CM lays foundation stone for 547 projects worth Rs 837 cr

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that lakhs of new beneficiaries have been included among new recipients of six government schemes and will start enjoying benefits from February 1. About 13 lakh women will start receiving benefits of Lakshmi Bhandar while another nine lakh will be receiving old age pension.

“Many of you have enrolled your names in Duare Sarkar camps and have written to ‘Sarasari Mukhyomantri’. If you think I do not keep track of these applications, you are wrong. We have earmarked lakhs of people who will benefit from six government schemes from February 1,” Banerjee said during a distribution programme at Burdwan on Wednesday.

Criticising the Central government for stopping funds in connection with old age pension, Banerjee said that the Centre does not provide money for the same. “Starting February 1, we will be extending benefits of old age pension to another 9 lakh women. Another 1.04 lakh will get benefits of widow pension. About 7000 will get benefits of Manabik scheme and another 10 lakh women will be added to Kanyashree beneficiaries which will take the total number of recipients to 95 lakh. I want to see 100 lakh. Another 85,000 women will be added to the Rupashree scheme,” she added. Presently, the total number of Rupashree beneficiaries stands at 16.20 lakh.

Banerjee, on Wednesday, laid the foundation stone of 547 projects worth Rs 837 crore in both East and West Burdwan and inaugurated 491 projects with an investment of Rs 365.45 crore. Some of the projects whose foundation stones were laid included the trauma care centre of Burdwan Medical College Hospital at a cost of Rs 6 crore, commencement of road widening of Burdwan- Arambagh National Highway at Rs 78.95 crore, and a fire station at Doihat area at a cost of Rs 3.36 crore. The major inauguration includes the introduction of 100 bed Covid hospital at Katwa Sub Divisional Hospital. The Chief Minister also inaugurated a number of projects of West Burdwan that includes the first phase of wholesale market at Kalipahari, new workshop building of Durgapur Government ITI, new administrative office of SDO at Durgapur City Centre to name a few. A total of 5.5 lakh people of East Burdwan and West Burdwan received benefits from the Chief Minister’s programme.