Kolkata, Feb 1 (PTI) Economist and BJP MLA Ashok Lahiri on Sunday said that the purpose of the Union Budget is not to list what will be done for any particular state, but is for the overall development of the country.
Lahiri, who has served as chief economic adviser to the Government of India, said that while several other states have done a lot to take advantage of the development projects taken up by the Centre, nothing has been done in TMC-ruled West Bengal.
Stating that the purpose of the Union budget is not to list what will be done for any particular state like Bihar, Sikkim or Arunachal Pradesh, he said, “Union budget is for overall development.” Lahiri said that he is not surprised nor shocked by what Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said about the Union budget, asking whether her government has any plan for the development of the state.
“I am neither surprised nor shocked by what Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said,” Lahiri told PTI.
Banerjee described the Union budget for 2026-27 as “directionless and visionless”, claiming that it had nothing to offer to the common man and her state.
“Have you ever seen her taking the blame for anything, and not blaming others,” Lahiri said, adding, “This is a swan-like quality that she gets into muddy water, but comes out spotless clean.” “Does she have a plan regarding the Dankuni-Surat freight corridor which has been announced?” Lahiri asked, maintaining that there are certain things that the West Bengal government is supposed to do, but is not doing.
The economist claimed that the Mamata Banerjee government does not have any plan to set up industrial estates or parks at Siliguri, though a high-speed rail corridor between Varanasi and Siliguri was announced in the budget.
“If she had been an energetic chief minister really dedicated to the welfare of people, she would have done something that this high-speed rail corridor is coming,” Lahiri, who was elected a BJP MLA from Balurghat in West Bengal’s Dakshin Dinajpur district in 2021, said.
He said that the same goes for the Purvodaya, claiming that the state government has not made any plan for the development of industries in Durgapur.
The government has proposed in the budget the development of an ‘East Coast Industrial Corridor’ with a well-connected node at Durgapur in West Bengal.
The economist claimed that the chief minister does not have a plan for the development of inland waterways and logistics expansion over the Hooghly river system. PTI AMR RG
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