Pranab Mukherjee okays Rs 21,614 crore package for West Bengal, Mamata not fully satisfied

KOLKATA: New Delhi has doled out a Rs 21,614-crore financial package for West Bengal to help the debt-laden state back on track. But it fails to satisfy chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

"Though we are not satisfied, but we understand that the centre has some compulsions," Ms Banerjee said on Saturday, after announcing the Centre's decision at the state secretariat.

The CM said that actual grant amounts to Rs 9,240 crore which will be used for development. The state has to raise the balance Rs 12,374 crore from the market and the centre has enhanced the state’s borrowing limit as part of the package.

Ms Banerjee is not too willing too call it a financial package though as she sees it just as an interim measure. "We can go on for another four five months with this support and we may need to seek centre’s help yet again," she said at Writers’ Buildings.

She is however well aware of the fact that such support does not come so easily and the state needs to be self-sufficient soon. Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee wants his state counterpart Amit Mitra to levy more taxes to boost state revenue.

Both the finance ministers held a series of meetings to finalise the financial assistance. Though it did not fully convinced Ms Banerjee, but she was politically correct in expressing gratitude to prime minister Manmohan Singh and his finance minister.

Out of Rs 9,240 crore grant, Ms Banerjee said Rs 300 crore will be used for agriculture development, Rs 100 crore for green energy development and another Rs 94 crore to curb Maoist insurgency.

Earlier in June, the Planning Commission approved a Rs 22,214 crore annual plan for the state, which is a good 27% rise than what the state received last year.