Mamata, Modi may meet Monday to discuss land boundary, Teesta water deals

The much-hyped meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to take place in Indian Parliament on Monday.

Sources in the ruling BJP told bdnews24.com that Modi may meet her in Parliament “as the budget session is on.”

Seeking an appointment, Banerjee had recently written to Modi saying she wanted to meet him along with a delegation of Trinamool Congress MPs.

In fact, the TMC supremo, in her letter, also raised the issue of her state buckling under debts.

“We have long been pursuing with the Central Government the issue of the waiver of a huge debt burden left on us by the previous government in West Bengal. We have waited for more than three and a half years with no results,” Banerjee wrote on her Facebook page.

She said the deduction of about Rs 28,000 crore every year towards the repayment of debts piled up by the previous government has been increasing.

“No other state in the country is as ‘debt-stressed’ as West Bengal because of the gross misrule of the previous Left Front Government for long 34 years.

“…Our state needs immediate relief from the debt burden, so that growth and development efforts continue unhindered,” Banerjee said.

She added: “I have, therefore, written to the Prime Minister to consider waiver of the debt burden on us immediately.”

Banerjee’s proposed meeting with the prime minister assumes significance as far as two contentious issues such as the land boundary agreement and the Teesta water-sharing are concerned.

The TMC chief will reach New Delhi on a three-day visit on Sunday.

Mamata has already given her consent to the land deal with Bangladesh, and sources in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) say she intends to cooperate on resolving all bilateral issues with including the sharing of Teesta waters.

During her visit to Bangladesh last month, Banerjee had also assured Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of her cooperation on the Teesta issue.

bdnews24.com had earlier reported that the chief minister’s letter had reached Modi before Foreign Secretary S Jaishanker’s visit to Dhaka.

Top sources in the PMO said the tone of the letter was very ‘positive’.

Perhaps Banerjee perceives that her refusal to cooperate with the centre might deny the state the financial support it needs.

In fact, neither she nor any of her ministers had earlier attended the Niti Aayog (that replaced India’s Planning Commission) conclave and deliberately side-stepped other opportunities to meet Modi.