Among those complaining after the Budget presentation on Monday was a UPA ally and member of the Cabinet, the Trinamool Congress. The party criticised Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s grant of Rs 1,000 crore to West Bengal for reconstruction and relief in the Sunderbans areas devastated by cyclone Aila, arguing that the money would be misused by the CPM-led state Government.

Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee has been urging the Centre against granting any such funds. Mukherjee also gifted West Bengal a mega handloom cluster and Rs 25 crore to set up a new campus of Aligarh University in Jangipur, his constituency in Murshidabad — a district with among the highest population of Muslims in the country.

Trinamool MP and Union Minister of State for Rural Development Sisir Adhikari expressed his anguish over the allocation of the relief money. “The Budget was okay but for the Rs 1,000 crore given to the CPM government. Now this money will go into the CPM’s pocket, it will not reach the people who need it. Already the state government claims to have spent Rs 480 crore in Aila-affected areas, but has failed to give utilisation certificates. Rs 1,000 crore is an additional fund, which will be completely wasted,” Adhikari said.

While Trinamool leader Partho Chatterjee, the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, refused to comment on the Budget, he wondered how details of three new projects were published in the CPM mouthpiece Ganashakti before the Budget was placed in Parliament. “People are asking me this... I will highlight this matter to my leader (Mamata),” Chatterjee said. Monday’s edition of Ganashakti had a story stating that one of the new campuses of AMU would come up in Murshidabad.

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