Basu flays UF for ignoring poll promises
West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu has blamed the United
Front government at the Centre for not implementing most of its
election promises, including the Common Minimum Programme
for the poor and downtrodden.
''Despite our efforts to bring to their notice the non-implementation
of the programmes time and again, no action has been taken either
by the prime minister or by the finance minister, causing great
concern to us,'' Basu said at the weekend. The CPI-M supports the UF government from outside.
Basu also came down heavily on the Union finance ministry which ''implemented the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations for a handful of central government employees without realising its repercussions on state government staff''.
Disclosing that the state government employees's demands would cause a severe fund crunch in West Bengal, Basu said, ''The Centre must share the financial burden.''
The chief minister, however, said of late some suggestions
made by the state government regarding the Common Minimum Programme had been 'accepted' by the Centre. ''But I still do not know which portion of our suggestions had been accepted as I have not yet seen them,'' Basu said.
Referring to the slowdown in the country's industrial growth during the past several years, the chief minister blamed the Centre's ''faulty policies'' which benefited only a small fraction of the population.
He also criticised the United Front government for not pursuing a clear-cut policy about loss-making large public sector units, some of which were located in West Bengal. In this context, he cited the case of the Burnpur-based Indian Iron and Steel Company. The future of more than 30,000 employees working in this unit has been hanging in balance for nearly five years as the Centre vacillates.
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