Don't give excuses Mamata, Nitish's Bihar had a bigger debt

Kolkata, Feb 25: West Bengal Chief Minister

is often heard repenting that her predecessors had left a bankrupt state for her to do anything good. Her state is indebted badly and the Centre has not been kind enough to bail her out, hence resulting in stalling of development (although there is no dearth of festivities and granting of donations to the clubs).

But West Bengal isn't the only state which has found itself in such disadvantage. Take for example, the case of Bihar. A news article said that in 2001-02 when the Rashtriya Janata Dal was in power in Bihar, the state had a huge debt on its head, even worse than what it was in West Bengal at that point of time.

Yet, since Nitish Kumar took charge of the state in 2005, the situation improved in leaps and bounds and according to reports, Bihar saw 11.95 per cent annual growth during the entire 11th Five Year Plan, the highest in the country. Bihar's debt in 2001-02 was 53 per cent of its GSDP. By 2011-12, the debt-GSDP metric had declined to 24 per cent.

Even states, which are known to be progressive in economic terms, have improved their success stories. Take for instance, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. These three states have reduced their maternal death rate significantly and according to one report, even achieved the millennium goal set by the United Nations.

Tamil Nadu had a shocking maternal death rate of 380 per lakh and it had brought down the figure to below 100 in 2007-09. One of the reason behind this success has been the state's remarkable initiative to make child delivery an institutionalised process, and that too mainly in government health centres.

How much distance has the Mamata Banerjee government travelled towards this goal? It is yet to curb the endless deaths of newborns in state hospitals in both Kolkata and the districts and even said once that the mothers of the children who died in a district hospital had conceived during the Left rule! What development can be expected from a CM who only has thoroughly politicised viewpoints even on sensitive matters.

Bihar has shown that it can beat Narendra Modi's Gujarat in terms of development, Tamil Nadu has revolutionsed its government health services, Kerala is reputed for its literacy and women empowerment programmes.

Which direction is the Ma, Mati, Manush government of Banerjee is taking? Does anybody have any clue?

OneIndia News