Kolkata, May 21 (IANS) Accusing the central government of "rigid non-cooperation", West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has alleged that it could not shirk its responsibility in allowing the erstwhile left Front regime to "squander" public money.
"We stand on the huge debris of a crushed system that was a gift to us from a mindless and incompetent previous regime. Throughout the last one year, we have tried to reason with the central government about our predicament," said Banerjee in the prologue of "Hope to Reality" - a 182-page book, launched on the occasion of her government's first year in office.
"Why was the left regime allowed to squander public moneyIJ... The central government cannot shirk its responsibility of allowing successive left governments to go scot-free in financial wrong-doings and then looking away from the sin," she wrote.
The Trinamool Congress government has claimed that it has inherited a debt burden of over Rs.2 lakh crore.
"We demand that the entire structure of this huge debt trap be looked into and re-laid. We should be allowed a moratorium for three years for the interest that the state government pays," she said.
Slamming the central government, she wrote: "Unfortunately, even after a series of meetings at the highest echelons of power at the centre, we have returned empty-handed. We are not knocking the doors of the central government with a begging bowl. We demand and deserve justice."
The relation between the Congress, which heads the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the centre, and Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, the alliance's second largest constituent, has witnessed a steep decline over the past few months.
While the state unit of the Congress criticised Banerjee's one year rule, the Trinamool supremo has in turn decided to skip the celebrations in New Delhi on the completion of the UPA's third year in power May 22.
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