The BJP on Wednesday alleged that chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her government were always indifferent towards north Bengal and treated the region like a “duorani (neglected queen)”.

Such assertions come within 24 hours after Mamata published “Unnayaner Panchali,” a detailed account of what her government has done in the past 14-and-half years ever since she assumed office in 2011.

Shankar Ghosh, the Siliguri MLA and BJP’s chief whip in the Assembly, and Dipak Barman, the party’s MLA from Falakata in Alipurduar, said that even while extracting resources from the region, the Trinamool government didn't provide minimal development funds to north Bengal.

“Though the state’s budget for the 2024-2025 was ₹3.7 lakh crore, the allocation for north Bengal was only ₹861 crore, which is around 0.002 per cent of the total budgetary allocation,” said Ghosh, adding that "the region was always treated like a duorani".

The BJP MLAs also flagged some centrally funded projects taken up in the region and the state to draw a comparison.

“Abysmal allocations (by the state) for north Bengal are in sharp contrast with central projects like the Kharagpur–Siliguri economic corridor, the new terminal and other facilities at Bagdogra airport, the elevated highway in Siliguri, the development of New Jalpaiguri into a world-class station,” said Barman.

“Some projects got delayed as the state was uninterested in providing the required land,” he alleged.

In the course of the news conference, both MLAs alleged that dwellers of nearly 300 forest villages in the region do not have rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.

“In the healthcare sector, there are instances that despite the allocation of central funds for infrastructure development of medical colleges in north Bengal, the state has not initiated the projects and has held back funds,” Ghosh alleged.

Political observers said that the BJP, which bagged 30 of 54 Assembly seats in north Bengal, was desperate to retain the seats in the 2026 ssembly polls.

“The chief minister was in Malda on Wednesday and will be in Cooch Behar next week. It was evident that she and her party are set to play the development card to galvanise support for Trinamool in north Bengal. Hence, the BJP wants to prove that central funds allocation has been much higher in recent years for this region,” said an observer.

Hospital on cards

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has drawn up a plan to open a super-speciality hospital in New Jalpaiguri, Shankar Ghosh, the Siliguri MLA, said on Wednesday.

The hospital, he said, would be set up in a public-private partnership with one of India's leading private healthcare groups.

On Wednesday evening, Ghosh met Ajay Singh, the NFR additional divisional railway manager, posted in New Jalpaiguri. "The ADRM said the healthcare project will come up in PPP mode. Apart from railway employees, common people would also get treated at the hospital,” said the MLA.