Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley held talks with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday. The talks, coming nearly three months after the BJP led NDA government came to power, is being seen as crucial.
Mr. Jaitley, among the senior most Ministers in the Narendra Modi government was at State Secretariat for nearly an hour saying later that he was aware of the state's fiscal concerns.
West Bengal is among the top financially stressed states of the country with huge outstanding debts, majority of which were inherited by the Trinamool Congress goevrnment when it ascended power in May 2011.
The State has been asking for a moratorium from the Centre on its debt servicing for long and had even alleged that the previous government had reneged on an earlier commitment in this respect.
It is in this backdrop that this meeting assumes significance.
