West Bengal’s finances are in poor shape; recovery will take at least a year: CM Suvendu Adhikari

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. File | Photo Credit: ANI West Bengal is in poor financial condition, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Monday (September 7) and said that it will take at least a year to recover from this financial state. Mr Adhikari did away with the waiting list of beneficiaries under the Trinamool Congress regime and increased allowances of several categories of contractual employees. “To come out of this situation we will take at least one more year. Meanwhile, we have included ourselves in all national central schemes, this will help us get funds from the Indian government. The financial condition of our State is very poor due to poor financial planning of the previous governments,” Mr Adhikari said. The CM added that the State had almost gone “bankrupt” due to the poor financial discipline of previous governments and the massive theft of State funds conducted by the former authorities of the State. He also claimed that the State is still reeling under the pressure of this condition of bankruptcy and will take them some time to bounce back. Inter University transfer Mr Adhikari announced that they will bring a bill to the State Assembly which will allow teaching and non-teaching staff in the State colleges and universities to take inter-university transfers. “We will propose this in the special session of the Assembly on September 10,” the CM said. He said that the university staff of any group will be allowed to apply for these transfers under this “West Bengal Universities and Colleges Administration and Regulation Bill”. The CM announced that Aliah University in Kolkata has now been included in the Higher Education Department, removing it from the purview of the Minority Affairs Department stating that “One State, One Education” will be followed in the State. “There is no Hindu Muslim here which the previous government used to do, that will not work anymore. There are only students based on merit here, there is no discrimination based on religion,” Mr Adhikari said. Allowance increase The CM announced that the allowance for over 41,000 para-teachers and over 2,200 Sikhya Bondhu (Education Helpers) will be increased by ₹5,000 per month. Forest officials will also see a ₹5,000 monthly hike, and forest volunteers will get a ₹2,000 hike. The increase in remuneration will be effective from November 1. He said that around 1,500 forest volunteers will benefit from this increase. From August 1, the medical allowance for former MLAs will be increased from ₹6,000 to ₹10,000. The WB MLAs who started the Netaji Seva Kendras (public service centres) will also receive ₹30,000 monthly to run these centres. The CM also announced several other allowance increases on Monday. He added that these are the people who may have been left out during the budget have been given special consideration by the cabinet and have been included through these allowance increases. “This will cost us an extra ₹390 crore annually, and over a lakh people will benefit from this,” Mr Adhikari added. Published - September 08, 2026 08:59 am IST