Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday discounted Opposition claims
that his government was economically bankrupt and said that
the situation had never been so under the Left Front regime.
"It is true that the state has a debt burden of a
little below Rs two lakh crore, but it is baseless to claim
that the government has become bankrupt," he said during an
interaction with students at Dinabandhu Andrews College in
Garia in South 24-Parganas district.
Noting that the financial situation in the country
was very complicated which was also true for states, he said,
"But, the situation has not come to such a pass that we can't
pay salaries to teachers and doctors. Never in the past has
this happened and I can assure you that it will never happen.
"The debt burden in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh is
higher than West Bengal and it was imperative that borrowings
had to be made to keep the system going," Bhattacharjee said
and asked if the Centre could be called a bankrupt government
with a debt burden of Rs 39 lakh crore.
He said that the state government would have higher
planned outlay in the next budget and mop up resources to
support different projects.
Replying to a variety of questions, Bhattacharjee
said it was a myth that the democratic rights of the
opposition parties were taken away by the Left Front and
asserted that it was to the contrary.
"Opposition parties enjoy more such rights in our
state and in some areas, it is even greater than the ruling
Front," he said.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, March 31, 2011, 19:18