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Bengal presents Rs 3.89 lakh crore budget; DA enhanced, housing scheme gets higher allocation

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Kolkata, Feb 12: Amid the crucial Assembly polls due next year in West Bengal, Minister of State for Finance Chandrima Bhattacharya, on Wednesday, presented a Rs 3,89,194.09 crore budget for the financial year 2005-26 at the floor of the state Assembly with enhanced dearness allowance and higher budgetary allocation for the state’s own affordable housing scheme for the poor being the main attractions of the budget proposals.

The budget size was Rs 3,66,116 crore.

Bhattacharya announced an increase in the dearness allowance for the state government employees by four percentage points to 18 per cent from the current rate of 14 per cent. The new rate will be applicable from April 1, 2025.

However, the enhancement has not made the state government employees happy considering that even after the increase, the gap with the dearness allowance enjoyed by the central government employees remains quite high at 35 per cent.

The Union government employees are currently receiving a dearness allowance at the rate of 53 per cent. This is the last full state budget before the Assembly election due next year.

However, what has come as a surprise for many is that, although largely expected, even in the last full budget before the Assembly elections, there was no proposal for an increase in the amount paid under Lakshmir Bhandar, the monthly dole scheme for women in the state.

The amount paid under the scheme will remain the same — Rs 1,000 for women in the general category and Rs 1,200 for the women under the reserved category.

The main sectors where the budgetary allocations had been substantially increased include housing, road infrastructure, health and education.

Under ‘Banglar Bari’ (Bengal’s House), the state government’s own affordable housing scheme for the poor, a proposal was mooted to construct 16 lakh additional houses and hence an additional Rs 9,600 crore has been allocated for the scheme.

For the development of road infrastructure under the ‘Pathashree’ scheme, an additional allocation of Rs 1,500 crore has been made in the budget proposals.

For higher education, budgetary allocation for 2025-26 has been earmarked at Rs 6,593.58 crore, while an amount of Rs 41,153 crore has been set aside for school education.

The budgetary allocation for the health sector has been announced at Rs 21,355 crore for 2025.26. The allocation for the fiscal under review for rural development and panchayat affairs has been fixed at 44,000 crore.

On Wednesday, Bhattacharya announced that the state government will provide smartphones to 70,000 accredited social health activists (ASHA) workers.

She also announced a new scheme christened ‘Nadi Bandhan’, aimed at the prevention of river banks at different river banks and allocated Rs 2000 crore for that project. An amount of Rs 500 crore was allocated for the construction of a new bridge at Sagar Islands, the venue for the annual Gangasagar Mela.

National News

Modi ji served nation tirelessly through 12 years without taking even single day off: Amit Shah

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New Delhi, June 9: Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that for the first time ever under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership over the past 12 years, India has experienced both significant welfare improvements for the poor and remarkable development.

This comes as on this very day in 2024, PM Modi took the oath as the Prime Minister of India for the third consecutive time. Additionally, PM Modi is set to complete 12 years at the helm of the Central government on June 10, marking a political journey that has significantly reshaped India’s electoral and governance landscape.

In a post on X, Shah said, “Honourable Shri Narendra Modi ji took the oath of office as Prime Minister for the third consecutive time on this very day. Under Modi ji’s leadership, over these 12 years, the country has witnessed for the first time the parallel realisation of poor welfare and unprecedented development.”

“Whether it is providing free rations to 80 crore people or launching over 90 airports and more than 140 Vande Bharat trains across the country; whether it is providing pucca houses to over 4 crore poor families or constructing 1.45 lakh kilometers of roads and 3000 km of modern expressways; whether it is providing Rs 5 lakh health insurance to 50 crore people and gas connections to over 10 crore families or making India the world’s fastest-growing economy; Modi ji has served the nation and its citizens tirelessly through these 12 years without taking even a single day off,” the Home Minister added.

The PM Modi-led government’s era has also been marked by a series of high-profile infrastructure and nation-building projects, including the new Parliament building, Central Vista redevelopment, Kartavya Path, Vande Bharat trains, the Statue of Unity, INS Vikrant, the Kashmir rail link, Noida International Airport, Namo Bharat RRTS and the Ganga Expressway.

Hailing PM Modi’s leadership, Shah said, “When leadership’s intent is pure, goals are in the national interest, and dedication is complete, only then are such transformations possible.”

From his first swearing-in ceremony in 2014 to securing successive mandates in 2019 and a historic third consecutive term in 2024, PM Modi has emerged as one of India’s longest-serving leaders.

On June 10, PM Modi will surpass independent India’s first PM, Jawaharlal Nehru, to become India’s longest-serving continuously elected Prime Minister with 4,399 days.

Nehru was first elected to the post in 1952 (his previous stint from 1947-52 was as head of an interim government, as elections were yet to be institutionalised and held). Indira Gandhi had a fractured tenure totalling 14 years. Prime Minister Modi has an unbroken tenure of 12 years as the PM, and still has three more years to go for the current tenure.

