Looking back at 7 years of Maa Mati Manush

Kolkata: With the completion of seven years of the "Maa, Mati, Manush government", Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that her government is committed to continue its work for the betterment of common people. Bengal has reached a new height in al-

most all fields in the past seven years.

It was on May 20 in 2011, when Banerjee had taken oath as Chief Minister in Raj Bhavan and walked up to Writers' Buildings, amidst lakhs of people congratulating her for her success in ensuring a change of guard in the state. Her party had defeated Left Front, a party that was in power in the state for 34 long years and formed the government.

Soon after forming the government, her landmark decisions took Bengal to new heights and ushered in global recognition for the state.

On Sunday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted: "On May 20, 2011, the first Maa, Mati, Manush government took oath of office. It has been seven years and we continue to be committed to work for the betterment of people."

In the past seven years, the Chief Minister has introduced schemes that give coverage from the birth of a child to the death of a person. Mother of a new-born girl child is given saplings for free under the Sabujshree scheme. Again, Samabyathi scheme is to help people from financially weaker sections perform last rites of their near and dear ones.

There can be hardly any family in the state, members of which have not derived benefit of any of the schemes. Common people of Bengal have been immensely benefitted by the initiatives, including giving rice at Rs 2 per kg to more than 8 crore people under Khadyasathi project and free treatment in the state-run hospitals.

Kanyashree, Sabujsathi, Gatidhara and Shikshashri are some of the iconic projects of the Mamata Banerjee government. Many such projects were later taken up by other governments.

The Kanyashree Prakalpa, that ensured a check on the number of school dropouts and child marriages, took Bengal to the top of the world with the state bagging the first prize in United Nations Public Service Award for Asia Pacific in Netherlands.

Besides ensuring an overall development of the state by constructing better roads, even in villages and organising global summits to attract investment in the state, the Mamata Banerjee government has settled age-old problems and restored peace in Darjeeling and the Maoist hit Junglemahal.

Moreover, the Chief Minister's constant vigil has also helped in averting any major law and order problem in the state, that has a tradition and heritage of peace and harmony.

In the Assembly election in 2016, it was the overall development carried out by the Mamata Banerjee government in the past five years, which once again brought her a landslide victory, following which she once again plunged into development work.

She once again held administrative review meetings in all the districts, as a measure that helped in timely completion of development work.

Moreover, the Centre has repeatedly appreciated the work of the Bengal government, by awarding it for its achievements in different fields, starting from ease of doing business to agriculture.

Recently, Bengal has once again topped in the country, with Digambarpur Gram Panchayat (GP) in South 24-Parganas bagging the Centre's award of best GP in India. Bengal government has also won Krishi Karman award for five consecutive years.

With equal importance given for development in the urban and rural parts of the state, beautification work carried out in the City of Joy has been appreciated by people from across the globe. Several toilets were also constructed in Bengal, where 21,324 villages were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF). The number is the highest in the country and Nadia is the first ODF district in India.

With the state witnessing marked development in the past seven years, people have extended their support to Banerjee and her party in the recently held Panchayat polls as well, which will help in easy execution of projects and implementation of schemes in the grassroot level.