three months.

"But we are running the government for a year and nine months. Bengal is marching ahead," she said.