General Knowledge Notes – On EGIYE BANGLA SCHEMES – For W.B.C.S. Examination.

1)  Scheme – Akanksha

Considering the hardship faced by the State Government employees for construction of their own houses/ flats for their own accommodation, the Governor has been pleased to introduce a new scheme of House Building Loan to the State Government Employees named “AKANKSHA” with a provision of 100 crore rupees. The Government will provide suitable land free of cost to the Housing Department for construction of flats, which will be identified by the Land and Land Reforms Department of West Bengal.Continue Reading General Knowledge Notes – On EGIYE BANGLA SCHEMES – For W.B.C.S. Examination.

2) Scheme – Amar-Fasal, Amar-Gola

The West Bengal Government had announced a pilot project to provide financial assistance to marginal farmers of the State so that they can have their own storehouses and vending carts. A subsidy varying between Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 25,000 will be provided for the warehouses. Though there are 24 lakh small and marginal farmers in the State, only around 10,000 such farmers would be covered initially under two schemes. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has named the schemes as Amar Fasal, Amar Gola (My Crop, My Storehouse) and Amar Fasal Amar Gari (My crop, my vehicle). In the case of the AmarFasal Amar Gari project, the rate of subsidy would be Rs. 10,000 flat. This project will facilitate those farmers who wish to directly sell their products to end users. The subsidies would be directly credited to the bank accounts of those farmers who own Kisan Credit Cards.

3) Scheme – Anandadhara

The Government of India has launched The National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) under the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD). In West Bengal, NRLM has been launched as ANANDADHARA by the Honourable Chief Minister on 17th May, 2012. The agenda is to mobilize the rural poor and vulnerable people into self- managed, federated institutions and support them for livelihood collectives. In addition, the poor would be facilitated to achieve increased access to their rights, entitlements and public services, diversified risk and better social indicators of empowerment. To further these objectives, WBSRLM (West Bengal State Rural Livelihoods Mission), a registered society under the Society Registration Act 1860 has been formed by the Government of West Bengal to implement the National Rural Livelihood Mission in the state.

4) Scheme – Gatidhara

The West Bengal Government launched the Gatidhara scheme in August 2014. The Gatidhara scheme was outlined by the Finance Minister in the budget in February. The families with a monthly income of Rs 25,000 or less would qualify for financial support under the scheme. The transport department will interview applicants and draw up a list of eligible candidates. The labour department would provide the money, but the scheme would be implemented by the transport department. The objective of the scheme is to generate self-employment in the Urban and Rural areas of the state through promotion of transport service.

5) Scheme – Geetanjali & Amar Thikana

With a view to provide proper shelters, free of cost, to the poor, the Government in Housing Department has laid proper focus on construction of houses for the Economically Weaker Section of people. This scheme is being implemented in rural areas by 6(Six) Departments, viz. , a) Minority Affairs & Madrasah Education Department, b) Backward Classes Welfare Department, c) Fisheries Department, d) Forest Department, e) Sundarban Affairs Department and f) Paschimanchal Unnayan Affairs Department and non-Municipal urban areas by statutory organizations viz. WBHB, WBHIDCO etc. under the name of ‘Geetanjali’ and ‘Amar Thikana’ in rural area is being implemented by P& RD Department.

The main objective of the two schemes is to provide proper shelters to the economically weaker section of society as well as to create additional employment opportunities for construction workers, etc. The cost of such dwelling units for new construction on beneficiary’s land in rural areas varies across the span and terrain of the state as follows owing to different soil and climatic conditions: a) Rs. 1.67 lakh for beneficiaries in general residing in Rural areas of plains; b) Rs. 1.94 lakh for beneficiaries residing in the notified Sundarban areas; c) Rs. 2.51 lakh for beneficiaries residing within the notified Hill areas of Darjeeling District and d) Rs. 3.00 lakh within the Forest villages of Jalpaiguri District.

