West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya with copies of the budget in Kolkata on Thursday. | Photo credit: ANI
In view of the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government on Thursday presented its interim budget with a focus on women and unemployed youth.
The government has increased the monthly grant for women under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme by ₹500 and introduced a new scheme ‘Banglar Yuba Sathi’ which will extend unemployment benefit of ₹1,500 to youth in the age group of 21 to 40 years.
It also increased the salaries of civic and village police personnel, para-teachers and accredited social health activists (ASHAs) and anganwadi workers.
Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya presented an interim budget of ₹ 4.06 crore for the financial year 2026-27. Despite the higher expenditure, the state projects the revenue deficit to come down to ₹ 21,759.34 crore in 2026-27 from the revised ₹ 41,164.05 crore in the current fiscal.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters 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, will benefit from an additional allocation of ₹1,500 crore. Both categories will get an increase of ₹500.
The government will add 20.62 lakh women to the scheme, which currently has 2.21 lakh members, the budget document said. The increased allowance will be available from February, Ms. Banerjee said.
“The scheme is universal”
The revised allowance comes against the backdrop of the opposition BJP saying it will provide a monthly support of ₹3,000 under the scheme if voted to power. “Our system is universal (does not exclude beneficiaries) and theirs (BJP) is controversial,” the chief minister said.
A total of ₹5,000 crore has been allocated this financial year for the ‘Banglar Yuba Sathi’ programme, which will be launched from August 15. This means that the program will be implemented only if and when the TMC returns to power.
The interim budget made an additional allocation of ₹1,000 crore to increase the salaries of the ₹1,25,000,000 civic and village police personnel by ₹1,000. Funds of ₹100 crore, ₹250 crore and ₹110 crore have been allocated to increase the salaries of ASHA workers, anganwadi workers and para teachers.
Pointing out that the number of welfare schemes of the West Bengal government has crossed 100, the CM emphasized that her government is reaching out to all sections of the public and said there is something for everyone in the budget. “We only promise what we can deliver. It’s not like it’s an election year and we promise something we can’t deliver,” she said.
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said the promises the government had made since April were “nothing but a sham”. “After publication of the final voter list (February 14), the model code of conduct (MCC) will be enforced. According to the MCC, the government cannot increase financial benefits or expand the number of beneficiaries,” he said.
Published – 06 Feb 2026 0:20 IST
