Bengal Inc hails state budget

Industry of West Bengal has hailed the state budget for laying due stress on rural Bengal and the agriculture sector but sought to take a re-look at the reduction in outlay of health and family welfare sector.
"The outlay for agriculture has been increased by 82 per cent which is very significant and MCCI feels, will bring substantial improvement in farmers welfare," Ramesh Agarwal, president, Merchants' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) said.
"However, allocation for industry has been stepped up by 14.4 oper cent only. Though, social sector as a whole has been given a boost, surprisingly, the outlay in the health and family welfare sector has been reduced by 5.6 per cent which needs a re-look," he said.

Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry in its reaction said the budget was an exercise in welfare economics with stress on empowering rural Bengal.
"The budget has also focused on boosting the traditional industries of the state like tea apart from promoting affordable housing," the chamber said.
Bharat Chamber of Commerce president Sitaram Sharma said, Continuity of sustainable and inclusive social development schemes have been the hallmark of the state budget 2018-19."
The proposal of creation of a Rs 100 crore corpus for assistance to farmers at times of distress sale due to bumper production of food grains and vegetables, which he felt was the "human face" of the budget.