Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday handed over a grant of Rs 5 crore each to Dalit Sahitya Academy and West Bengal Hindi Academy for spreading of Dalit and Hindi literature.
She also initiated distribution of monthly pension and house building grants to about 8,000 Sanatan Brahmin priests in the state.
Before addressing the Durga Puja Co-ordination meeting at Netaji Indoor Stadium on Thursday the Chief Minister initiated the distribution by handing over the benefits to some of the Sanatan Brahmin priests. The pension of two months, that is Rs 2,000 for the months of September and October, has been given out together. At the same time they have received Rs 1.20 lakh as a grant to build houses. It was on September 14 when the Chief Minister had announced giving the monthly allowance and free housing and free housing to the Sanatan Brahmin priests. She had then said: "Many priests from the Sanatan Brahmin sect in Bengal are financially weak. The state has decided to help them by providing a monthly allowance of Rs 1,000 and free homes under its housing scheme." The state government also provided land to the Sanatan Brahmin sect to set up an academy at Kolaghat.
The Chief Minister handed over a certificate of recognition to Dalit littereateur Manoranjan Byapari, who has been made the chairman of the Dalit Sahitya Academy, and former MP Vivek Gupta, head of the West Bengal Hindi Academy, following announcement of the Rs 5 crore grant to each of the academies.
On September 14, that is on the day of Hindi Diwas, Chief Minister had announced of setting up of the Dalit Sahitya Academy and restructuring of West Bengal Hindi Academy.
The step to set up the Dalit Sahitya Academy was taken considering that lakhs of people from the community stay in Bengal and the academy will be representation of people from communities including Namasudra, Matua, Baghdi, Bauri, Dom and Majhi with principal objective of making people aware of the challenges faced by the Dalit and refugees for centuries and also to act as a centre to study the same besides publishing the complete works of Dalit scholars.
Similarly, the West Bengal Hindi Academy has been restructured with 25 members with an aim to increase its scope of work. The step has been taken as Bengal loves and respects all languages and the Mamata Banerjee government has given recognition to languages including Hindi, Urdu, Ol Chiki, Gurmukhi, Kuruk, Rajbanshi and Gurmukhi.