Women whose names were deleted during the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal will not receive benefits of the state government’s Annapurna Bhandar scheme, The Telegraph quoted minister Agnimitra Paul as saying on Monday.
Under the scheme, women will receive a monthly cash handout of Rs 3,000. It is set to replace the Trinamool Congress government’s Lakshmi Bhandar programme from June 1, which gave beneficiaries Rs 1,500 per month.
“Those women whose names are on the list will receive it,” IANS quoted Paul as saying. “Before that, there will be an analysis. Those names that have been removed during SIR and used to receive Lakshmi Bhandar benefits, many of them will not get it now...”
She asked: “Those who have died, how will they receive Lakshmi Bhandar? Those who are not Indian citizens, how will they receive Lakshmi Bhandar? There will be an analysis of whose names have been removed.”
The Assembly elections in West Bengal followed a special intensive revision of electoral rolls conducted by the Election Commission.
By April 6, about 91 lakh voters, nearly 11.9% of the electorate before the process began, had been removed. Ahead of the polling, about 34 lakh appeals were reportedly pending before the tribunals. Of these, seven lakh were against names being included in the rolls and 27 lakh were filed by persons who were excluded. Appellate tribunals set up as part of the special intensive revision process had allowed 1,607 names to be added back to the electoral rolls.
On Monday, Paul added that the persons whose appeals against exclusion from the voter list are pending before appellate tribunals would be “kept aside from this”, IANS reported.
Paul is the minister for women and child development, and social welfare in the Bharatiya Janata Party government that took office on Saturday.
After the first Cabinet meeting on Monday, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said that no existing welfare scheme would be discontinued. He added that “non-existent beneficiaries, fake beneficiaries and those who are not Indians” would not receive the benefits, The Telegraph reported.
The Cabinet also approved the implementation of several Union government schemes, including the Ayushman Bharat health coverage programme, in West Bengal.
Edited by Sara Varghese
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