By IANS,
Kolkata: Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni Friday assured West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that she would convey the latter’s concern over price rise and the long-delayed Teesta river accord to the prime minister.
“This was my first meeting with her after she became chief minister,” Soni said after calling on Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress at the state secretariat here. “I wanted to hear what she needs from the centre.”
The relations between the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), led by the Congress at the centre, and UPA partner Trinamool Congress have run into choppy waters over the stalled Teesta river accord with Bangladesh and the issue of price rise.
On Banerjee’s concerns over spiralling prices, Soni said: “The chief minister has expressed her concern. I have assured her that as a central minister I will myself reach it to the prime minister tomorrow (Saturday).”
She added: “No one, no citizen of India, nobody in the Congress or in the Trinamool are happy with price hike. All of us want prices to be controlled, so that the common man, the ‘aam admi’, is not in trouble.”
Soni was confident that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Panab Mukherjee would take “adequate steps” to ensure that the prices of daily needs of the common man are kept in control.
Regarding Banerjee’s strong opposition to the deferred Indo-Bangla Teesta river water sharing pact, the union minister said the prime minister was aware of the Trinamool chief’s stand. “But still, here are additional concerns of which I shall inform the PM.”
Soni’s meeting with Banerjee comes in the backdrop of a series of factious differences between the Congress and the second largest UPA partner Trinamool.
Matters came to a head this month when a miffed Banerjee withdrew from the trip to Bangladesh with the prime minister in protest against the proposed Teesta pact giving a greater share to Bangladesh than earlier agreed upon by the centre and states.
Her strong stand stalled the treaty, partly taking the shine off Manmohan Singh’s trip.
The Trinamool has also opposed the draft Communal Violence Bill and complained that it was kept in the dark about the latest petrol price hike effective from Friday. Trinamool general secretary Mukul Roy also called up the union finance minister to protest.
Trinamool has 19 MPs in the Lok Sabha and the two parties also share power in the state.
On Monday, a group of Congress leaders from the state met party general secretary Rahul Gandhi and complained that the Trinamool Congress was trying to “finish off” the Congress in West Bengal.