From laying roads and constructing houses to filling job vacancies, the new BJP government will strengthen the rural economy in all spheres, state Panchayat Minister Dilip Ghosh said on Thursday.
In his first press briefing as Panchayat Minister, Ghosh said that several Central schemes for rural areas that were halted during the previous TMC rule will be relaunched very soon, including VB-G RAM G (Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission – Gramin), the rural job scheme, from July 1.
“All preparatory work—such as issuing project notifications, drafting various rules, forming steering committees, and training all stakeholders—is already underway. As per the new guidelines, eligible job cardholder families will be provided 125 days of wage employment in a financial year, which will include a provision of 60 ‘work-free’ days as prescribed by the law. The expenditure for this scheme will be shared between the Center and the State in a 60:40 ratio,” the minister said, adding the annual expenditure of the scheme will exceed Rs 12,850 crore and will benefit over 2.5 crore job card holders.
Regarding the West Bengal State Rural Livelihoods Mission (WBSRLM), Ghosh said that in the current financial year, the government aims to form one lakh new Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and 20 lakh Lakhpati Didis, and arrange bank loans of Rs 40,000 crore, which is Rs 5,000 crore more than last year.
On filling up over 11,000 vacancies in the three-tier panchayat system, that was decided in a Cabinet meeting last week, the minister said that to ensure that there was no allegation of corruption or opacity in the recruitment process, the department is considering conducting the entire examination process by an “impartial organisation”.
On developing rural infrastructure and communication systems in the state, Ghosh said that the work under the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana is going to start again “at a fast pace.”
According to him, the Empowered Committee (EC) of the Union Ministry of Rural Development gave in-principle approval on May 27 for the construction of approximately 2,790 km of rural roads and 45 bridges under this project.
“The implementation of these projects will begin after formal approval is received. A combined investment of approximately Rs 2,500 crore from both the Central and State shares will be utilised to further strengthen the rural connectivity system in the state,” he added.
The minister also said that the ‘Awas Plus 2024’ survey to identify actual beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana has already begun. “Officials have been strictly instructed to complete the survey by July 20,” he added.
He said the Centre has approved a Rs 2,500-crore plan for the state under the Swachh Bharat Mission. “Although the funds have been given to many panchayats for solid waste management, they have not started the work. In this situation, to speed up the work and catch corruption, at least 10 per cent of the total panchayats in the state will be selected, and a special audit will be conducted there,” Ghosh said, adding that the process of transferring about 1,100 employees working in the same panchayat for more than three years is starting from June.
He said that starting from Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Gram Swaraj’ to the policies of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure, he would carry out policies to strengthen the rural economy.