Pranab,Mamata meet,economic package for Bengal on table

Mukherjee,who arrived from Delhi in the evening,said,The new government will bring all-round development in Bengal under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee8230; We discussed issues relating to the new government formation and the final discussions would be held in Delhi.

Banerjee said she would accompany Pranabda to Delhi in a day or two and officially place an invitation before the Congress high command for joining the government. We have fought together,we will move together.

Top TMC leaders said Banerjee would seek a special economic package for Bengal,to overcome the financial crisis left behind by the Marxists and as a gesture of goodwill towards the people who had given the alliance its historic mandate.

The preliminary discussions of this evening would be carried forward in Banerjees meetings in Delhi with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi,they said.

Abhirup Sarkar,an economist at Indian Statistical Institute,Kolkata,said revenues could be boosted by means other than imposing new taxes by way of better tax administration and by controlling corruption. In a TV talk show,Amit Mitra,widely tipped to be Banerjees finance minister,briefly touched on possible remedies to bail the state out of its debt.

The government could draw up small sector-specific vision documents on health,finance,education,etc.,which should focus on the causes for the economic downslide and areas needing immediate attention,he said. The prime minister,finance minister and Planning Commision might take steps based on these documents,Mitra said.

Banerjee is learnt to have made clear to Mukherjee that the Trinamool would like to keep the railway ministry. Names of Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy and Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Dinesh Trivedi were doing the rounds for the job,with Roy said to be ahead in the race.

Shakeel Ahmed,the central Congress leader in charge of Bengal,who travelled with Mukherjee to Kolkata,said the issue of the Congresss participation was still open. He added,however,that I myself had been in the Rabri Devi government in Bihar where we were in a minority a significant statement in the context of some talk in Congress circles that the party leadership is generally not too keen to join a government where it is the junior partner.

It is learnt that the swearing-in would be on May 18. Banerjee wanted it at Kolkatas Brigade Parade Ground,but Governor M K Narayanan is believed to have persuaded her to have the ceremony at the Raj Bhavan. The swearing-in is a government function,and she can always hold a rally at Brigade Parade afterward,the governor is learnt to have told Banerjee.