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Mamata asks Centre to give fertiliser subsidy
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has circuitously blamed the Congress and the Left Front for the ongoing agrarian crisis in Bengal that has its roots in decontrolling and rising of fertiliser prices.
Promising that she would continue to put pressure on the Centre to start subsidising fertilisers again, Banerjee blamed Left Front for failing to raise the issue with the UPA Government in 2009 “when they were in power” insisting she had no knowledge of the Centre’s decision to lift subsidy.
Banerjee was speaking to the media at Krishnagar in Nadia district where she held a district-level development meeting to review the development works.
“If we had any knowledge of the Centre’s decision to decontrol the fertiliser prices we would have opposed that,” she said, claiming it was the duty of the CPI(M) which was giving outside support to the UPA Government.
The Chief Minister’s statement comes at a time when the bitterness in the Congress-Trinamool chemistry has reached the pre-2009 level.
Banerjee’s statement also coincides with reported farmers’ suicides in the State. At least 32 farmers have committed suicide in the past few months in the State after suffering losses in paddy cultivation and failing to get the declared procurement price from the Government.
The Chief Minister also blamed the Left-controlled panchayats and zilla parishads for failing to perform “as they do not want the credit of development to go to the Government.” Reminding that unlike the Left Front which had dissolved 65 panchayats when they came to power she said, “I do not want to do what you did 34 years ago. I only want you to carry on the development work.”
The Chief Minister who announced a whole lot of projects in the district including creation of two municipalities and setting up of two ITIs, two women polytechnic colleges a medical college, 17 cold storages apart from upgrading 47 secondary schools into higher-secondary ones said “sitting idle is not my habit.”
She added her “penchant for performance makes me lash the whip of development harder on the officials.”
The Chief Minister was accompanied by a galaxy of Ministers including State Panchayati Raj Minister Subroto Mukherjee and top officials including Chief Secretary and Home Secretary.
Banerjee’s development-related district tours are linked to the next year’s panchayat elections.
Asking “my officers to work even harder” the Chief Minister said she was “not a negative but a positive person who always wants to work even harder as I do not want to hear ‘no’ from any one.”
Though the State Government has refused to concede any link between agricultural debts and peasant suicides, both the Congress and Opposition Left Front have gone on the offensive demanding an all-party probe into the suicides.
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has circuitously blamed the Congress and the Left Front for the ongoing agrarian crisis in Bengal that has its roots in decontrolling and rising of fertiliser prices.
Promising that she would continue to put pressure on the Centre to start subsidising fertilisers again, Banerjee blamed Left Front for failing to raise the issue with the UPA Government in 2009 “when they were in power” insisting she had no knowledge of the Centre’s decision to lift subsidy.
Banerjee was speaking to the media at Krishnagar in Nadia district where she held a district-level development meeting to review the development works.
“If we had any knowledge of the Centre’s decision to decontrol the fertiliser prices we would have opposed that,” she said, claiming it was the duty of the CPI(M) which was giving outside support to the UPA Government.
The Chief Minister’s statement comes at a time when the bitterness in the Congress-Trinamool chemistry has reached the pre-2009 level.
Banerjee’s statement also coincides with reported farmers’ suicides in the State. At least 32 farmers have committed suicide in the past few months in the State after suffering losses in paddy cultivation and failing to get the declared procurement price from the Government.
The Chief Minister also blamed the Left-controlled panchayats and zilla parishads for failing to perform “as they do not want the credit of development to go to the Government.” Reminding that unlike the Left Front which had dissolved 65 panchayats when they came to power she said, “I do not want to do what you did 34 years ago. I only want you to carry on the development work.”
The Chief Minister who announced a whole lot of projects in the district including creation of two municipalities and setting up of two ITIs, two women polytechnic colleges a medical college, 17 cold storages apart from upgrading 47 secondary schools into higher-secondary ones said “sitting idle is not my habit.”
She added her “penchant for performance makes me lash the whip of development harder on the officials.”
The Chief Minister was accompanied by a galaxy of Ministers including State Panchayati Raj Minister Subroto Mukherjee and top officials including Chief Secretary and Home Secretary.
Banerjee’s development-related district tours are linked to the next year’s panchayat elections.
Asking “my officers to work even harder” the Chief Minister said she was “not a negative but a positive person who always wants to work even harder as I do not want to hear ‘no’ from any one.”
Though the State Government has refused to concede any link between agricultural debts and peasant suicides, both the Congress and Opposition Left Front have gone on the offensive demanding an all-party probe into the suicides.
