The application forms for enrolling in the newly introduced ‘Lakshmir Bandhar’ scheme will be available for free at ‘Duare Sarkar’ camps where people can also lodge their grievances, said chief minister Mamata Banerjee at Nabanna today.
The scheme entitles Rs 500 to the general category and Rs 1,000 to SC/ST category women. “There should not be any misunderstanding in opting for this scheme. In north Bengal, it was heard that people were being told to submit their taxes in order to avail benefits of the ‘Lakshmir Bandhar’ scheme. This is completely incorrect. The forms will be available free of cost only at the ‘Lakshmir Bandhar’ designated counters under the ‘Duare Sarkar’ programme.
Forms that are collected from any other place other than camps would be termed invalid. One has to collect the form from the government official at the camp. Each form bears a unique identification number that cannot be duplicated. After collecting the form the beneficiary has to fill it up and submit it at the camp itself,” said Miss Banerjee at a press conference.
People who face problems in obtaining the form either due to unavailability or are asked to pay money for the form can lodge a complaint at the chief minister’s office by contacting at the toll-free number 1070/22143526, said
Miss Banerjee.
All women of their households enlisted under the ‘Swasthya Sathi’ scheme will be eligible for the scheme provided she is a resident of West Bengal, aged between 25 to 60 and not a government employee. Apart from the ‘Lakshmir
Bandhar’ scheme, benefits and queries related to 18 government schemes will be addressed at the 17,160 ‘Duare Sarkar’ camps that will be held across the state from 16 August to 15 September.
The application forms would be scrutinised from 8 to 23 September and delivery of services will be from 24 to 30 September. This is the second phase of the ‘Duare Sarkar’ campaign. The first phase was held in February wherein benefits were provided to 99 per cent of the people.
A total of 85 lakh people had enrolled for the Swasthya Sathi scheme, 22 lakh received caste certificates, 12.12 lakh job cards and 7,500 out of 10,000 demands were met under ‘Paray Samadhan’ camps. This time, ‘Paray Samadhan’ camps would be run from 16 to 31 August. The chief minister announced that the ‘Duare Ration’ scheme would be started from ‘Bhai Phota’ onwards.
Miss Banerjee declared a holiday on the occasion of Muharram on 20 August instead of 19 August. She complained that 11 lakh farmers of West Bengal have been deprived of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi aid though the state government had submitted all the necessary data. Sources said that around 44.5 lakh farmers had applied for the central scheme and the preliminary reason that came to the surface was the “lack of documents” furnished to get the benefit.
The state government has written a letter to the Centre in this regard on 30 July but the Centre is yet to respond.