‘Over 4.5L attend ‘Amader Para, Amader Samadhan’ at 1,200 camps’

Kolkata: Bengal’s grassroots governance drive, ‘Amader Para, Amader Samadhan’ (APAS), which began on August 2, has seen an overwhelming public response, with over 4.5 lakh people turning up at around 1,200 camps across the state so far.

On Monday alone, 590 camps were held, drawing 2.51 lakh participants, according to State Chief Secretary Manoj Pant at Nabanna. Citizens from every corner of the state gathered to voice local priorities, deliberate with their neighbours and collectively decide how to utilise Rs 10 lakh allocated to each of Bengal’s 80,000-plus booths.

“The majority of the pleas came in the form of improvement of roads, drainage, street lights, rejuvenation of water bodies, repair of ICDS centres, etc.,” said Pant. Each camp is also housing Duare Sarkar (DS) service desks to address personal grievances, making it a holistic platform for public participation and service delivery.

Applications and queries regarding social security schemes like ‘Bina Mulye Samajik Suraksha Yojana’, ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’, old age and widow pensions, ‘Swasthya Sathi’, ‘Krishak Bandhu’ (New) dominated the Duare Sarkar camps. The selling of SHG products and hosting of health camps alongside APAS camps made some of the camps

more vibrant.