Kolkata: The Bengal government would be constructing 20 lakh pacca houses for the people from scheduled tribe, scheduled caste and tribal communities in the state in the next five years.
Priority will be given to construct houses for people who at present stay in mud houses that would be identified using drones.
The announcement of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee came during the first meeting of the West Bengal Scheduled Caste Development Advisory Council after she came to power for the third consecutive term. "We would be constructing 20 lakh pacca houses for people from SC, ST and tribal communities. Priority would be given to help people staying in kaccha houses first," the Chief Minister said.
She stated that the state government would directly carry out the survey to assess the total number of houses instead of giving the task to districts or local civic bodies. "If needed we would use drones to identify the mud houses. We would directly undertake a survey from the secretariat level or else it consumes more time," Banerjee said.
In Duare Sarkar, too, the state government has ensured that people can directly apply to the state government to get enrolled in beneficiary schemes without the intervention of any anonymous person. "Unique identification number for each application form of Lakshmir Bhandar scheme has been introduced to avoid interference of any anonymous person. It has been done as members of a political party, including one that always makes tall claims stating it had intervened in the smooth process of Duare Sarkar last time," she said.
In connection with the biggest outreach drive programme, Banerjee later tweeted: "It gives me immense joy to announce that as of 24th August '21, more than 1 Crore people across the state have visited the #DuareSarkar camps. This year we have included more schemes & initiatives like #LakshmiBhandar, #StudentCreditCard, #KrishakBandhu (New) among others". "I assure all that we will continue working tirelessly to ensure doorstep delivery of government services and benefits. The Government of West Bengal remains committed to the welfare of the people of Bengal," she further stated in the tweet.
Trinamool Congress MLA Manoranjan Byapari, who is also a member of the council besides being the head of the West Bengal Dalit Sahitya Academy, was also present in the meeting. Banerjee, who recently sketched the logo of the academy, asked Byapari to organiose a state level conference on Dalit literature in which five representatives from each state would participate. She also assured of giving a plot to the academy to set up its unit at Balagarh from where Byapari has won the elections.