Mamata promises to turn Bengal into “sonar Bangla” in 10 years

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West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee today said she would turn her state into a “sonar Bangla” or golden Bengal if she got an opportunity to work for just 10 years.

In her characteristic style of making promises before mass gathering, the chief minister said that in a new Bengal that would emerge, unemployed youths would not have to go outside the state to seek jobs.

“The only thing I need to have is adequate funds to complete the projects undertaken by the state government,” she told a huge rally at Pundibari in Cooch Behar district.

She said if the state had the fund and the RBI stopped collection of interest on loans, it was possible to give jobs to 10 lakh unemployed youths in a year.

She said the central government was ‘forcefully’ collecting huge amounts of interest over loans taken by the erstwhile Left Front government.

The Centre had never asked the previous government to stop taking loans and now they were taking back huge interest on it from the state government, she said.

“I do not take even a rupee as my salary and do not drink a single cup of tea with government money”, she claimed.

Continuing her tirade against the Centre, Banerjee noted that the Centre had hiked the price of fertilizer three times.

“There are problems in the distribution of BPL Cards too. This is under the central government. We want to hand over BPL Cards to all eligible persons. Once we receive approval from the Centre we will do it,” she promised.

The condition of the national highways was also deteriorating, she said claiming that request was made to repair the highways but that fell on deaf ears.

If the Centre failed to do anything, the job should best be handed over to the state government, she said.