West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: A new welfare scheme called ‘Banglar Yuba-Sathi’ for Bengal’s unemployed youth and a 50% hike in the payout to ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’ beneficiaries headlined the Mamata Banerjee govt’s last budget — a vote-on-account — before the state goes to polls later this year.Finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya on Thursday had some cheer for state govt employees too, budgeting for a 4% hike in DA. Govt rechristened its Karmashree scheme as “Mahatma Shree” and hiked the minimum number of workdays from 75 to 100 in what is being seen as a nod to Trinamool Congress’s opposition to the Centre’s decision to replace MGNREGA. Lakshmir Bhandar, Banerjee’s signature women-focused scheme launched before the 2021 assembly polls, will see monthly payouts increase from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500. Bhattacharya also announced a Rs 1,000 increase in the monthly honorarium for ASHA and anganwadi workers, para-teachers and civic volunteers. Banerjee said the number of social welfare schemes had crossed a landmark. “We had 94 schemes. We just hit a century with the new ones.”Economist and BJP MLA Ashok Lahiri termed the vote-on-account “more like the Trinamool manifesto” than a budget, saying it doesn’t account for additional funding required to pay higher DA to govt employees.