New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will seek an interest waiver for her state on the repayment of huge debt during a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Monday. She arrived in the capital Sunday evening.
"I shall meet the PM tomorrow to secure our rights. I am not going to Delhi seeking alms. The state should get its rights," she said in Kolkata before leaving for Delhi. Banerjee, considered to be a strong critic of Modi, is expected to make a fervent plea for waiving the state's debt, which was taken by the earlier regime.
Before meeting Modi, the first one between the two leaders since Modi became the prime minister, the Trinamool Congress will have an interaction with all her party MPs. She had earlier skipped the NITI Ayog meeting called by Modi where chief ministers of several states were present. She is also likely to meet Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on March 10 and seek more funds and debt waivers for her state, which facing a severe financial crisis. The state inherited a huge debt burden from the previous Left Front regime which ruled the state for 34 years and it is our legitimate demand to seek waivers, a close aide of Banerjee said.
According to the recommendation of the Fourteenth Finance Commission, Bengal will receive around Rs 12,000 crore as grant-in-aid from the Centre which will be released to the state in phases over couple of years. However, Banerjee is insisting on a moratorium on payment of loan, which is around Rs 28,000 crore a year. She had sought the waivers earlier during the UPA regime also and met the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Recently the TMC MPs had backed the CPI(M) moved amendment on the motion of thanks to the President's address on black money issue causing embarrassment for the Modi-led government in the Rajya Sabha.
