New Delhi:
New Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said Monday afternoon that his Bharatiya Janata Party government would not stop welfare programmes – like Lakshmir Bhandar – that were launched by the previous administration run by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress.
“No stop to Lakshmir Bhandar… all ongoing beneficiary schemes in Bengal won’t stop,” Adhikari told reporters after a cabinet meeting at which six decisions were taken, including a message of thanks to the Election Commission for a “violence-free and successful election” and one of condolences to the family of BJP workers who have died in political violence in the state.
Lakshmir Bhandar was a flagship programme of Mamata Banerjee’s government. Launched in 2021, it provides financial assistance to women from economically weaker sections of society.
Eligible beneficiaries – women between 25 and 60 years from a Scheduled Caste or Tribe get up to Rs 1,200 per month, while those from other categories get Rs 1,000 monthly.
The scheme was widely seen as a cornerstone of her political and electoral strategy, since it targeted one of her loudest and most reliable (at least till this year) vote banks – women.
It helped her overcome the anti-incumbency sentiment for the 2021 election.
The six decisions included giving the Border Security Force land along the Bangladesh border to complete fences to keep out illegal immigrants – a topic at the core of the BJP’s campaign rhetoric, accusing the Trinamool of a porous international border that allowed foreign nationals from Muslim-majority Bangladesh to enter illegally and stay undetected in exchange for votes.
“West Bengal government will hand over land required for erecting barbed-wire fencing along (Bangladesh) border to the BSF within 45 days. The demographic profile of the state has changed. On the very first day, we granted approval to Union Home Ministry and BSF for transfer of land. Secretary of Land and Revenue and Chief Secretary have been entrusted with this responsibility. The necessary land will be handed over to the BSF within 45 days,” he said.
Another significant move was bringing Bengal under the central government’s flagship health insurance scheme, the Ayushman Bharat. All schemes bearing the Prime Minister’s name will be implemented across the state, Adhikari said, rolling back a contrarian stance adopted by Mamata Banerjee. She frequently opposed the introduction of any federal programme, particularly when there was – as in the case of Ayushman Bharat – a state alternative.
The new government, Adhikari also said, would implement the new criminal laws – the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita – that Mamata Banerjee’s administration had opposed as “anti-citizen”.
Adhikari was nominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party last week to be its first ever chief minister of Bengal. This was after the saffron party recorded a thumping win over its arch rival – the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress – in last month’s Assembly election.
The BJP – beaten by the Trinamool in every major poll over the past 15 years – broke through this time, winning 207 of the state’s 294 seats after a shrill campaign that included sharp jabs about the EC’s revision of voter rolls and how they deleted 90.8 lakh names across the state.
An ex-senior Trinamool leader, Adhikari, 55, led that charge, defeating Mamata Banerjee in her Bhabanipur bastion.