Lakshmir Bhandar: Benefits handed over to another 20L women
KOLKATA: As many as 20 lakh women across the state received benefits under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme on Thursday.
Banerjee handed over token cheques to 15 women from the dais of Netaji Indoor Stadium and announced that the monetary benefit of the scheme will be credited to 20 lakh women today (Thursday itself).
The District Magistrates (DMS) were present along with the beneficiaries in a centralised venue in every district who were connected through video conference.
“Over 1.51 crore women had received financial assistance under Lakshmir Bhandar. Another 5 lakh received benefits on the occasion of the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) held last month. 20 lakh women are receiving benefits today (Thursday),” Banerjee said on the occasion of launching a major publicity campaign titled ‘Bangla Unnayaner Pathe’ to celebrate the first anniversary of the third term of the state government.
Lakshmir Bhandar — the social security scheme — was introduced just four months after the state government under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee came to power after a landslide victory in the Assembly elections in 2021.
The applications were received through Duare Sarkar (Government at Doorstep) camps across the state.
The amount credited is Rs 1000 for the SC/ST, OBCS while for the general caste, it is Rs 500.
The allocation under Lakshmir Bhandar has been made in the state budget tabled last month and an extra Rs 240 crore per month is being spent from the government exchequer because of this.
According to sources in the Social Welfare department that executes this project, the highest
number of beneficiaries is from North and South 24-Parganas, North Dinajpur and Hooghly.
Handing over the cheques to beneficiaries, District Magistrate of South Dinajpur Ayesha Rani A said: “As per the CM'S instruction, who is handing over the cheques in Kolkata, we have organised the programme here and the beneficiaries have been given the cheques.”