Govt to provide masks free-of-cost to all residents of state

Kolkata: In another major step to check the spread of COVID-19, the Mamata Banerjee government has taken steps to provide free-of-cost masks to every resident of the state.

The state government has taken a series of steps to ensure safety of people during the pandemic in the past three and half months. Now Bengal has come up as the first state to provide masks to all residents of the state.

Most importantly, the three-layered masks will have "Bangla Amar Maa" printed on it. The catch line "Bangla Amar Maa" was scripted by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to uphold the glory of the state and genuinity of the quality of the mask. "Government of West Bengal" will also be printed in smaller font size just below the catch line.

At present the state's population is 10 crore and initially the masks will be distributed among school goers, ASHA and ISDC workers. Initially, the state government has placed the order of 3 crore masks and the state MSME department has been entrusted with the responsibility to stitch the masks by creating job opportunities in different parts of the state.

According to the sources in Nabanna, there are two main reasons behind taking the step to distribute masks to each and every resident of the state. First of all, it will ensure safety of people and at the same time it will also help in creating job opportunities when the economy has nosedived and many lost their jobs due to nationwide lockdown. Around 20,000 people will be getting jobs only for manufacturing 3 crore masks. Already the work of manufacturing 6 lakh masks has started.

The state government has already created 11.53 crore mandays under the MGNREGA scheme in just the first three months of the 2020-21 financial year.