Amit Mitra to present Budget today; the first after TMC's 2nd term

The state Finance Minister Amit Mitra will table the first Budget of the second Trinamool Congress government on Friday.

Trinamool Congress started its second innings with a landslide victory in the Assembly polls by winning 211 out of 294 seats and naturally, the expectation of people has gone up. But the state government is facing an acute financial crunch because it will have to repay loans amounting to Rs 40,000 crore which was taken by the erstwhile Left Front government.

In rural areas, construction of roads is facing a major problem. Till 2014-15, for all rural roads constructed under Pradhanmantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY), the Centre used to fund the entire cost of construction. But from 2015-16, it changed its stance putting enormous pressure on the state government. The Centre now bears 60 percent of the cost of construction of rural roads under PMGSY and the remaining 40 percent is borne by the state government.

Also, the state government will have to maintain the roads where the Centre's contribution is nil. Thus in reality, rural roads are being constructed on a 50:50 share basis. The erstwhile Left Front government did nothing to construct rural roads. Between 2000 to 2010, it constructed only 9,000 km rural roads. On the other hand, the Trinamool Congress government between 2011 and March 31, 2017 will construct nearly 13,789 km road.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has insisted that construction of rural road is a priority of the state government and as Panchayat election is in 2018, Mitra will have to provide money for completion of the ongoing road construction and maintenance projects.

Mitra had announced the state government's most successful project Sabuj Sathi under which, free cycles were distributed among the students of Classes IX,X,XI and XII of the state-run, aided and sponsored schools in the 2015-16 Budget. Already 35 lakh bicycles have been distributed. The estimated cost of the project was Rs 800 crore. The Finance Minister will have to provide funds for procurement of another 30 lakh cycles which will be distributed among the students of Classes IX and X.

Businessmen are expecting some announcements too in the Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. As the state government has chalked out a township policy and land has been kept to set up six townships, Mitra might make an announcement on Friday to boost this sector.