Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday said that “everyone’s needs have been taken care of” in the new government’s maiden state budget with major focus on a five-pronged strategy for the revival of West Bengal with special emphasis on boosting tourism and development of North Bengal.The five-pronged strategy included women’s empowerment and safety with 33% reservation, social welfare schemes and cash schemes for unemployed youth, focus on the agriculture sector with a special package for potato farmers, one lakh recruitment in the government sector, measures to boost private sector investments, land banks, one-window system, youth entrepreneurship development programme, among others.The focus areas are Seva Shakti (power of service), Shilpa Shakti (power of industry), and Gyan Shakti (power of knowledge), the CM said.“There is a three-pronged employment generation strategy. For the public sector, the state government has targeted 1,00,000 new recruitments within this financial year. These include 20,000 posts in the police department, 50,000 vacancies for teachers, professors, and educational staff and the rest 30,000 in administrative vacancies in various government departments,” Adhikari elaborated.To prevent corruption in recruitment, political leaders are barred from recruitment committees and the state will strictly follow the UPSC model for transparent selection, he said.Tourism and North BengalThe state has laid a detailed roadmap for the development of tourism with proposals for religious and heritage circuits, revival of Heritage Commission, tourism development in Darjeeling, Doors and Sundarbans. A tourism masterplan is being developed for Sunderbans. Tourism plans in Jungle Mahal will also be floated.The state budget has plans for all-round development of North Bengal by proposing the Teesta Barrage project, spring rejuvenation for North Bengal, Rajbanshi academy and boosting Kurmali language.Religious Tourism, Spiritual CircuitsSteps have been taken to create new religious circuits and revive Bengal as a centre of “culture and spiritualism”. The CM said his government will lay stress on “math and temple restorations. “The state has revived the Heritage Commission and allocated Rs 3,000 crore for the preservation, renovation, and structural repair of historical, temples, and cultural shrines. The state will develop religious and spiritual tourism, focusing on the creation of the Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanyadev Circuit”.The state government will build a ‘Bengal Shaktipeeth Circuit’ connecting major temples to facilitate pilgrimage and religious tourism. “The target is to develop these temples as prominent pilgrim destinations through a clustered hub-and-spoke approach to promote spiritual tourism. This would involve developing feasible tourist itineraries connecting multiple temples and centering on a major district town, encompassing Bhramri Devi, Nandikeswari, Tarapith, Bakreshwar, Phullara and Kankalitala temples,” the budget said.“Another Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Pilgrimage Circuit will be created to pay tribute to the “revered Vaishanva saint and his socio-religious legacy” which finds mention in the budget. “This would involve developing feasible tourist itineraries connecting multiple sites and centering on a major district town. Mayapur will be developed as an iconic tourist centre for which a financial outlay of Rs 1,000 crore over three years has been proposed.The state has proposed reduction of the quantum of land for commercial use for tea tourism to 15% from 30%.With focus on North Bengal, a Tea Worker’s Development Board has been proposed, an indoor stadium in North Bengal, AIIMS, super speciality hospitals, including a Cancer Hospital, in Darjeeling. The budget proposed the setting up new medical colleges in Alipurduar, Kalimpong and Dakshin Dinajpur in North Bengal. A trauma care centre will be started in Darjeeling. Teesta Barrage project (Substage I and Stage I) will be implemented under AIBP component of the PM Krishi Sinchayee Yojana at an estimated cost of Rs 11,000 crore, which will benefit Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Uttar Dinajpur districts.The budget laid emphasis on “an urgent need to significantly improve the investment climate” by eradicating “extortion and interference” by bringing a new legislation. The new legislation will “boost investor confidence, encourage expansion and new setups (especially in manufacturing, MSMEs and IT), protect supply chains and operations from disruptions and enhance employment generation.”