Kolkata: With overwhelming response received in the first four phases of the state's biggest outreach drive Duare Sarkar, the Bengal government on Thursday decided to extend the programme by another phase to ensure delivery of benefits of a dozen state-run schemes at the doorstep of people.
The fifth and the last phase will begin from January 27 and it will continue till February 8.
"The fourth phase of the Duare Sarkar programme is ending on January 24. It has so far received an overwhelming response with people visiting the camps to get enrolled under different schemes including Swasthya Sathi, Khadyasathi, Rupashree and Manobik. So it has been decided to extend the same by another phase that will continue till February 8," Banerjee said.
It may be recalled that the Duare Sarkar programme was launched on December 1. The first, second and third phase continued from December 1 to 11, December 15 to 24 and January 2 to 12 respectively. The fourth phase started on January 18 to continue till January 24. Till Thursday, Duare Sarkar camps across the state
have witnessed 2.37 crore footfall. A senior official said that earlier each gram panchayat was scheduled to get 4 camps. Now it will go up to 5. So those are still left out to get enrolled in different state run schemes can easily reap its benefits.
In a humane move, the Chief Minister announced that her government has decided to provide widow and old-age pension to another 15 lakh people.
"We had received around 15 lakh applications for widow and old age pension. As a mark of respect to the elderly people, we have sanctioned all the applications and decided to give them pension every month. The process of bringing them under the scheme will begin from Friday," Banerjee said adding that her government has already increased the amount of the monthly pension. The Mamata Banerjee government had brought all pension schemes under one umbrella naming it as Jai Bangla and the amount has been increased to Rs 1,000 per month.