We deliver, you promise: Bengal CM contrasts state, Union budget

Hitting out at the Centre for failing to release West Bengal’s share of funds for implementing welfare schemes, the CM said: “The Centre has failed to release Bengal’s legitimate dues. We have been struggling to receive our rightful funds… The Centre has stopped funding programmes such as MGNREGA and the Awas Yojna (housing scheme). There is no 100 days’ work (MGNREGA); rural road work has been stopped. Despite this, we have been given grants for building houses to 28 lakh families. We have already paid half the amount, and the rest will be paid in June.”

“The Central Budget contains only promises… We allocate funds from our own revenue, and what we say in our budget, we deliver,” she asserted.

“Our vision is very clear; it is to create more and more development,” she added.

Responding to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s recent comments on Bengal, the TMC chief called them “biased” and “not based on facts.”

Sitharaman on Tuesday accused the TMC government of corruption and undermining institutions. “They should first fix their own corruption. They control the media and set the narrative. None of them speak the truth. Nirmala Ji, what happened to Ujjwala Yojna? You do nothing but give speeches. The BJP has bulldozed the federal structure.”

Reflecting on the state’s achievements in her 14-year-long reign, she said, “I made the barren land fertile. 75% of the demand for onions is being produced locally. I have set up a research centre on hilsa fish, and now you see so much hilsa from the Ganga is available.”