Humpty Dumpty budget: Mamata Banerjee attacks Centre over Union Budget

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday took a swipe at the Centre over the Union Budget, invoking a popular nursery rhyme to describe it as a “Humpty Dumpty Budget” while referring to the sharp fall in Indian markets after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her record ninth Budget.

"They have not given a single paisa for Bengal. This is a Humpty Dumpty budget," said the Bengal Chief Minister.

"This Budget is directionless, visionless, actionless and anti-people. It is also anti-women, anti-farmer, anti-education and against the SC, ST and OBC... There is nothing on offer for Bengal in the Budget," she said.


"Education funds and subsidy have been slashed, along with social security subsidy and fertiliser subsidy. This is a garbage of lies... of Himalayan incompetence. The economy will be totally derailed," the CM claimed.

Banerjee asserted that the impact of the Budget was visible in the way the stock market reacted.

"The Sensex went down by over 1,100 points, the Nifty 50 went below 25,000. You can clearly see the impact," she said.

"For West Bengal, what have they given (in the Budget)? Nothing. They talk big, but offer nothing," Banerjee, also the TMC supremo, alleged.

Assembly elections are due in West Bengal in the coming months.

Referring to proposals related to infrastructure, Banerjee said the Centre "merely repeated" projects already announced.

"The freight corridor was mentioned in my Railway Budget in 2009. I had mentioned Dankuni and Amritsar. There has been no spending on this for the last 15 years," she claimed.

"And, we have already announced six economic corridors. What they said about the three corridors is a lie," the chief minister asserted.

Banerjee said "investment was already flowing" into projects such as the 'Jungle Sundari' economic corridor in Purulia.

"For this corridor, Rs 72,000 crore is going to be invested. Investors have shown interest to set up cement, coal, leather and steel units," she said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha earlier in the day.