Midnapore: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday threatened to take her battle to New Delhi for a three-year moratorium on interest payments to bail out the debt-ridden state, but did not give a time-frame for it.
Dwelling on the huge loan burden of over Rs 2 lakh crore left behind by the previous CPI(M)-led Left Front government, Banerjee told a public meeting in junglemahal, "We will wait.” "If our request for granting a three-year moratorium on interest payment and a debt restructuring plan as sought by the state government is not allowed, we will take our movement to Delhi," Banerjee, said.
"The Centre has taken away our right to take loans. But allowed the previous Left Front government to rampantly borrow and build up a debt burden," she said.
"The state wants its dues. We want it so that we can work for the people. People of Bengal will not tolerate this for long," she said. Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress chief, made the comments days after raising the issue on January three at the Science Congress here in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying "Please give us more. Please look at Bengal. If Bengal is developed, then India is developed."
PTI