Three yrs in govt: Mamata solves hill, Maoist crises

On the occasion of the third anniversary of Trinamool Congress coming to power, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee thanked the people of the state for reposing their faith in her party in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections.

‘On the momentous occasion of completion of three years in office tomorrow (Tuesday), we express our deep gratitude to “Maa, Maati, Manush” of Bengal for giving us their overwhelming mandate to serve them,’ she posted on her Facebook page on Monday,

On 20 May, 2011, Banerjee had created history by forming the Trinamool Congress government in Bengal after ending 34 years of  Left rule in the state. Three years down the line, after crossing many hurdles, Banerjee couldn’t have been in a more secure position, having won 34 Lok Sabha seats out of 42 and crushing the CPI(M) to a reduced mandate of only 2 seats.

Though the state government has been facing a severe cash crunch, thanks to the huge loans incurred by the Left front government, small and medium scale enterprises (SME) have done well. 

‘In terms of bank disbursement for setting up of SMEs, I believe Bengal has done better than many states, even Gujarat,’ said Prof Ashok Banerjee, Dean of New Initiatives and External Affairs, IIM (Calcutta). Trinamool Congress leader and Member of Parliament Sougata Roy however feels, ‘the single most important achievement of the party has been to restore peace in the hills and also to control of the Maoist menace in the state.’

To mark the occasion, the state government conferred the state’s highest civilian awards - Bangabibhusan and Bangabhusan - to 33 individuals for outstanding contribution in their respective fields. The awardees included Bangabibhushan awards go to Sonam Tshering Lepcha, Arun 

Bhaduri, Makhanlal Natta, Dr. Sukumar Mukherjee, Madhabi Mukhopadhyay, Dipankar De, B M Khaitan, Justice Md Abdul Gani, Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, Father Felix Raj, Haimanti Shukla, Alakananda Roy, Mohan Singh.