APAS gets replicated in Tamil Nadu, camps extended in north Bengal
The Statesman | 15 October 2025This may be something to cheer about for the Bengal government and the ruling TMC. While APAS initiative is being replicated in Tamil Nadu, Kanyashree scheme was replicated as Ladli Bahin in Madhya Pradesh.
While Kanyashree focuses on adolescent girls to encourage education and delay marriage, Ladli Bahin targets adult women to provide financial support.
Both the schemes are Mamata Banerjee’s flagship schemes.
The Bengal govt has completed 90 per cent of the planned camps with over 28,300 of 31,700-under the Amader Para Amader Samadhan scheme, CM Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday. Citing the extensive damage caused by recent natural disasters in north Bengal, CM Banerjee announced an extension of the programme beyond 6 Nov for the affected areas.
Mamata Banerjee said the camps have received 2.5 crore visitors and processed around 3.58 lakh claims, of which 2.84 lakh claims have already been addressed.
Talking about the success of APAS, Trinamul spokesperson Riju Dutta said: “It is historic, never been done in India, where the govt will work as per the wishes of the people. People will decide where the funds will be utilised and what work needs to be done. More than 2 crore people have been engaged in and Rs 8,000 plus crore utilised for this project.”
Explaining the logic behind the APAS, Riju said: “The state undertakes big projects after floating tenders. But there are small works at each booth, which are normally looked over by the government, like a leaking govt school roof, or the street lights not working on local roads, where girls travel at night or houses around a village pond, which face flooding during rains due to lack of dredging of the pond. With the APAS budget, these ponds can be dredged.”
APAS allows small works under the budget of Rs 10 lakh being undertaken for the benefit of people.
As the APAS will carry out people’s wishes at their doorstep, it carries huge implication in the upcoming election, feels Riju.
Political science professor and poll analyst Udayan Bandyopadhyay thinks the APAS is going to pay the TMC huge dividends in the forthcoming Assembly polls and the party’s credibility will go up by manifolds when the local area issues are addressed.
“Didi Ke Bolo was launched in 2019. It was a political move and again before the 2021 polls, Duare Sarkar was started by the government. What we see is that before every election there is a renewal of support base by the party. This is TMC’s and the government’s strength. What we see is that there is repeated renewal of mass connect. And all this is socially relevant as their programmes are all-inclusive. There is no exclusion of any class or creed, unlike CAA or NRC. If you add the party’s Bijoya Sammelani meetings, the impact on society and its effect is going to be maximum in rural areas, followed by the semi-urban areas,” reasons Prof Bandyopadhyay.
The poll analyst also feels that APAS is an effective tool in denting anti-incumbency and minimising people’s anger towards it due to various corruption cases. “The govt is seen engaging in the teacher’s job case with various court cases, a proactive govt for the people,” added Prof Bandyopadhyay.
