Will be happy if PM bails out debt-ridden WB: CPI(M)

Kolkata, 27 April: CPI(M) today welcomed Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s assurance on bailing out debt-ridden West Bengal saying it would be happy if he supported ‘a sinking ship’.

“We welcome it if they get adequate support from the Centre. If the Prime Minister supports a sinking ship, we can only say we will be happy,” Leader of the Opposition Dr Suryakanta Mishra, who belongs to CPI(M), told newspersons here.

The Prime Minister assured Trinamool Congress during the day that the Centre would do everything possible to bail out debt-ridden West Bengal as party MPs sought a three-year moratorium on interest payment.

On Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s remarks that her government had achieved 99 per cent in performance, Mishra said “it is for the people to judge. It cannot be judged by the government itself.

The CPI(M) leader, who was recently inducted in the party Politburo, said the chief minister had claimed 90 per cent in achievement and now 99. “These are all baseless claims.”

Alleging that the government was moving in the reverse direction, Dr Mishra said “it is trying to undo the previous Left Front government’s achievements in land reforms, panchayat and industrial development.”

Dr Mishra released a 140-page book by the Left Front Legislature Party containing 50 letters and memorandums given to the Chief Minister, the Prime Minister and the Governor.

He claimed he has not recieved a reply to any of the letters written to the chief minister. (PTI)