The cost of such dwelling units for new construction in Non-Municipal Semi-Urban areas are as follows: a) Rs. 1.67 lakh – for single -storied building on beneficiary’s land and b) Rs. 3.30 lakh – for Multi-Storied building on the land of implementing Government agencies or Government land.

Panchayat and Rural Development Department is implementing the scheme ‘Amar Thikana’ at a unit cost of Rs. 70,000/- for the plains and Rs. 75,000/- in Hills, difficult and coastal areas.

Initially half of the approved amount is allotted. After receiving the utilization certificate as well as a physical progress report of the earlier allotted amount, the rest amount is allotted. The motto of the Government is to provide “SabarMatharUpareChhad”.

The Government has given Special stress to mitigate the housing problem of the distressed and deprived people for a long tenure. The objective of the Government is to construct fully subsidized residential houses for the people belonging to Minority Community, Fishermen and people belonging to Economically Weaker Section in Sundarban and Paschimanchal areas.

In the course of implementing the scheme, our Department is facing problems like effective monitoring as well as speedy and uniformity in implementation throughout the State of West Bengal. To overcome this, with effect from 01st April,2014″AMAR THIKANA” has been merged with ” GEETANJALI ” and the only Scheme in the name ” GEETANJALI ” is being implemented through District Magistrates. As per approval of Finance Department the unit Cost is Rs. 70000 (Seventy thousand) for the plain and Rs. 75000 (Seventy five thousand) in Hills/ difficult and Sundarban areas.

6) Scheme – Jal Dharo Jal Bharo

A programme named “Jal Dharo-Jal Bharo” was launched during 2011-12 with the aim on preserving precious water resources by large scale harvesting of rain water as well as arresting runoff of surface water to improve and availability of precious water resources through the construction and management of Minor Irrigation structures. Water Resources Investigation & Development Department of Government of West Bengal has taken a lead role under the programme to re-excavate all kinds of water bodies viz, tanks, ponds, reservoirs, canals where water holding capacities have lower down at present in convergence with P&RD Department, Govt of West Bengal and other different programmesand alsoemphasised on underground artificial recharge through rooftop rainwater harvesting. Check Dams, Water harvesting Tanks and Surface Flow Minor Irrigation Schemes which are being constructed by WRI&DD would help in arresting surface runoff water and at the same time irrigation potential of the state are being increased by utilisation of the same. Increased holding capacities in the water bodies will immensely support protective irrigation during the dry spell. Apart from agriculture, pisciculture activities would develop in such water bodies which in turn open a further avenue of income to the poor farmers. Availability of water throughout the year will also help the local villagers in their domestic activities and animal husbandry activities. JAL DHARO-JAL BHARO PROGRAMME’ also aims towards building citizen’s awareness for rain water conservation and efficient water-use in irrigation.

As of December 2014, 1,18,557 nos water bodies/ retention structures have been created out of which 32,851 pond equivalent has been created by WRI&DD, 85,423 nos have been created in convergence with P&RD Deptt. and 283 nos tanks have been created by WRI&DD under MGNREGA.

7) Scheme – Kanyashree

West Bengal has an adolescent (10-19 years) population of 1.73 Crores, out of which 48.11% are girls. At this period of adolescence, child marriage and trafficking are issues of major social concern which adversely affect the education, health, nutritional status, growth and development of girls. In this context KanyashreePrakalpa is an innovative scheme of the Government of West Bengal with the power of creating an enabling environment to elevate the education, health and nutrition status of women and children throughout the State.

The scheme aims at improving the status and well being of girl child in various ways. It discourages early marriage of girls to ensure compliance with the legal provisions pertaining to the minimum age at marriage. It encourages education of girl children in Secondary and Higher Secondary classes and those undergoing vocational training or sports training through scholarships. It helps in reducing the incidence of dropouts, especially amongst girls from poor families. The project improves IMR and MMR by delaying the age of marriage and consequently increasing the median age of first birth. It eradicates under nutrition and malnutrition of girl child. It prevents trafficking and exploitation of the girl child.

