The West Bengal Budget proposals for the financial year 2026-27, presented by the state Finance Minister, Swapan Dasgupta, earlier in the day, underline the commitment of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in the state to adopt a three-pronged strategy to address the pressing issue of unemployment in West Bengal, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said after the Budget was tabled in the West Bengal Assembly.
“I have been speaking of this three-pronged strategy to address the unemployment issue for a long time. The first part of the strategy is increased state government employment through a transparent recruitment process. The second part is to attract big-ticket investments and generate employment opportunities.
The third aspect is to open avenues for self-employment by encouraging the micro and small enterprises sector. All these three aspects have been addressed in the Budget proposals tabled in the House today,” CM Adhikari said at a joint press conference with Dasgupta after the latter’s Budget speech.
He also said that, in the case of state government recruitments, the model followed by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in central government recruitments would be adopted in West Bengal. The Chief Minister said the Budget proposals had also stressed the issue of “ease of doing business” in West Bengal by proposing that all necessary clearances for investments of Rs 100 crore or above be provided through a government single-window system.
Speaking on the occasion, both the Chief Minister and the state Finance Minister said that the announcement of a 20-percentage-point hike in dearness allowance (DA) for state government employees and pensioners, from 18 per cent to 38 per cent, was only the beginning of the process to address the grievances of long-deprived employees and pensioners on this count.
“Our next priority is to ensure that DA for state government employees and pensioners is brought at par with that of central government employees. As a friend, I request state government employees and pensioners to give me some time on this count. The new state Finance Minister has taken charge only recently.
He will need some time to understand the entire issue,” the Chief Minister said. Speaking about the Budget proposals, Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee said that although his party does not believe in blindly opposing the proposals, it wanted to caution the government that measures aimed at improving the ease of doing business should not ultimately encourage crony capitalism.
“At the same time, we also oppose the steep cut in minority allocation. We shall fight it tooth and nail during the Budget discussion,” Banerjee said.