Duare Sarkar to start with over 4,400 camps from Jan 2

Kolkata: The second round of the flagship outreach programme of the Mamata Banerjee government in 2021-22 financial year — Duare Sarkar — is all set to start with more than 4,400 camps on January 2, that is, on its first day.

This time, more precautionary measures have been taken in view of the pandemic when all of a sudden more people have started testing positive and a section of them were detected with the new Omicron variant.

As per Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's directions, steps have been taken to ensure that paper documents are sanitised before they are handed over to any official. "The move has been taken to ensure the safety of officials who will be deployed at Duare Sarkar camps," said a senior state government officer.

Heavy gatherings at Duare Sarkar camps were noticed during the first round of the outreach drive held in August-September. In a bid to avoid such crowds, measures have been taken to set up camps in open spaces as much as possible. The camps would be held in primary schools and the premises will be properly sanitised after the camps get over. Makeshift tents are being erected at places where such infrastructure will not become available as schools for classes XI to XII and colleges have started. More volunteers are to be roped in to maintain queues to avoid gatherings.

This time, the state government has decided to administer Covid vaccines from Duare Sarkar camps. Apart from Covid vaccination, various tests like diabetes, hypertension, oral cancer screening and eye check-ups will also be made available.

So far, more than 81,000 camps have been scheduled from January 2 to 10 and January 20 to 30. Camps will not be held on January 23 (Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's birthday) and 26 (Republic Day). The total number of camps is further expected to go up.

As many as 24 state-run schemes, which were 18 last time, including Matsyajibi Credit Card, Artisan Credit Card, Weaver Credit Card, Kisan Credit Card (Animal Resource Development), Kisan Credit Card (Agriculture) and Self-Help Group Credit Linkage of 16 departments will be available through the Duare Sarkar camps.