National
Buddhadeb hopeful of cordial relations with PM
By Marcus Dam
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
KOLKATA, JUNE 12. The West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, is looking forward to not just the <b>Left parties "advising'' the United Progressive Alliance at the Centre to pursue "a left-of-centre'' </b>line. He is also hopeful of maintaining his "cordial'' relationship with the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, even as he envisages an alternative model to Centre-State relations.
"I think we will understand each other," Mr. Bhattacharjee told The Hindu in a recent interview shortly after Dr. Singh assumed office. The very fact that he was the first Chief Minister to call on the Prime Minister a week after he assumed office is, perhaps, indication of the "understanding.''
<b>The Chief Minister has said he was not placing before the Prime Minister a "charter of demands."
He was not for petitioning for "a Bengal package'' even though there were outstanding issues relating to the State that needed to be addressed.
The Prime Minister's Office is "not a shopping mall'' and Mr. Bhattacharjee was not on a "buying spree" during his visit to Delhi.
Neither is he a Shylock "out to get his [Left parties] pound of flesh.'' </b>
It did not take a meeting between the two for Mr. Bhattacharjee to be informed of what Dr. Singh felt about the performance of the West Bengal Government. "The Prime Minister has already taken a positive stand about West Bengal and our policies, particularly in the agricultural field,'' Mr. Bhattacharjee had told this newspaper even before he called on Dr. Singh in Delhi. He also recalled that <b>Dr. Singh, before the Lok Sabha elections, had told a British journalist that he "would like to adopt West Bengal's agricultural reforms as a model.'' </b>
Supporting the Congress-led coalition at the Centre meant "having to work with a new team of Ministers at the Centre,'' adding that the support of the Left parties to the Government "from the outside will help us to come to an agreement on the major problems facing West Bengal for which we will have to work together.''
The "problems'' Mr. Bhattacharjee has in mind include the Ganga-Padma erosion in West Bengal, which has been resulting in floods in Malda and Murshidabad districts, as well as the setting up of a Indo-Bhutan Joint Commission to explore ways to prevent the scourge in Jalpaiguri district. He has already discussed the matter with the Union Water Resources Development Minister, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, and has also sought the cooperation of the Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, in tackling issues concerning the State. "Then there are matters which urgently need addressing. These include the State's fiscal problems, those concerning coal mines and also ones connected with the Civil Aviation Ministry.''
<b>On matters of security in West Bengal, the Chief Minister believes in the need to "continue to work with the Centre and our bordering States to tackle naxalite militancy which is also affecting parts of the State.'' "Our problem is that these extremists are taking advantage of Jharkhand where they are sheltered and from where they enter parts of West Bengal... The Congress party is aware of the situation.'' </b>
Though there has been a renewal of the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state in West Bengal's Darjeeling hills by the Gorkha National Liberation Front [GNLF], Mr. Bhattacharjee does not "believe that it will get the support of the Congress-led coalition Government at the Centre.'' This, despite the support to the Congress by the GNLF leadership in the recent Lok Sabha polls which helped the Congress wrest the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency from the CPI(M). ``There are the problems of Telangana and Vidarbha [on the question of separate State],'' he pointed out. "I think that as a national party the Congress, with its promises of running a responsible Government at the Centre, will not play this card [carving out new States].''
Buddhadeb hopeful of cordial relations with PM
By Marcus Dam
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
KOLKATA, JUNE 12. The West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, is looking forward to not just the <b>Left parties "advising'' the United Progressive Alliance at the Centre to pursue "a left-of-centre'' </b>line. He is also hopeful of maintaining his "cordial'' relationship with the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, even as he envisages an alternative model to Centre-State relations.
"I think we will understand each other," Mr. Bhattacharjee told The Hindu in a recent interview shortly after Dr. Singh assumed office. The very fact that he was the first Chief Minister to call on the Prime Minister a week after he assumed office is, perhaps, indication of the "understanding.''
<b>The Chief Minister has said he was not placing before the Prime Minister a "charter of demands."
He was not for petitioning for "a Bengal package'' even though there were outstanding issues relating to the State that needed to be addressed.
The Prime Minister's Office is "not a shopping mall'' and Mr. Bhattacharjee was not on a "buying spree" during his visit to Delhi.
Neither is he a Shylock "out to get his [Left parties] pound of flesh.'' </b>
It did not take a meeting between the two for Mr. Bhattacharjee to be informed of what Dr. Singh felt about the performance of the West Bengal Government. "The Prime Minister has already taken a positive stand about West Bengal and our policies, particularly in the agricultural field,'' Mr. Bhattacharjee had told this newspaper even before he called on Dr. Singh in Delhi. He also recalled that <b>Dr. Singh, before the Lok Sabha elections, had told a British journalist that he "would like to adopt West Bengal's agricultural reforms as a model.'' </b>
Supporting the Congress-led coalition at the Centre meant "having to work with a new team of Ministers at the Centre,'' adding that the support of the Left parties to the Government "from the outside will help us to come to an agreement on the major problems facing West Bengal for which we will have to work together.''
The "problems'' Mr. Bhattacharjee has in mind include the Ganga-Padma erosion in West Bengal, which has been resulting in floods in Malda and Murshidabad districts, as well as the setting up of a Indo-Bhutan Joint Commission to explore ways to prevent the scourge in Jalpaiguri district. He has already discussed the matter with the Union Water Resources Development Minister, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, and has also sought the cooperation of the Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, in tackling issues concerning the State. "Then there are matters which urgently need addressing. These include the State's fiscal problems, those concerning coal mines and also ones connected with the Civil Aviation Ministry.''
<b>On matters of security in West Bengal, the Chief Minister believes in the need to "continue to work with the Centre and our bordering States to tackle naxalite militancy which is also affecting parts of the State.'' "Our problem is that these extremists are taking advantage of Jharkhand where they are sheltered and from where they enter parts of West Bengal... The Congress party is aware of the situation.'' </b>
Though there has been a renewal of the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state in West Bengal's Darjeeling hills by the Gorkha National Liberation Front [GNLF], Mr. Bhattacharjee does not "believe that it will get the support of the Congress-led coalition Government at the Centre.'' This, despite the support to the Congress by the GNLF leadership in the recent Lok Sabha polls which helped the Congress wrest the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency from the CPI(M). ``There are the problems of Telangana and Vidarbha [on the question of separate State],'' he pointed out. "I think that as a national party the Congress, with its promises of running a responsible Government at the Centre, will not play this card [carving out new States].''