Expressing dissatisfaction with the Centre for not heeding to her demand of debt restructuring, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said the state should be given at least a year's moratorium on repayment of interests on central loans.
Banerjee, who had been demanding a waiver of interest on the state's debts for a period of three years, said even a year's moratorium on repayment of interests on central loans would enable the state to create ten lakh jobs.
"We have been consistently asking the Centre to grant a three-year moratorium on the Rs 28,000-crore interest paid annually on loans, so that welfare schemes could be taken up. We have already created 2.5 lakh government jobs since we came to power two-and-a-half years ago. Ten lakh more jobs can be possible if one year's moratorium is granted," Banerjee told a rally held here in connection with a government programme to distribute sops to the poor.
"While in 2011-12 the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India took away Rs 21,000 towards debt servicing, in 2012-13 they took Rs 25,000 crore out of Rs 32,000 crore that we earned," she said, adding that "this fiscal they would be taking away Rs 28,000 crore in the form of debt and interest payment on central loans.
