Budget 2021: Bonanza for election-bound states

New Delhi: Poll-bound West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have got a leg-up in terms of proposed infrastructure spending in the budget. In West Bengal, where BJP is aiming to unseat the ruling Trinamool Congress in elections later this year, Rs 25,000 crore has been earmarked for road projects, including 675 km of highway works on the existing Kolkata-Siliguri road. In addition, freight corridor projects for the East Coast corridor from Kharagpur (West Bengal) to Vijayawada, and an East-West Corridor from Bhusaval-Nagpur (Maharashtra) to Kharagpur-Dankuni (in West Bengal) have also been proposed.

There is also new social security scheme with an outlay of Rs 1,000 crore for women employed in tea plantations in West Bengal and Assam, apart from 1,300 km of national highway projects worth Rs 34,000 crore for the poll-bound north-eastern state. The road projects will enhance industrialisation and investments and the extension of social security benefits to gig and platform workers will benefit casual workers of the state, BJP West Bengal unit executive member Shishir Bajoria told ET.



“In all, the schemes, be it extending ESI to all workers or improving roads, are in line with our party’s promise to bring Sonar Bangla in the State. For the last many decades, the state has been left out of development. The Centre’s focus is on laying the ground for development,” Bajoria said. State chief minister Mamata Banerjee, however, called the budget “anti-poor and anti-farmer”, while finance minister Amit Mitra said the focus on roads was unnecessary as the state government had invested substantially in building infrastructure over the last 10 years.

In Tamil Nadu, where BJP will contest the elections in partnership with the ruling AIADMK, national highway works with a budget of Rs 1 lakh crore, including the Madurai-Kollam corridor and Chittoor-Thatchur corridor, have been proposed. In neighbouring Kerala, where BJP is trying to gain a foothold in the upcoming elections, 1,100 km of highway works with an investment of Rs 65,000 crore, including the Mumbai-Kanyakumari corridor, have been proposed. The second phase of the Kochi Metro rail and Chennai Metro rail projects have also been proposed, apart from a sea-weed park and a fishing harbour for Tamil Nadu.





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