With Bengal Assembly elections barely seven months away Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has set about declaring sops in Jangalmahal districts of the State where her party Trinamool Congress received a drubbing at the hands of BJP in the last year’s parliamentary elections. The Chief Minister who is currently traveling the western districts of the State announced free ration till the month of June next year.
Apart from free ration Banerjee also announced old age pension for the members of the scheduled tribes. “This pension should be sanctioned and start immediately after the recipients become sixty” Banerjee said also announcing a government job each for those who get killed in elephant attacks.
Till date the kin of those killed in elephant attacks would get a one-time Rs 2.5 lakh but the Chief Minister announced a scheme according to which they would get a government job in the Special Home Guard section, sources said.
Apart from this Banerjee also warned the officials that no slackness would be tolerated in the pre-declared construction of 12,000 km ofroads in the State. The Chief Minister had during her North Bengal trip announced that the State Government would undertake the construction of 12,000 km of road under Patha Sree scheme.
Banerjee who attended an administrative meeting at Jhargram on Wednesday further said that her Government would not allow the Maoists to return in the State. “There are attempts by some people to reinstate the Maoists who have been driven out of Bengal after great sacrifices… so the people will have to remain alert about their regrouping with the help of some political groups,” Banerjee said.
On the central health scheme of Ayushman Bharat Banerjee said she had no objection in letting the scheme enter Bengal but “the central Government will have to fund the scheme entirely … otherwise we will not let half of the scheme being funded by the State Government and let the Centre claim credit for that … in any case we are already running a more efficient scheme in the shape of Swasthya Saathi.”