The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of West Bengal presented its first full budget in the Assembly on Monday. While presenting the budget, Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta made many big announcements for government employees, women, unemployed youth and health-education sector. At the same time, the decision to cut the budget of minority affairs and madrassa education by about 50 percent has also become a topic of discussion.
The Finance Minister said that the new government has inherited a debt of Rs 8.15 lakh crore from the previous government. In such a situation, steps are being taken towards strengthening the economic condition of the state through administrative reforms and financial discipline. The government has also announced the launch of a public relations program named ‘Apnar Sarkar, Apnar Paase’.
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Announcement of one lakh recruitments
Giving a big relief to its employees and pensioners, the state government has announced a 20 percent increase in Dearness Allowance (DA). After this increase, the total DA will increase to 38 percent. Apart from this, the government has also announced to provide one lakh government jobs in different departments in different phases. Of these, 20 thousand posts will be in the police department and 50 thousand posts will be for teaching and non-teaching staff. The government has also said that 33 percent of the total recruitment posts will be reserved for women. At the same time, Agniveer will also be given the benefit of 10 percent reservation on the posts where it is applicable.
Many new schemes for women and unemployed
The government has made a provision to provide Rs 36 thousand crore under Annapurna Yojana for women aged 25 to 60 years. Apart from this, ‘Pink Card’ scheme will be started to provide free bus travel facility to women, for which Rs 550 crore has been kept separately.
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At the same time, ‘Bharosa’ scheme has been announced for unemployed youth. Under this, financial assistance of Rs 3,000 will be given every month to eligible graduate youth and Rs 2,000 to other unemployed. Besides, the pension of elderly, widows and disabled people has also been increased by Rs 500 per month.
Five new districts, big budget for health and education
To ease administrative work, it has been proposed to create new districts of Kolkata, Basirhat, Sundarban, Jangipur and Arambag in the state. A provision of Rs 3,100 crore has been made for the ‘Ayushman Bharat’ scheme in the health sector. Besides, it has been announced to increase 650 new MMBS seats in 13 medical colleges, establish AIIMS and Cancer Hospital in North Bengal and open new educational institutions.
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However, the most talked about decision of this budget is the cut in the budget of minority affairs and madrassa education. The government has made a provision of only Rs 2,165 crore for this item, whereas Rs 5,713 crore was allocated for it in the last interim budget. That means the amount of this item has been reduced to almost half in this budget. The politics of the state are likely to heat up regarding this decision.
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