CM Mamata presents her 1st state budget; BJP raises 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans in Assembly

Presenting her first budget since her 2001 Union Railway budget, CM Mamata Banerjee on Friday, announced a Rs 2.99 lakh crore budget for FY 2021-2022. In the absence of Finance Minister Amit Mitra- Banerjee was allowed to present the annual budget by Governor Jagdeep Dhankar in the Assembly. With Left parties and Congress boycotting the Budget session, Banerjee's presentation was met with loud ruckus by the few BJP MLAs shouting 'Jai Shri Ram' in the Assembly - as Governor was not allowed to give his ususal address to the Assembly. Bengal is set to go to polls in April-May 2021.

In a first CM Mamata Banerjee to present State's Budget, Oppn threatens to boycott session

Mamata presents 1st state budget

Here are key points in Bengal Budget:

• 10,000 students will be inducted into different govt org as interns every 3 years, under Yuvashakti scheme
• No Road tax from January 21 to June 21
• Duare Sarkar and Parai Samadhan will be conducted twice a year
• Free ration system to continue till June 21
• 100 IAS and IPS aspirants to be trained every year in a state-run training centre
• A govt-run community kitchen for people to eat subsidised food
• 100 new schools to be set up for Nepali, Urdu, Kamtapuri and Kurmali languages
• 45 lakh Construction and transport workers will be given Rs 1000 in new social security scheme
• Rs 100 crores allocated for 1.5 lakh refugees will be given land documents in steps 
• Rs 1500 crore allocated for building 20 lakh houses for SC/ST communities
• 10 lakh new self-help groups to be given loans - Rs 25,000 crore allocated
• A new battalion  - Netaji Battalion - will be formed in Kolkata Police Force

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Bengal poll battle

This is the last interim-budget of the Assembly as the state heads to polls in April-May. The Mamata Banerjee-led party recently saw the exit of Suvendu Adhikari along with 6 MLAs, 1 MP, and 16 other grassroots leaders - who joined BJP and has now been fielded in the saffron party's political campaign. Later Adhikari's two brothers joined BJP, while his father has been removed from his party post. While sports minister  Laxmi Ratan Shukla has 'retired' from politics, Rajib Banerjee has joined BJP. Banerjee has hit out at BJP, saying she will 'fight alone if needed'.

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The saffron party is gearing for a tough battle in Bengal - aiming to attain more than 200 seats, while not fielding a CM face yet. The BJP had already politically divided Bengal into five parts - North Bengal, Rath Bang (South Western District), Nabadwip, Medinipur and Kolkata, handpicking Shivprakash, Sunil Deodhar, Dushyant Gautam, Bhikubhai Dalsania, Ravindra Raju, Vinod Sonkar, Harish Dwivedi to ta work on booth levels in these regions. With over 65,000 booth committees and 14,000 Shakti Kendra constituted, the BJP has appointed five veterans as central observers - with the final call to be taken by Amit Shah.

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