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Centre unable to get out of U.S. fixation: Buddhadeb

Special Correspondent

“State Opposition blocking all development programmes”

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday came down strongly on the Union government’s economic policies on Thursday. Its politics was different; it did not look at the plight of people and its sights were fixed on Washington, he said.

“We have been told that there is no path [towards economic development] but the one pursued by the United States. But today, the U.S. is sinking and along with it are its allies,” he said referring to the global economic downturn. “Europe is also in a crisis and our country too is not unaffected, exposing once again the true character of the Congress.”

“Had it not been for us [the Left parties], there would have been locks outside our banks and insurance companies, much like what is happening in the U.S. Yet, the Centre is not able to get out of the U.S. fixation… The worst sufferers in our country are the working people engaged in various industrial sectors; what we realise is that the Centre will not learn a lesson from the past,” he said at a rally of the CPI(M)-backed State Coordination Committee (an organisation of State government employees).

The Chief Minister was also critical of the Opposition in the State that “is used to saying ‘no’ to all development plans and bent on obstructing progress.” It was for the people to decide whether the State government should go ahead with development programmes or not.”

He called for greater industrialisation, while consolidating the successes achieved in agriculture. “The transition from agriculture to industry is a social inevitability, but one that the Opposition does not understand.” His government would steer its way around all obstacles as “the future of the State cannot be jeopardised by the forces of anarchy that have joined ranks.”

“It is not a question of whether the State government or the Opposition gets the better of the other, but one related to the dreams of lakhs of our youth that we are committed to fulfilling. There is a concerted plan to disrupt progress in the State with various forces banding together,” he cautioned, referring to those behind the demand for a separate State in the Darjeeling hills and “some cowards who sneak in from Jharkhand and return there after perpetrating violence here in the name of Mao,” he said.

“Just as the forces of terror are raising their heads in various parts of the country, here, in the State, there are those bent on creating unrest with the purpose of bringing all development to a halt. It is in the face of all such attempts that we will have to move ahead.”

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