Kolkata: Close on the heels of a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on her demand for a three- year moratorium on loan repayment, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday said she would "show more patience" for a response from the Centre.
"If the Centre thinks it will not give anything, we will show more patience," she told a party meeting here.
Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress is a key ally of the Congress-led UPA at the Centre, said, "We are together. We are not against the Centre. We are a friendly party. We will expect cooperation. We will expect that they will fulfil their commitment as promised."
Noting that there was no scope for misunderstanding, she said, "I am not harping on any threat (to the Centre). But we have not got a single paise. Our annual earning is Rs 22,000 crore, but we have to pay interest of Rs 21,000 crore."
The chief minister rued that the state did not have funds for the health service or to buy rice for the poor and for development projects.
"Whatever money we have have, it goes toward payment of salaries of government employees," she said.
Banerjee had met the prime minister on May 4.
PTI
