West Bengal CM asks PM to set up Rs 20,000 crore NIDF

KOLKATA: With the countdown to the next Lok Sabha elections, West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to set up a Rs 20,000-crore ($4-billion approx) national infrastructure development fund to help states cope with the declining economic scenario triggered by the global economic meltdown.

Officials in the Chief Minister's secretariat on Tuesday said Mr Bhattacharjee, in his letter to Dr Singh, has also urged the Prime Minister to convene a meeting of all chief ministers at the earliest to take stock of the prevailing economic situation nationally.

"The Rs 20K crore infrastructure development fund should be used for carrying out development activities by all states," Mr Bhattacharjee has suggested in his letter. He has also urged the PM to set up an additional Rs 1000-crore fund for housing projects belonging to BPL categories of people.

Incidentally, Mr Bhattacharjee has urged the Prime Minister to direct nationalised banks to shore up the credit flow so that the poor and middle class get benefits of bank loans to combat the present economic scene. Union external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is looking after key portfolios in the Union government, on Monday had asked the nationalised banks to increase their loan disbursement schemes to benefit the poor and middle class population in the country.

This is for the first time since the global meltdown which kicked in late-2008 that the West Bengal chief minister has sent suggestions to the PM to cope up with the situation. The CPIM national leadership has already asked the UPA government to invest more in the public sector to take up the challenge to cope with the downward economic growth.

Mr Bhattacharjee has written the letter at a time when the Prime Minister is recovering at his residence after having a bypass surgery. The Prime Minister is likely to join his office within two weeks. Since 2009 is an election year, the Centre will not place a full-fledged budget in the parliament but submit a vote on account.

By raising the demand for establishing the infrastructure development fund at the national level, the CPIM intends to force the Union government to make a provision for such a fund while placing the vote on account in the parliament.

Mr Bhattacharjee is probably the first chief minister in the country who has come up with specific proposals to cope with the current economic situation. Sectors like steel industry, real estate, engineering and infrastructure development are among the worst hit in India following the meltdown.