Kolkata: In another major success of Duare Sarkar camps, the number of applicants for the basic income scheme for women — Lakshmir Bhandar — has crossed the 1 crore mark on Friday. The state government has crossed the milestone in just 11 days of Duare Sarkar's second edition.
This comes when the total number of visitors at the biggest outreach drive — the Duare Sarkar programme — is 1.75 crore in its second edition that commenced on August 16.
Lakshmir Bhandar scheme ensures a minimum income of Rs 500 per month and Rs 1,000 per month for women from the general category and SC/ST category respectively.
Besides Duare Sarkar camps, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also assured delivery of ration at people's doorsteps under the Duare Ration programme. The pilot project for the same covering at least 15 percent of households of every district would start from mid-September. This comes when the Chief Minister has announced the rollout of the project across the state would take place on the day of Bhaiphonta.
State Food and Supplies minister Rathin Ghosh along with senior officers of his department held a meeting with ration dealers at Khadya Bhavan in this connection on Friday. The pilot project would be undertaken to identify the "critical gaps" that would be fulfilled before the implementation of the Duare Ration programme across the state. Later, the minister also held a video conference with the District Magistrates to ensure the successful implementation of the project.
Sources added that representatives of All India Fair Price Shop Dealers' Federation have ensured full support to start the doorstep delivery of ration from the day of Bhaiphonta and to make it an immense success. They have urged to provide fair price shops with an e-tempo using which doorstep delivery would be done. "Whatever the situation may be, we will ensure all cooperation to make the project successful," said the federation's general secretary Biswambhar Basu.
Again, the state government is increasing the number of camps under the Duare Sarkar drive to ensure that not more than 500 people visit a camp on a daily basis. Since August 16, the state government has held 19,339 camps across the state where more than 1.75 crore people have turned up till date. The state government has scheduled to hold a total of 49,971 camps in the one month span of the Duare Sarkar programme till September 15.
At the same time, at least 3.93 lakh people have received the Swasthya Sathi smart card as they were provided with "laminated cards" earlier. So far, nearly 16 percent of the total applicants in Duare Sarkar camps this time have applied to get Swasthya Sathi cards.