‘Nearly 7L beneficiaries of Lakshmir Bhandar transitioned to Jai Bangla’

Kolkata: Nearly seven lakh women beneficiaries of the Bengal government’s flagship Lakshmir Bhandar scheme have been automatically transitioned to the Jai Bangla portal upon turning 60, ensuring uninterrupted financial assistance for the rest of their lives.

Shashi Panja, the Minister-in-Charge of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare stated in the state Assembly on Friday that the transition process, which began on April 1, 2023, has already seen over 6.34 lakh women beneficiaries of the Lakshmir Bhandar (LB) scheme transition to the old age pension programme.

As many as 41892 women have transitioned from LB to Taposhili Bandhu (for Scheduled Caste) and 6166 from LB to Jai Johar scheme (for Scheduled Tribe).

Responding to a question from Trinamool Congress MLA Samir Jana during the question-answer session, Panja said that women beneficiaries of the Lakshmir Bhandar, once they attain 60, are directly enrolled into the Old Age Pension scheme without having to file a separate application. Their names are automatically registered on the state’s Jai Bangla portal.

As per the database of the state Women and Child Development department, more than 2.2 crore women are enrolled under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme in the state.

From its inception in August 2021 up to June 10 this year, the state government has spent over Rs 63,615 crore on this welfare project.

Initially, the scheme offered Rs 500 per month to general category women and Rs 1,000 to SC/ST women.

These amounts were increased to Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,200 per month respectively from April 1, 2024.

The minister highlighted that most of the beneficiaries had enrolled through the government’s outreach initiative Duare Sarkar camps.

With effect from November 2, 2023, LB applications can be submitted throughout the year at BDO offices for rural areas, at SDO offices in urban areas and Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) offices for KMC areas.