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Crime

Patna court stays arrest of Khan Sir in coaching centre firing case

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Patna, June 9: A Patna court on Tuesday granted interim relief to popular educator Faisal Khan, widely known as Khan Sir, by staying his arrest in connection with the recent coaching centre firing case.

The District Judge’s court pronounced its order on Tuesday after reserving its verdict on Khan Sir’s anticipatory bail plea following a hearing on Monday.

While the court has not yet granted anticipatory bail, it has directed the police not to take any coercive or punitive action against him until further proceedings.

The court has also sought the case diary and details of Khan Sir’s criminal history from the investigating agency. The matter will now be heard again on June 30.

Seeking the case diary and the accused’s criminal record is a routine judicial procedure while considering an anticipatory bail application.

Although the bail plea remains pending, the stay on arrest has provided major relief to Khan Sir, who had been facing the possibility of immediate police action.

After the court order, Khan Sir’s counsel, Advocate Arvind Kumar Mahuar, told media that Khan Sir is now free to move around wherever he wants as the court has given him protection from the arrest.

The case stems from an incident that occurred on the night of June 2, when unidentified individuals allegedly attacked Khan Global Studies, the coaching institute run by Khan Sir in Patna.

Following the incident, police arrested Roshan Anand, the owner of Gyan Bindu Coaching Institute, and sent him to judicial custody.

The controversy intensified after a video surfaced showing two security guards allegedly firing shots into the air outside the coaching institute during the attack.

The police subsequently arrested both guards and lodged a case against them. Later, Khan Sir was also named in the case.

Police registered an FIR against Khan Sir under provisions related to attempted murder and the Arms Act. Since the registration of the case, he had reportedly remained out of the police’s reach.

Law enforcement officials had visited his coaching institute in an attempt to apprehend him, but he was not found there.

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Mumbai Press Exclusive News

Navneet Rana meets Sunitra Pawar… Is BJP preparing to send Navneet to Rajya Sabha from NCP quota, NCP senior leaders are angry

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Sunita Navneet

Mumbai : BJP leader Naveen Rana’s meeting with Nationalist Congress Party president Sunitra Pawar has sparked fresh debate in political circles. There are speculations that the meeting was held to deliberate on the Rajya Sabha seat that fell vacant after Sunitra Pawar resigned as an MP. After Vikram Kakde, who is outside the party, was nominated for the Pune Local Authority constituency of the Legislative Council, preparations are being made to send Naveen Rana, who has now joined the BJP, to the Rajya Sabha, a debate that has angered several senior leaders in the NCP.

Rajya Sabha seat: Chhagan Bhujbal is interested Senior party leader Chhagan Bhujbal is interested in this Rajya Sabha seat. However, after the discussion of Navneet Rana’s name started, an open discussion has started that the influence of MP Partha Pawar’s group on the decision-making process in the party has increased. It is also being said that Praful Patel is not very active in the party after his name was removed from the post of National Executive President. It is also being said that Sunil Tatkre is also angry and the number of angry leaders in the party is increasing. The last date for filing nominations for this Rajya Sabha seat is June 8, so various leaders in the party have started lobbying for this seat and efforts to get nomination are going on rapidly. After all, the focus of political circles is on who will give the party a candidate.

Navneet Rana, who was elected as an independent candidate with the support of the Nationalist Congress Party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, joined the BJP in 2024. However, there are talks about her political revival after her defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. It is also said that she has recently contacted some senior BJP leaders. However, it is known that she was advised to contact them because the vacant Rajya Sabha seat is in the NCP quota. It is believed that she met Sunita Pawar only after that.

Elections have been announced for 24 vacant Rajya Sabha seats and by-elections. This includes 4-4 from Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka, 3-3 from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, 2 from Jharkhand and one each from Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. Apart from this, by-elections for one seat each from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu will also be held on the same day. Voting will be held on June 18 and the results will be announced on the same day. Meanwhile, there is an important development. It is being told that former MP Naveen Rana is trying to get the Rajya Sabha nomination. The Rajya Sabha nomination from the Nationalist Congress Party quota will be announced soon. For this, Naveen Rana met Sunita Pawar and Partha Pawar on Wednesday. Yesterday, Naveen Rana and Ravi Rana also met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Therefore, it is being said that an attempt is being made to nominate Navneet Rana on the NCP quota seat. However, will Navneet Rana give up his quota seat for the NCP? This is also a question. So, will this meeting result in Navneet Rana being nominated in place of Sunitra Pawar? This will become clear in the coming days.

Rajya Sabha Seat: Amul Matkari’s social media post is under discussion, Amul Matkari has posted in this regard and said that the vacant Rajya Sabha seat of Smt. Sunitra Vahini belongs only to NCP! No one else should claim this and put up a front. The name of the NCP party is “Ajit Dada”. Therefore, the decision taken by Smt. will be final. This party is a party that is under the sway of Ajit Dada. That’s all for now.

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