Statesman News Service
MALDA, 2 MAY: The finance minister Dr Asim Dasgupta today asured the leaders of the All Bengal Grameen Bank Employees’ Federation that the state would take initiative to begin talks with the Union finance minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee for the development of the rural bank and to secure its employees’ service benefits.
Addressing the open session of seventh state conference of ABGBEF held at Malda College auditorium today, Dr Dasgupta said: “The system of sponsor bank, which controls the rural bank, should be abolished. When the NABARD, a Central government’s bank, is involved with the rural bank, why should sponsor bank will control it. Rural bank should run independently”.“We can jointly meet the Union finance minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee to discuss the matter. Mr Mukherjee knows the matter very well because he was the union minister of state for finance department when the rural banking system was conceived and implemented”, Dr Dasgupta said.
He supported ABGBEF’s demands related to employees’ promotion, new recruitment policy, and retirement benefit for the present employees The state finance minister also criticized the Central government’s policy on public district system, failure to check price hike and employment generation in rural sector for small and marginal farmers and traders.
“The country will face food crisis and it would be very difficult to check when present growth rate of food production is 1.7 per cent the increased rate of population is 2.1 per cent. Naturally we have to face food crisis”, he claimed.
“We do not support divisions among people identifying them as APL and BPL. A major class of people belonging to the APL needs to avail PDS but the Central government has stopped supply of essential commodities to them through PDS”, he added.
He demanded that Centre has to allot more funds for the development of irrigation and it should increase the rate of subsidy for farmers to provide fertilizers, pesticides and other equipments for agriculture sector.
Dr Dasgupta said: “Trinamul Congress does not have the right to speak about price hike. Being a partner of the NDA government, Trinamul leaders did not protest against the NDA government’s decision when it had eliminated Essential Commodities Act 1955 in 2002”.
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