Hours before the Election Commission is set to announce election dates at 4.30pm, the governments of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu rushed to announce new welfare schemes on Friday.

While West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced a hike in wages of daily wage workers, the Office of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced a new gold loan waiver scheme.

The West Bengal government said the wages of unskilled labour will increase from Rs 144 to Rs 202 while the wages of semi-skilled labour will see a hike from Rs 172 to Rs 303. The government has also introduced a new category for skilled labour under which they will be paid Rs 404 per day.

“A total of 56,500 workers (40,500 unskilled, 8000 semi-skilled, 8000 skilled) will benefit from this. These wages are in parity with rural workers’ enhanced pay (MNREGA unskilled & semi-skilled). Budget provision for this step has been made available for both FY21 and FY22,” Mamata Banerjee tweeted.

In Tamil Nadu, announcing the loan waiver scheme, the government said the scheme aims to alleviate the poor and women belonging to self-help groups. “They are being given a waiver of outstanding loans obtained from co-operative banks and co-operative societies”.

According to ANI, Puducherry Lt Governor announced a 2 perecent reduction in VAT (Value Added Tax) on petrol and diesel in the union territory.

The announcements come just hours before the Election Commission is scheduled to announce the dates for the Assembly elections in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu along with Kerala, Assam  and Puducherry.