At a ‘Duare Sarkar’ camp in Kolkata on Monday. (Express Photo by Partha Paul) The first two days of the second phase of the state’s ‘Duare Sarkar’ project camp, which kicked off on Monday, saw people in their thousands making a beeline to sign up for government benefits and schemes. About 18,500 camps put together across the state in the second phase drew 29,02,049 people over the first two days.
According to government sources, ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’ has been the most sought-after scheme in this phase of the ‘Duare Sarkar’ initiative, with 60 percent of the people, who visited these camps, enrolling for it. Under this income support scheme of the government, homemakers belonging to general castes are to receive a monthly dole of Rs 500, while those belonging to the SC/ST communities would draw Rs 1,000
each per month. The yearly dole for general caste women works out to Rs 6,000 each.
Dedicated counters have been set up for the ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’ scheme at each camp under the ‘Duare Sarkar’ initiative.
The ‘Swasthya Sathi’ scheme drew the next most enrolments in this phase of the ‘Duare Sarkar’ camps, while the one for caste certificates drew the third-most interest.
Apart from these, the remaining 40% of enrolments were for Student Credit Card, Krishak Bandhu (New), ‘Bina Mulley Samajik Surakshya’ (social security free of cost), correction of minor errors in land records, opening of new bank accounts, Kanyashree, Rupashree, Khadya Sathi, Shikhashree, Tapasili Bandhu, Manabik, Jai Johar and mutations of Agricultural land.
The state launched the ‘Duare Sarkar’ initiative last January with an aim to take government services to the doorsteps of citizens. In the last phase of the initiative, people largely enrolled for the ‘Swasthya Sathi’ cards, or health cards.
South 24 Parganas was ahead of the rest of the state in terms of ‘Duare Sarkar’ applications on the first day of the ongoing phase. For all projects, 4,71,887 applications were received in this district in the first two days.
Despite all preparations, including applications with unique identification numbers, heavy rush of applicants enrolling for the ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’ scheme was noticed at many camps.
The camps would be in place till September 15. Some logistical issues cropped up on the first day, as there were reports of poor internet service at certain places and a snag was reported in the devices needed for enrolment in Swasthya Sathy scheme at some camps. However,
necessary measures were taken to resolve these issues.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
