Lakshmir Bhandar: Another 20L women to get benefits

KOLKATA: Another 20 lakh women across the state will receive benefits under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme on Thursday, when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will launch a major publicity campaign titled 'Bangla Unnayaner Pathe' to celebrate the first anniversary of the third term of the state government from a programme at Netaji Indoor Stadium.

The district magistrates will be present along with the beneficiaries in a centralised venue in every district which will be connected through video conference.

The social security scheme Lakshmir Bhandar was introduced just four months after the state government under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee came to power after a landslide victory in the Assembly elections last year.

The applications were received through Duare Sarkar (Government at Doorstep) camps across the state. Over 1.53 crore women received financial assistance just before the Durga Puja in October. The amount that is credited is Rs 1000 for the SC/ST, OBC while for the general caste, the amount is Rs 500.

The allocation under Lakshmir Bhandar has been made in the state budget tabled last month and an extra Rs 240 crore per month is being spent from the government exchequer because of this.

A senior official of the state government said that the maximum response that was received in the Duare Sarkar camp held last year was for Lakshmir Bhandar. In the camp held in March over 22.11 lakh applications were received for Lakshmir Bhandar. Majority of the applications have been approved out of which over 2.76 lakh are SC, ST, OBC and the rest are from general caste. According to sources in the Social Welfare department that executes this project the highest number of beneficiaries are from North and South 24-Parganas, North Dinajpur and Hooghly.