Mamata to visit Delhi next week, to meet PM

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to set out for a three-day tour of Delhi on November 22, where she is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Her meeting with the Prime Minister is going to be quite crucial as significant issues starting from the Centre's decision to extend BSF's jurisdiction to the state's dues are most likely to crop up.

The Centre has increased the BSF's jurisdiction from 15 km to 50 km in three states – Punjab, Bengal and Assam. Punjab had earlier passed a resolution protesting against the same, Bengal too passed the same in the state Assembly demanding withdrawal of the MHA's decision that is adversely affecting the country's federal structure when law and order is the state subject.

Banerjee would set out for Delhi on November 22 and will return to Kolkata on November 25. Sources said Banerjee, who had earlier written to the Prime Minister protesting against the decision of increasing BSF's jurisdiction in Bengal, Punjab and Assam, now wants to take up the issue by meeting the Prime Minister in Delhi.

She is also scheduled to meet leaders of the Opposition political parties during her visit to the national Capital.

Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a meeting with the Finance ministers of all states on Monday. Minister of State for Finance Chandrima Bhattacharya raised the issues of the state's dues in the meeting. Sources said that Banerjee is going to raise the same when she calls on the Prime Minister.

Moreover, the Winter Session of Parliament is going to begin on November 29. Trinamool Congress MPs are going to up the ante against the BSF issue in Parliament as well. Banerjee's visit to Delhi just a week ahead of the same is considered "very crucial" by political experts.