S Dinajpur: Over 12K additional beneficiaries to get widow pension

balurghat: State Women and Child Development and Social Welfare minister Dr Shashi Panja on Monday said as many as 12,875 new women in South Dinajpur would be eligible to receive widow pension for the new financial year of 2022-23.

Dr Panja took part in a programme organised by the district administration at Baluchhaya auditorium here in presence of Agricultural Marketing minister Biplab Mitra, District Magistrate Ayesha Rani A, Superintendent of Police Rahul De, Sabhadhipati of Zilla Parishad Lipika Roy, Balurghat civic body chairman Ashok Kumar Mitra and Gangarampur civic body chairman Prashanta Mitra.

"We have taken up a decision to extend the widow pension coverage to 12,875 from April 1, 2022 in South Dinajpur on the basis of their applications. As per the scheme, 18,200 women are already receiving the widow pension from this district," she said.

According to her, the state government as per instruction of the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is providing widow pension to more than 13 lakh widows so far across the state.

"Another eight lakh applications for widow pension have been received through various outreach initiatives like Duare Sarkar. We are happy to announce that we have decided to provide widow pension to all these eight lakh applicants from April 1, 2022, taking the total coverage to more than 21 lakhs," she said.