Kolkata: Left Front partners on January 30 took stock of the financial crisis in West Bengal and called for restructuring of Centre-state relations to do away with "Centre's economic deprivations towards the state".

State Finance Minister Ashim Dasgupta briefed the senior leaders at the meeting of the Left Front Committee on the extent of the financial crisis and the compulsions of the state government in withdrawing subsidies from various sectors leading to increased charges.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, which was also attended by Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacherjee, LF chairman Biman Bose accused the Centre of abdicating its responsibilities to the state's financial needs and instead passing its huge internal debt burden to the states.

The Centre's internal debt burden was Rs 13,15,00,000 crore while the states' aggregate internal debt burden was Rs 5,91,00,000 crore.

"Centre is passing on its huge internal debt burden to the states which we will have to resist," he said.

Citing an instance, Bose said while the Centre was taking loans from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and other financial institutions at 7 percent interest, it was charging 12 percent interest for loans to the states.

"We demand restructuring of the Centre-state relations to rectify these imbalances, which are detriment to the state's interests," he added.

PTI