8) Scheme – Karmashree

Karmashree is a combination of several other schemes under the Labour department. People who work for 20 days in a project, will be given work for another 20 days in another project,” Addressing a rally, Hon’ble Chief Minister said, “Dignity of labour must be respected. No job is inferior.”. The government would train 10 lakh youths for skill development, through 500 Karma Tirtha marketing hubs, where poor people would get shops free of cost, that were being set up in the state.

9) Scheme – Karmatirtha

With a view to promote sustainable entrepreneurship and generate employment, the West Bengal government has set up ‘Karmatirtha’ – a one-stop shop allowing entrepreneurs to market their products directly to buyers. ‘Karmatirtha’ is a scheme to strike a synergy between the abundance of natural resources and the availability of a skilled workforce and thereby move toward sustainable entrepreneurship. The State government will be providing the requisite infrastructure support including training and finance, allowing individuals, self-help groups, co-operative enterprises, artisans, and weavers to avail of the benefits of the scheme. The objective is to set up at least one ‘Karmatirtha’ in every block of the State.

10) Scheme – Lokprasar Prakalpo

A new flagship project namely ‘LokprasarPrakalpo’ has been introduced by the Department of Information & Cultural Affairs with the inspiration of Hon’ble Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The main objectives of the project are – (I) to bestow dignity on folk artistes by issuing them identity cards, (2) to uphold the traditional folk forms of Bengal, (3) to revive nearly-extinct folk-forms of art and culture and (4) to uplift the socio economic conditions of artists associated with folk culture.

The Department of Information and Cultural Affairs has been implementing, the following programmes under ‘LokprasarPrakalpo’:

• issuing identity card to each folk-artiste.
• arranging for monthly pension for veteran and distressed folk-artistes.
• granting of retainer fee to artistes.
• arranging for the minimum income by engaging them in the public campaign programme on development projects.

Issuing of Identity Cards
One of many objectives that the ‘LokprasarPrakalpo’ is to bestow dignity on every folk-artistes. Unfortunately folk-artistes hardly get their due respect, and they remain ignored in the society. The Government has taken initiative to confer upon them their due honour through LokprasarPrakalpo. So far, 84,720 artistes have been provided with identity cards across the state.

Provisions for pensions for the needy and elderly folk artistes
There are many folk artistes in Bengal, who used to perform in various programmes with reputation and attracted attention of the audiences. Most of them are now unable to perform because of their old age. They don’t have definite source of income and there is nobody to look after them. The government helps them and provides social security for them through LokprasarPrakalpo. The folk artistes who are above 60 years of age are getting pension under LokprasarPrakalpo. At present, in West Bengal about 8,596 artistes have been receiving Rs. 1000 per month.

Retainer fee for the artistes
The enlisted folk artistes under the age of 60 years in LokprasarPrakalpo, who are engaged in publicity campaign in different departments, have been receiving Rs. 1000 per month as retainer fee. Till now approximately 76,000 folk artistes have been receiving the retainer fee.

Utilisation of services of the Folk Artistes for the publicity of Development Projects
Government is in the mission of publicising its Flagship Programme through LokprasarPrakalpo among the people. For instance, the Folk Artistes are being utilized for disseminating information regarding the schemes like Kannyasree, Yubasree, Sikshasree etc. and programmes like Nirmal Bangla, SarboSikhsaAvijan etc. to the common people. Initiative has been taken for arranging 4/5 nos. of programme for each artistes. A yearlong campaign is organised through mobile Tableau Vans where folk artists are engaged by rotation in each district and sub division.

Following table shows the breakup of enlisted folk artists in districts:

Initiative has been taken to organise workshops in each district with the assistance of the researchers on folk culture for upgrading the traditional folk forms for presentation to new generations in a more attractive way.

Lokprasar Prakalpo has already achieved a great success through its implementation. The so called neglected rural folk artistes of B are taking part in this scheme with great enthusiasm.

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