AGARTALA, Sept 13 � To tide over the severe financial crisis, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh�s intervention to get a special economic package of Rs 13,600 crore.
Talking to reporters at the Civil Secretariat here today, Finance Minister Chowdhury confirmed Chief Minister�s move to get Prime Minister�s help to save the State�s financial condition after implementation of 13th Finance Commission�s recommendations.
In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister has briefed him on the deprivation by the 13th Finance Commission and expressed his desire to meet him on the issue, Chowdhury said.
Sources said, the financial crisis was discussed in the last Cabinet meeting where the Finance Minister spoke on the obstacle in meeting the committed expenditure during the tenure of 13th Finance Commission. At the meeting, it was decided that the Chief Minister would seek Prime Minister�s intervention to get a bail out package in the line of West Bengal.
Earlier, the Finance Minister had demanded a financial aid of Rs13,600 crore to deal with the fiscal crisis. He admitted that the State Government would face an uphill task to meet the committed expenditure till 2014-15 as the FC did not pay heed to the State�s demand.
The State had sought around Rs 27,000 crore but the FC, constituted for a period of five years from 2010-15, recommended the sanction of about Rs 16,350 crore in 2009. The TFC report was accepted by the Centre last year after a discussion in Parliament.
However, opposition Congress rejected the State Government�s statement on the 13th Finance Commission�s award. �It was a major lapse on the part of the State Government that it could not project the actual requirement in meeting non-plan expenditure�, said opposition leader Ratan Lal Nath.
