Pranab praises Mamata for easing supplies in Bengal

Kolkata: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today praised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for intervening into the market to ease supply side constraints in tackling inflation. “Supply side constraints are a reason for high inflation. I believe state governments ought to play a very positive and constructive role. Some states like West Bengal had played and the chief minister herself intervened as a result supply side constraints were removed to a certain extent,” Mukherjee said at a Ficci seminar in Kolkata.[caption id=“attachment_204808” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Image courtesy PIB”] [/caption] The minister said, “We are taking more lasting and positive steps. In the last two budgets I made special provisions for the second Green Revolution for pulse and edible oil districts and this has started yielding results.” “RBI correctly thought that extra liquidity should be sucked out of the system by following a tight monetary policy,” he said. “I am happy that headline inflation has come down from dangerously close to the double digit figure around 9.7 percent to 7.47 percent in the month of December and I believe that it will continue till March,” he said. PTI