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Kolkata: Thousands of unemployed people queued up as the West Bengal government on Sunday began setting up camps to register applicants for monthly financial aid under the new ‘Banglar Yuba Sathi’ scheme, which was announced in the state budget on February 5 in the run-up to the Assembly polls.
The camps in all the 294 Assembly constituencies will be operational every day from February 15 to 26 for unemployed people aged between 21 and 40 who have passed the state secondary board examination. The camps will also accept new applications for other welfare schemes for women and farmers.
The allowance of ₹1,500 will be deposited in bank accounts until the applicants get jobs or for a maximum tenure of five years. Those already covered under other schemes are not entitled to it.
Supervising a registration camp in her Shyampukur Assembly constituency in Kolkata, Commerce and Industry Minister Shashi Panja described the response as overwhelming. “Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has helped young people in a big way. The response is overwhelming,” Panja said.
Although the scheme was to start in August, according to the budget document, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said days later that applicants would get the allowance of ₹1,500 with effect from April 1.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused Banerjee of “dishing out doles” in the run-up to the Assembly elections.
At Bhawanipore, the Chief Minister’s Assembly seat, a few hundred people turned up.
Diptimoy Ghosh, an applicant, said, “Didi (Banerjee) has helped us a lot. We are thankful to her.”
The response from people was found to be similar even in north Bengal, where the BJP bagged 30 of the 54 seats in the region’s eight districts in 2021, although the Trinamool Congress (TMC) won 213 of the state’s 294 seats.
Roshni Chhetri, a student who turned up at the camp in Kalimpong, said, “This money will be of great assistance.”
A salient feature of the state budget was the Trinamool Congress government’s focus on state-sponsored stipends and allowances. The monthly allowance for general category homemakers under the old Lakshmir Bhandar scheme, for example, was hiked from ₹1,000 to ₹1,500.
In a counter move, the BJP launched its Chakri Chai Bangla (Bengal Demands Jobs) campaign on Sunday.
“There are 21.5 million unemployed people in Bengal. They need jobs, not a paltry allowance. Mamata Banerjee has done this only for a visual effect before the elections. When all forms can be filled in online, why do people have to march to these camps?” BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, said.
The BJP, too, has promised allowances, saying it will pay much more if it comes to power.
On February 8, Adhikari said at a rally that if the BJP wins, then homemakers will get ₹3,000 as a stipend and the amount of ₹1.20 lakh given to individuals under the Centre’s rural housing scheme would be increased.
