KOLKATA: A monthly pension of Rs 1,000 will be awarded to people at 60 or above belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) community under a new scheme called Bandhu Prakalpa, the Mamata Banerjee-led Bengal government on Monday announced while presenting its budget 2020 worth Rs 2,55,677 crore.
Those who are not covered under any other pension scheme will be entitled for the new scheme, it said.
The announcement is said to be a move to win the hearts of SC voters, who form 25% of the total electorate, in the wake of amended Citizenship Act.
As both the Trinamool and saffron camp are trying to secure the SC vote-bank in the state, Mamata’s announcement is said to be an attempt to protect her Dalit vote-share against BJP’s aggressive onslaught in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by taking its tally from 2 to 18 in the Lok Sabha.
Notably, the ST community has a 5% of vote-share in the state.Aiming poor electricity consumers, Mamata’s government also announced free electricity for those with a quarterly consumption of up to 75 units.
The state government announced to wave the Agricultural Income Tax to the tea gardens for the next two financial years.
In his budget speech, State Finance Minister Amit Mitra announced setting up of 100 new MSME parks across the state in the next three years to generate employment.
In a press conference after the budget session, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the union government to work together with opposition parties and refrain from the “politics of vendetta” to revive the economy.
“The union government should look after the economy, instead of being busy in the politics of hatred. The prime minister should take everybody along, if needed hold discussions with opposition parties,” Banerjee said.
Referring to the comments by RBI on the state of the economy, Banerjee said, “The union government should look after it, instead of being busy in the politics of hatred.”