Rs 13,450 cr for new schemes, including student credit card

KOLKATA: Keeping the poll promise after returning to power with a thumping majority, the Mamata Banerjee government has allocated a whopping Rs 13,450 crore for the newly-launched schemes, including the enhanced Krishak Bandhu scheme, Student Credit Card, Duare Ration and Lakshmir Bhandar scheme. Partha Chatterjee, Parliamentary Affairs minister, tabled the state budget at the state Assembly on Wednesday.

"The two most important components of the state budget is expenditure on the social sector and agriculture and allied sector," Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said. "The New Krishak Bandhu scheme has already been launched on June 17 where the annual financial assistance to each farmer has been doubled from Rs 5000 to Rs 10000 per acre with a maximum of Rs 10000 for land more than 1 acre. With the annual expenditure of Rs 3600 crore, the scheme would be benefitting up to 62 lakh farmers. We have kept an allotment of Rs 2000 crore extra in the state budget for the New Krishak Bandhu scheme," Banerjee said.

About Rs 250 crore has been allocated for the Student Credit card scheme that had been launched on June 30 to help students to continue higher education with the help of low interest loans up to Rs 10 lakhs. The students will be required to pay only 4 per cent interest and the rest will be borne by the state government through subvention, that too after a full moratorium during study course period and thereafter, one more year of moratorium. No collateral is needed for availing loan and the loan amount is fully insured and state-guaranteed. The Duare Ration scheme meant for delivering ration at the doorstep of each family has been rolled out as pilot initiatives in some districts and soon will be scaled up throughout the state. "An additional allocation of Rs 1200 crore has been allocated for Duare Ration," said Banerjee.

It was further announced that the state government would soon launch the West Bengal Basic Income Scheme for women members of each household called Lakshmir Bhandar.

The scheme that envisages a monthly support of Rs 1000 for women members of SC/ST household and Rs 500 for general category women is aimed at providing minimum financial support to the women in each household in the state. About Rs 10000 has been allocated for the scheme, said Banerjee.

All these schemes were promised in the election manifesto of Trinamool Congress. The state has allocated Rs 1970 crore for Swasthya Sathi scheme and Rs 1839 crore for COVID-19 management.