In her budget last year, railway minister Mamata Banerjee showered home state West Bengal with special favours. An encore was not entirely unexpected this time given her rising stock and political designs in the state.
She lived up to the expectation.
As the minister unveiled her ministry’s budget for fiscal 2010-2011, bulldozing her way through disapproving parliament colleagues, it was clear that she was catering to the home audience again.
Her largesse for the state was indeed staggering. She announced 18 new trains for West Bengal, including five new passenger trains, two Karmabhoomi and two ‘women only’ Matrubhoomi trains and a Sanskriti Express linking Bangladesh to India. She also announced more superfast non-stop Duronto trains from the state.
The state was a major beneficiary of other proposed railway projects as well, including expansion of the Kolkata metro network and port connectivity.
Besides, the state figures prominently in plans like new lines and doubling of tracks.
At the last count, ten out of the twenty-four major projects had gone to Bengal. The projects will be started under the private-public-partnership (PPP) mode.
Banerjee, known for throwing tantrums, was unapologetic. “Please do not humiliate the people of West Bengal… I am the only cabinet minister from the state,’’ she countered her critics. “I have (also) given a wagon factory to Orissa, Guwahati and Secunderabad... Do you think Bengal should be left out from the development?”
Banerjee’s budget speech was laced with potshots at the West Bengal government. Her party, the Trinamool Congress, and the ruling CPM are caught in a bitter political struggle at the moment.
With assembly elections due in 2011, her budget was a clear effort to appeal to the electorate, feel experts.
