Business Standard

Mamata completes one year in office

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Press Trust of India Kolkata

"I never boasted of solving all the problems in one year. But I dislike the motivated campaign of lies," the chief minister said in an apparent reference to the stepped up campaign against her government by her detractors.

Banerjee, who single-handedly ended the 34 Left rule in the state, said if there was one big disappointment in her first year in office, it was her inability to fulfil her promise of returning land to farmers in Singur.

"I have got one big disappointment that we could not return the land to farmers in Singur.The matter is pending in court. We are awaiting the court verdict. We are committed to return the land to the farmers," she said.

 

Farmers in Singur who unwillingly parted with their land for the Nano car project and did not take compensation, would be given Rs 1000 a month, she said.

Banerjee, who has been complaining of lack of funds to battle the "huge debt burden" over over Rs.Two lakh crore which she says was left behind by the previous coalition, finds herself more and more at the receiving end facing one controversy after another.

The 57-year-old Trinamool Congress chief is known to lose her temper over uncomfortable questions fired at her, the latest being her walkout from the stage where a discussion hosted by a television channel was being recorded. She dubbed those asking questions as Maoists and CPI-M cadres.

Her government faced severe criticism on several fronts, including a controversial government order on newspapers that government-run libraries were allowed to keep and more recently the arrest of a professor for forwarding a cartoon by email showing her in poor light.

The arrest of a scientist for taking part in an anti-eviction drive, besides her remarks on the Park Street rape case have drawn flak.

Banerjee has also constantly been under the line of fire of CPI-M which has not missed any opportunity to target her.

The Chief Minister, who has drawn criticism from her detractors for appearing more like an opposition leader instead of one ruling the state, said, "We have been working with devotion, dedication, accountability and transparency. Whatever I do I take it as a challenge," Banerjee said in a recent interview to PTI.

  

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First Published: May 20 2012 | 10:15 PM IST

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