Power supply, fire license issues part of Duare Sarkar
Kolkata: With the success of the state government in reaching out to more than 5 lakh people in the first two days of Duare Sarkar programme, the Bengal government has decided to provide assistance to settle power supply and fire license-related issues too in the camps taking place in all the 344 blocks across the state, including Kolkata.
According to senior state government officers, the move is going to help large-scale farmers and entrepreneurs, including those from the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. The reason for this is license from the state Fire and Emergency Services department is required by entrepreneurs to set up or run a production unit. With the facility getting added to the Duare Sarkar scheme, the task of getting the same would become "easier, simpler and fast" as they can directly talk to a dedicated official, who is equipped with the standard operating procedure in this regard and working with a "result oriented" approach to ensure that maximum applicants are provided with "actual benefit".
Similarly, the inclusion of power-related issues will benefit people from all walks of life. "But farmers and entrepreneurs again are going to be benefitted the most as they do not need to run to the WBSEDCL office in case they have any issues related to power supply including electricity bills, low voltage, etc. Their problems can be sorted out at the Duare Sarkar camps itself," the official said.
This comes when the Mamata Banerjee government is bearing a subsidy of Rs 100 crore to provide free-of-cost power to the poor across the state to up to 75 units on quarterly basis benefitting around 35 lakh people under the project "Hasir Alo".
Again, farmers are getting the benefit of power tariff of Rs 2.48 per unit if they use the same during night hours while in the day time, the tariff is around Rs 7 per unit.
The service related to both power and fire license will be made available at the "Miscellaneous" counter at all the camps. "Miscellaneous" counter is a separate one apart from that of the 11 schemes, including Khadya Sathi, Tapasili Bandhu, etc. There are six separate counters for Swasthya Sathi scheme only in each camp. Since Swasthya Sathi cards to people applying in the first phase of the programme have to be provided within the next seven to 10 days. The authorities are trying to complete the work of collecting biometric details of all members of the applicants' family at the earliest even through additional camps in between phase one (December 1 to 11) and phase two (December 15 to 24) of the Duare Sarkar programme.
