New Delhi, March 1: The Congress did not have its most crucial ally, the Left, on its side today because of the budget’s alleged indifference to Left-ruled states, especially Bengal.

P. Chidambaram didn’t play Santa Claus to Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, but he wasn’t exactly tight-fisted either.

Bengal got Rs 789.19 crore for five “externally aided” projects. The Bakreswar Thermal Power Station and the Purulia Pump Project got Rs 100 crore each, West Bengal Corridor Development got Rs 126.12 crore, East West Corridor Rs 266.02 crore and the Kolkata Environmental Improvement project Rs 197.05 crore.

Externally aided projects are those where the estimated inflow during 2008-09 is Rs 100 crore or more.

They include omnibus social, financial and infrastructure schemes such as the Rural Cooperative Credit Restructure and Development Programme, National HIV/AIDS Control Project and the Rural Roads Project.

The money that states receive under these schemes depends on their demand from Delhi but the amounts are not much as the funds are split between 28 states, seven Union territories and the national capital territory.

The national capital territory, a little bigger than Calcutta because it includes Noida, Faridabad and Gurgaon, has got Rs 1,200 crore for its mass rapid transport system.

Uttar Pradesh — the most populous state — got only Rs 711.54 crore for two schemes. But then, chief minister Mayavati, whose party also supports the UPA government from outside like the Left, was showered with a three-fold increase in funds allotted under the 11th plan plus a Rs 8,000-crore package.

Tamil Nadu will get Rs 1,611 crore. Chidambaram also released other grants to his home state: a three-fold hike in the allocation for the controversial Sethusamudram project, Rs 300 crore for the Chennai desalination plant and Rs 70 crore for a powerloom centre in Erode.

What particularly rankled with the Left was the short shrift Bengal got in education.

Deccan College of Pune, Mysore University and Delhi University made the cut for a special grant because of their “historicity”.

MP Mohammad Salim asked why the 151-year-old Bengal Engineering and Science University in Shibpur didn’t. He demanded a grant for the 228-year-old Calcutta Madarsa, said to be India’s oldest.

If Bhopal and Vijayawada qualified to get schools of architecture, Calcutta should also have got one, he added.

Salim said though the Centre had promised a minority university on the lines of Aligarh Muslim University in Murshidabad, the budget was silent on it. The Centre had made the announcement after the Sachar report underlined the need for institutions of higher learning in minority-dominated areas.

The Left parties are expected to come out with a “detailed” response to the budget on Monday.

The Congress was unmoved by the Left’s initial reading. “The CPM was the first to raise the issue of farmers’ debt and our government has done something historic for them. I can’t believe Bengal has been ignored. If they have grouses, I’m sure the Centre will take care of those,” said Mohsina Kidwai, the general secretary in charge of Bengal.

State Congress president and Union minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi asked: “What has Buddhababu’s government done for our state?”

Not enough: Buddha

The waiver on loans announced for farmers yesterday is not enough, the Bengal chief minister told a rally in Siliguri today. “Farmers are still committing suicide, because most of them borrow from mahajans and not banks,” he said.

“The budget has nothing for the 35 crore unorganised workers,” he added, threatening to withdraw support to the Centre “if there are anti-worker and anti-farmer policies”.