NEW DELHI: West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee will be arriving in Delhi on March 8 for her first meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled for March 9.At the first one-on-one meeting with the Prime Minister, since he took office last May, one of the main issues that is expected to be taken up are the economic issue concerning the state as well as the India-Bangladesh relations, coming soon after Banerjee's Dhaka visit in February, where she promised to cooperate on the Teesta water accord and the Land Border agreement between the two countries, that she had earlier opposed in the UPA regime. Banerjee will first call on the PM along with all her MPs.

That Banerjee wants to take up the issue of the state's economy including the loan waiver that she has been asking for was announced by her on her Facebook page last week. The CM feels even the new fund allocation to states that the Centre has worked out, has not given much scope for her state to gain from, as it is already cash-strapped following the debts to the Centre that her government had inherited.

"We have long been pursuing with the Central government for waiver of the huge debt burden left upon us by the previous government in West Bengal. We have waited for more than three and half years with no results. No other State is as 'debt-stressed' as West Bengal...I have, therefore, written to the Prime Minister to consider waiver of the debt burden on us immediately. I have sought an appointment to meet him along with a delegation of my Members of Parliament to discuss this issue," she had posted on the Facebook.

While Banerjee is expected to stay in the Capital for three days, this visit is also significant as it comes at a time when her erstwhile right hand man Mukul Roy has been sidelined in the party and stripped of his all-powerful role in the TMC.

In fact, Banerjee who had been staying at Roy's 181 South Avenue bunglow, since her MPs flat on B D Marg had to be vacated, will now stay at her nephew and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee's flat next door at 183, South Avenue. The TMC chief's personal belongings have been moved out from the earlier bunglow to the new accommodation and her room has been kept ready. It has also been worked out where she will take her daily walks which is part of her routine. Party's Rajya Sabha MP Derek O' Brian, who has been allotted 184, South Avenue, a floor above where the CM will be staying, has been busy for the last few days coordinating the stay at the new venue.

Source: TOI