Mamata to lead party's women cell rally in Siliguri on Mar 7

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress Chairperson Mamata Banerjee will lead a rally to be organised by party's women cell in Siliguri on March 7, on the eve of the International Women's Day, Chandrima Bhattacharya, president of Trinamool Mahila Congress, said on Thursday.

The rally will start from Darjeeling More and end at Venus More. Banerjee will take part in another procession on March 8 to celebrate International Women's Day in Kolkata. The rally will start from College Square and end at the Dorina Crossing.

Bhattacharya said Banerjee — the only woman Chief Minister in the country — had taken a slew of measures to empower women in the state.

Swasthya Sathi card, the most successful project of the state government, is issued in the name of the woman head of the family.

"Nowhere in the country, one can find a card under the social benefit scheme which is being issued in the name of a woman," she added. She said Kanyashree, which received the UN award, had so far benefitted 68 lakh girls and a sum of Rs 6,720 crore had been spent for implementation of the scheme.

Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, party's MP, said the scheme had very successfully brought down the number of school drop-outs.

Bhattacharya said out of

the proposed 65 all women police stations, 48 had been set up so far. She said while quoting the report of the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) as per which the number of crimes against women was least in Kolkata among all the metropolitan cities.

Dr Ghosh Dastidar

said in BJP-ruled states

atrocities on women were on the rise. Recently, in Uttar Pradesh the father of a molestation victim was gunned down allegedly by the accused, she added. She maintained that the people in Bengal wanted their own daughter to become the Chief Minister for the third consecutive time.