West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday said that around 3 million beneficiaries of the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme under the previous All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) government were “fake”.
“We had initially thought the list of beneficiaries under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme was verified. But we received plenty of allegations that individuals whose names have been permanently deleted from the electoral roll and have neither applied for CAA [Citizenship Amendment Act] nor appealed before the Supreme Court-mandated appellate tribunals were receiving assistance under the scheme. The number is approximately three million,” Adhikari said.
Adhikari on Wednesday also launched forms for the Annapurna Yojana, which replaced the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme launched in February 2021 under former CM Mamata Banerjee — a monthly financial assistance scheme for women from economically weaker sections of society.
The monthly monetary assistance under the scheme was ₹1,500 per month for general-category homemakers and ₹1,700 per month for women under the SC and ST categories.
The BJP, in its manifesto, had promised that it would provide monthly assistance of ₹3,000 per month under the Annapurna Yojana. The decision was approved in the first cabinet meeting soon after the BJP formed the government earlier this month.
“Around 22 million individuals are availing the benefits at present. Out of this, there are around 3 million individuals who are dead, fake, foreigners and non-existent. Their names won’t be added to the new list (of the Annapurna Yojana). We believe the final list of beneficiaries would comprise around 20 million individuals,” he added.
“Let me give you an example. One Rakibul Sheikh, son of Mansur Sheikh, a resident of Sialmara in Murshidabad district, is one of the beneficiaries under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme. This means that impurities have entered the list of beneficiaries under the scheme, which was meant only for women, because of lack of verification,” he added.
The CM also said that once an individual fills up the form for the Annapurna Yojana and submits it (online or offline), it would be verified by the state administration.
“Her name would be immediately included in the list of beneficiaries under the Annapurna Yojana and struck off from the beneficiary list of Lakshmir Bhandar.
“The scheme would be rolled out from June 1 and beneficiaries would get the assistance directly in their bank accounts. We are not suspending Lakshmir Bhandar right now. Till a beneficiary enrolls herself for the new Annapurna scheme, she would continue to get the assistance under the old Lakshmir Bhandar scheme,” he said.
Officials said that the entire process of transferring the names of all genuine beneficiaries from the old scheme to the new one will take at least a month.
This piece will be updated as and when TMC leaders respond to HT’s request for comment.
