"Not given single paisa to Bengal": Mamata Banerjee slams Centre over Union Budget

Nirmala Sitharaman proposed seven high-speed rail corridors, including one between Varanasi and Siliguri, and said the government will establish new dedicated freight corridors connecting West Bengal's Dangkuni in the east to Gujarat's Surat in the west.

Mamata Banerjee accused the central government of spreading "blatant lies." She slammed the Centre over the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

She said, "They announced three corridors, we have already announced six. What they said about the three corridors is absolutely garbage (full) of lies. Blatant lies. It is already in process, and we have started working there. In the Jangalmahal Jangal Sundari project in Purulia, for this economic corridor, Rs 72,000 Crores are going to be invested. They have not given a single paisa to Bengal. Only one tax is there, GST."

"They are taking away our money and saying big things that they are giving us money. It is our money. So, they don't have any moral authority to run the government and finish the country like this. They want to destroy the economic structure of the country, the Constitutional structure of this country, and the independent agencies. They talk too much but do less work," West Bengal CM added.

Speaking to reporters outside the Parliament, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee slammed the government, accusing the Finance Minister of not mentioning the state in the Budget Speech and calling it a "visionless" budget.

He said, "In 5001 seconds, Bengal was not even named once. Be it a farmer or a youth... the government talks about AI and technology, but there is no discussion on employment. There is no financial security or way to stabilise the income. This is a faceless, baseless and visionless budget. To me, the budget is like a self-appraisal report written by its PR department. This budget does not have any concrete solutions to offer to any community. Centre looks at Bengal as Bangladesh."

As West Bengal is set to hold the Legislative Assembly elections later this year, Nirmala Sitharaman today announced, "To promote environmentally sustainable movement of cargo, I propose to establish new Dedicated Freight Corridors connecting Dankuni in the East, to Surat in the West."

"In order to promote environmentally sustainable passenger systems, we will develop seven high-speed rail corridors between cities as growth connectors, namely Mumbai to Pune, Pune to Hyderabad, Hyderabad to Bengaluru, Hyderabad to Chennai, and Chennai to Bengaluru. Delhi to Varanasi, Varanasi to Siliguri," the FM said.

FM Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for the record ninth time consecutively. (ANI)