All states are heading towards debt traps: Mamata Banerjee

In last 5 years, state govt took loans amounting to Rs 1,13,000 crore, out of which, Rs 94,000 crore was spent to repay debt

Terming debt traps as "death traps", West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday called for a discussion among states on the issue.

"Three states--Kerala, West Bengal and Punjab-- are already in debt traps. These are not debt traps but death traps. This is very destructive for the federal structure," Mamata said.

The interest of debt burden was increasing every year, she told the Assembly and added that in the last five years the state government had taken loans amounting to Rs 1,13,000 crore, out of which, Rs 94,000 crore was spent to repay the debt.

"Wherefrom will I get the money for development projects? This is a serious problem," she said.

She said that all states were slowly heading towards debt traps and requested the Speaker to arrange a discussion among all states to talk about the issue.

Mamata lashed out at the Centre for slashing budgets for ICDS, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and for development of the Jangalmahal areas and said despite the cash crunch the state was implementing number of developmental projects such as Kanyasree, Sabuj Sathi and many others.