(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2008 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3).

By B. Prasant, PV correspondent in India

In sharp contrast to India's central budget (see the March 16-31 PV), the budget for the 2008-09 financial year presented by Bengal's Communist-led Left Front government visibly prioritises the empowerment of the poor, placing emphasis on land development, agriculture, education, literacy, and mass health. In particular, small landholders and small traders will reap the biggest chunk of the financial and infrastructural benefits.

     Expanded opportunities for economic development will increase the growth of production and employment, widening the state's income base. The consequences of development-oriented, pro-people and pro-poor growth of the economy will expand over the comparatively backward societal tiers, and across the urban and rural expanses of Bengal.

     The budget totals Rs 12 billion (Indian rupees, the equivalent of $300 million Cdn), up from Rs 9 billion last year. What is noteworthy is that successive Left Front government budgets have been oriented towards the empowerment of the poor and the downtrodden, the weaker economic groups. Cutting across lines of caste, gender, religion, community, these budgets arch over the World Bank's grave pontifications about the "Third World urban-rural divide."

     The state's domestic product growth rate is expected to be 9%, just under the double-digit figures that could put the economy on the way to overheating. The total number of jobs to be generated makes for hopeful reading for the mass of the people, while throwing into theoretical disarray the right-wing economists of gloom-and-doom (and their so-called "left-leaning" underlings) who desperately seek to prop up the thesis of "economic liberalisation" at every level.

     The employment figures predicted (and here we are speaking of direct employment) are 3 million in agriculture, 25 million in industries, and 3 million in self-help groups and self-employment schemes.

     The Left Front government realises that the scope for employment depends largely on the empowerment of the poor and working masses possess at the ground level. A series of waves must be created through wider mass movements to make such politico-economic empowerment a reality.

     If the tiller is not empowered, employment opportunities in agriculture will go on shrinking, or at least not go up. If there is no empowerment of workers and the small entrepreneur, employment in industries will go down rather than up. Without the masses being empowered in the health and education sectors, there cannot be any increase in productivity and employment.

     The overall allocation for agriculture has been doubled to Rs one billion. The greatest strategy for empowerment of the rural poor in the villages is land reforms. The latest budget increases spending in this area from Rs 300 million to Rs 700 million. The state government will step up the process of purchasing land on the open market, handing it over to small peasants at no cost. A premium of up to 15% is paid to make land sellers find it attractively profitable to sell to the state government.

     Once the land is vested and then transferred, the government provides further support for agriculture, such as a shelter fund for poor peasants. The state's contribution for the provident fund scheme for landless agricultural labourers has been doubled in this year's budget, to bring in 1.5 million new beneficiaries.

     To increase the growth rate of agricultural production from just below 4% to over 4.5%, appropriate agricultural inputs will be made available to the cultivators. Irrigated land mass will be increased from the current 70.5% to 75% of the cultivated and cultivable land plots. The national rural employment guarantee (NREGA) projects are continuously augmented. To cope with the after-effects of the bird flu (4.4 million birds had to be culled), an extra Rs 400 million will be spent. The public distribution system will be further strengthened despite the non-cooperation of the union (central) government.

     With industrial development progressing in Bengal, the budget emphasises the twin processes of rehabilitation-compensation and professional on-the-job training plans for the land losers. An additional fund of Rs one billion has been created for this purpose alone.

     Ninety percent of Bengal's villages and townships have been brought under the electrification scheme, and 85% of the state is equipped with a constant supply of potable water. The health infrastructure of rural areas is undergoing further expansion and upgrades.

     In all, the finance minister of the state Left front government has placed a pro-poor, development oriented budget, with a deficit of just Rs 20 million, which is to be covered through taxing financially able groups of the population.