Thaindian News

Kolkata, July 21 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday said her government has fulfilled most of its election promises in the first two months of its tenure and promised to create “a million” employment opportunities in the next two years.

“Our ‘Maa Mati and Manush’ (Mother, land and people) government has fulfilled most of its promises it had made during the assembly election campaign. We had said that our new government will reclaim the Singur land, we have done it.”

“We had said we will solve the problem of the hills within two months. We had done it. I had promised that I would reach out to the people of Junglemahal, I have kept my promise,” Banerjee said addressing her first political rally after coming to power in the state in May.

Banerjee was speaking at the ‘Shahid Divas’ (Martyrs’ Day) programme of Trinamool Congress, which is observed every year to commemorate the death of 13 Congress activists in police firing on this day in 1993 during a Writers’ Buildings (state secretariat) blockade agitation. The Brigade Parade Ground rally, which saw a mammoth turnout, was also declared as the party’s victory rally for having ended the Left Front’s 34-year rule.

Banerjee announced that her government will create a million job opportunities in the state over the next two years.

“I have plans to create 10 lakh jobs in the state in the next two years so that the youth don’t have to go out of the state to seek jobs. I have asked our industries minister Partha Chatterjee to look for opportunities to set up industries,” said Banerjee.

“During the 34-year rule of the Left Front, they indulged in politics of ‘us’ and ‘them’. But we won’t ever do that. We will take everybody along with us to create a new Bengal,” said Banerjee.

During the LF rule, an oft-repeated allegation of the Trinamool-led opposition was that the government always indulged in dividing the people and delivering the goods based on political affiliation.

Former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had used of the words “us” and “them” to denote those supporting the government line and those opposed to it in East Midnapore district’s Nandigram, where the opposition launched an agitation against an SEZ. His comment invited wide criticism.

The Trinamool Congress-spearheaded alliance rode to power in the April-May election, ousting the longest serving Communist-led government in multiparty democracy. The left Front, with the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) as pivot, had come to power in 1977.