'I am sure we will soon be self- sufficient and will not have to beg anymore,' Banerjee said.
As the hard bargaining, several tiring rounds of talks and the wait for the special package from the Centre ended on Saturday - with the Union Finance Ministry having agreed to allot Rs21,614 crore — a disappointed chief minister Mamata Bamerjee greeted the prime minister saying that Bengal “will script its route to financial self-sufficiency.”
Speaking to reporters at the Writers’ Building this afternoon, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said “It can neither be called a package nor something special, but we must nevertheless thank both prime minister Manmohan Singh and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee for whatever they had given us in our hour of crisis because they may be facing similar crisis too. We can carry on for another four to five months with this.’’
Driving her point home, she said, “I am dissatisfied that out of Rs21,614 crore we got only Rs9,240 as assistance to help with the funding for our developmental programmes that virtually came to a standstill during last government’s rule.”
However, she made it clear that her government will continue to pay its employees’ salaries, and that the 9,240 crores would be used for development works only.
“The rest (Rs12,374) of the money they gave us was our due on various heads,’’ she said, adding, “…after all something is better than nothing.”
She continued further in a disappointed tone saying, “With this money we can carry on for another four to five months and then seek the Centre’s help again.”
However she ended on a firm and hopeful note “I am sure soon we will be self-sufficient and will not have to beg anymore. We are keeping some special provisions for this in the budget.”
Besides the Rs9,240 crore ear marked for development projects, the rest of money has been loaned for the following: Rs660 crore on account of FRBM legislation with the loan taking capacity expanded to Rs 20,634 crore from 17,528 crore.
Rs300 core was promised for development in agriculture, Rs100 for green energy projects and Rs94 crore for the development of the left-wing-extremist-affected areas.
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