Countering the Trinamool Congress' claims on the economic situation in West Bengal, including declining industry, debt, inadequate infrastructure and the condition of agriculture, the Communist party of India (Marxist) has produced a document based on data from Central organisations and State surveys.
The document seeks to dismiss the refrain of Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee that “nothing has been done in West Bengal in the three-and-half decades of Left rule,” claiming that the State had scored high in several human development indicators.
The Trinamool, in its document claims that “the CPI(M) de-industrialised West Bengal.” It said that the State's share in the total number of factories in the country dropped from 7.6 per cent in 1967-77 to 4 per cent in 2008-09.
The CPI(M), on the other hand, states that the State's industrial decline started in the 1960s when the Congress was in power. It pointed to the investments brought to the State in the past decade and the resultant employment generation.The party points out that the Net State Domestic Product (NSDP) grew at 2.24 per cent in the 60s and jumped to 6.61 per cent in the last decade and that the per capita income in the State and its growth is only marginally below the national average.
The Trinamool, in its document, has alleged financial mismanagement, pointing out that the State was one of the highest debt-to-GDP ratios in the country, with an outstanding liability of Rs. 1,68,684 crore in 2009-10.
The CPI(M) counter this, saying that public finances had shown an improving trend with the State's debt-to-GDP ratio falling from 47 per cent in 2005-06 to 40.8 percent in 2010-11. It also dismisses as “misleading” the data used by the Trinamool to show that the average annual growth rate in agriculture had declined from 17.3 per cent between the mid 60s and mid 70s to a mere 7.8 percent in the first six years of the last decade.
According to the CPI(M), agricultural output grew at 2.27 per cent in the period between 1965 and 1980 and the rate of agricultural growth since then has been consistently higher than that of the country.
Highlighting land reforms as the engine of the growth, the document points out that West Bengal accounts for 24 per cent of all the land redistributed after land ceiling since Independence.
Published - April 10, 2011 11:10 pm IST
