New Delhi, July 04: The Railway Budget presented by Union railway minister Mamata Banerjee targeted the main vote bank of the CPI(M)-led Left Front government in West Bengal — the tribals and minorities. The youths and students of Bengal were all praise for Ms Banerjee for her low-cost Yuva trains.
Ms Banerjee’s move to set up a 1,000-MW power project at Adra in Purulia district is a calculated step to send a signal among nearly 55 lakh tribal population in the state. Adra, adjacent to Lalgarh in West Midnapore, is a tribal belt bordering neighbouring Jharkhand. She chose Adra as the Left Front government continued to face a strong resentment among the local tribal population in Lalgarh and the adjacent areas.
The Trinamul Congress leaders and MPs claimed that with six ministers of state in the Union government, including 19 MPs, Ms Banerjee would not find it difficult to implement the project.
Moreover, she would get more than one-and-a-half year to execute the project as elections to the state Assembly is likely to be held in March-April 2011.
The power project would not only send a positive signal to the tribals, but would also generate employment opportunities in this poverty-ridden belt. Focusing on this tribal belt of West Midnapore, where the Marxists had their sway for nearly 32 years, Ms Banerjee promised rail connectivity between Salboni and Jhargram via Belpahari and Lalgarh.
The decline of the Left Front began with trouble in Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal. Consolidating her base, Ms Banerjee announced setting up of a rail line between Singur and Nandigram.
In the capital, the CPI(M) leaders virtually had nothing much to say. In Bengal, the Marxist heavyweights groped for words to criticise the budget.
Ms Banerjee targeted the minorities in the state by offering concessions to the madrasa students. Even the students belonging to minority community would henceforth enjoy concessions in Kolkata Metro rail. Through this, she countered the Left Front government’s step to woo the minorities by setting up a separate school service commission for minority community in the state.
If the Buddhadeb Bhattahcarjee government was hit hard over the land acquisition policy, Ms Banerjee proposed to set up a land bank and made it clear that railways would not acquire any new areas for its projects since it already has adequate land.
To develop tourism in Bengal, she announced setting up of railway links to Digha from Puri (in Orissa), between Bishnupur and Mukutmanipur,, Namkhana-Bakkhali, Kakdwip-Sagar-Kapilmuni temple, Chalsa-Jaldhaka and Mirik-Gangtok. Incidentally, tourism was one of the most underdeveloped sectors in the 32 years of Left Front rule.
