Opposition pooh poohs Amit Mitra's claims on employment, big ticket investments

Questioning West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra's claims in his budget speech, Leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan on Friday demanded white paper from the state government on the state of big investments and employment.

"He (the finance minister) is making wild claims. It has no connect with reality. Let the government come out with a white paper on the state of big investments in the state," said Mannan.

Ridiculing Mitra's promise of generating 22 lakh jobs in 2016-17, and claims that 68 lakh people have got employment in the first five years of the Mamata Banerjee government, he said: "This translates to 88 jobs per polling booth in the state. We request him to come up with a white paper providing list of at least some assembly constituencies where 88 people on an average have got jobs in each booth."

Describing his speech as the "briefest budget", Mannan alleged that the finance minister was trying to earn plaudits by giving imaginary figures.

Left Front legislature party leader Sujon Chakraborty said during the past five years, the state government has taken market loan of over Rs 1.13 lakh crore.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said the state was making tall claims about new roads, when actually the centre has provided over Rs 90,000 crore from its coffers.

"Mitra is boasting of upgtadign and constructing over 20,000 kilometers of roads. But who has provided the money? Prime Minister Narendra Modi. An allocation of over Rs 90,000 crore has come for rural roads under the Prime Minister's Grameen Sadak Yojna.

"They are taking money from the centre, and squandering it for fairs and games," he said.

--IANS

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