TMC govt. hikes monthly aid for women, unveils scheme for unemployed

With an eye on the upcoming Assembly election in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government on Thursday presented its interim budget, focusing on women and unemployed youth.

The government has hiked the monthly grant for women under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme by ₹500 and introduced a new scheme, ‘Banglar Yuba Sathi’, to extend unemployment aid of ₹1,500 to youth in the 21 to 40 age group.

It also increased the salaries of civic and village police personnel, para teachers, and Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) and anganwadi workers.

Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya tabled a ₹4.06-lakh-crore interim budget for the financial year 2026-27. Despite the higher spending, the State has projected that the revenue deficit will narrow to ₹21,759.34 crore in 2026-27 from the revised ₹41,164.05 crore in the current fiscal.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told journalists that Lakshmir Bhandar – one of the government’s flagship schemes that provides monthly assistance of ₹1,000 and ₹1,200 to women in the general and reserved categories respectively – will benefit from additional allocation of ₹1,500 crore. Both categories will get a hike of ₹500.

The government will add 20.62 lakh women under the scheme, which has 2.21 crore members currently, the budget document stated. The hiked allowance will be available from February, Ms. Banerjee said.

‘Scheme is universal’

The revised allowance comes against the backdrop of the Opposition BJP claiming that it will provide monthly aid of ₹3,000 under the scheme if voted to power. “Our scheme is universal [does not exclude beneficiaries] and theirs [BJP] is controversial,” the Chief Minister said.

A total of ₹5,000 crore has been allocated in this financial year for the ‘Banglar Yuba Sathi’ scheme, which will be rolled out from August 15. This means the scheme will be implemented only when, and if, the TMC returns to power.

The interim budget has made additional allocation of ₹1,000 crore to increase the salaries of 1.25 lakh civic and village police personnel by ₹1,000. Allocations of ₹100 crore, ₹250 crore, and ₹110 crore have been made to increase the salaries of ASHA workers, anganwadi workers, and para teachers respectively.

Pointing out that the number of welfare schemes of the West Bengal government has crossed 100, the CM emphasised that her government is reaching out to all the sections of public and said that there is something for everyone in the budget. “We promise only those things which we can deliver. It is not like this is an election year and we will promise something which we cannot deliver,” she said.

Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said the promises that the government has vowed to implement from April are “nothing but deception”. “After the publication of the final voter list [on February 14], the model code of conduct (MCC) will be enforced. Under the MCC, the government cannot increase financial benefits or expand the number of beneficiaries,” he said.