Mamata Set To Complete One Year in Office

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee completes a year in office on May 20 saddled with a debt burden of over Rs two lakh crore, a not too happy relationship with ally Congress and criticism on handling of some issues.

Speaking about the achievements of her government, Banerjee told PTI: "We have been working with devotion, dedication, accountability and transparency. Whatever I do I take it as a challenge." Banerjee, who coined the `Ma, Mati Manush` (mother, land, people) to oust the Marxists from the state, said. "I want my partymen to emulate my example." The first task that Banerjee had to grapple with was the inheritance of a debt of more than Rs two lakh crore from the erstwhile Left Front government which her Trinamool Congress routed after over three decades.

Banerjee has sought to set the situation right by demanding from the Centre a three-year moratorium on the Central loan interest payment and debt restructuring. To this end, she has held several rounds of meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. It is not, however, clear what the Centre will do on her financial demand.

Banerjee, however, did not make her alliance partner Congress happy by steadfastly opposing FDI in retail, the pension bill, hike in petrol prices, her reservations on the Teesta water treaty and more recently the NCTC.