Lakshmir Bhandar: 'Rs 10570.84 cr disbursed, over 1.80 cr benefited'

kolkata: State Women and Child Development & Social Welfare minister Shashi Panja on Monday termed the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme initiated by the Mamata Banerjee government as the biggest scheme for direct transfer of money to women in the world which has contributed to financial independence among women.

She also slammed the BJP for referring to the social security scheme as freebies and said that the BJP MLAs in the state should be proud of such a scheme.

"The Prime Minister talks of 'Atmanirbhar' but it is Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who has made women in Bengal Atmanirbhar through the Lakshmir Bhandar," she said.

During the question-answer session at the state Assembly, Panja said that Rs 10570.84 crore was disbursed by the state government under the scheme from September last year till August 31, 2022. Over 1.80 crore women have received financial assistance under the scheme.

Panja added that SC women have received over Rs 19.34 crore while ST have got over Rs 3.46 crore under the scheme.

The social security scheme Lakshmir Bhandar was introduced in September last year, just four months after the state government under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee came to power for the third consecutive time, after a landslide victory in the Assembly elections.

The applications were received through Duare Sarkar camps (Government at Doorstep) across the state.

A special outreach camp was held from June to July for reaching out to the SC and ST categories.

The amount that is credited is Rs 1000 for the SC/ST, OBC while for the general caste the amount is Rs 500.

Panja informed the House that the highest allocation under the scheme has been in North 24-Parganas with 18,27680 women receiving benefits along with over 1.52 SC and 9402 ST women.