Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, unveiled plans on Wednesday to build 20 lakh residences for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Schedule Tribe (ST) people across the state over the next five years.
In November-December, the Chief Minister is planning a “mega samellan” (convention) of the West Bengal Sahitya Dalit Academy, in which five dalit representatives from around the state will exchange ideas for the development of persons belonging to the SC and ST communities.
“Our government is committed to the welfare of the ST, SC community,” she remarked while chairing the West Bengal Scheduled Caste Advisory Council meeting at the State secretariat ‘Nabanna’ on Wednesday. As a result, we’ve chosen to build roughly 20 lakh residences for them over the next five years.”
“We will conduct a survey using drones to obtain aerial images of how many people are living in kutcha houses that need to be restored and how many pakka houses that need to be built in each district,” she added. Drones will make surveying easier for us.”
In September, the Chief Minister requested that senior bureaucrats convene a meeting of all board members (such as the Namasudra Welfare Board, Nasya Development Board, Rajbonshi Development Board, Kamtapuri Development Board, and Tribal Development Board).
She urged the Director-General of Police to be especially cautious and to act quickly on all complaints about the security and safety of SC and ST people in the State.
“Those who will commit crimes against SC and ST must be dealt with harshly by the police,” she warned.
The CM also asked leaders to work for all people, regardless of their party affiliation. “It is the responsibility of a leader to lead the people. Don’t pass judgement on somebody based on their political affiliation. Everyone is on an equal footing. Don’t sort them into A, B, C, or D categories. Work for everyone because you’re all mass leaders who aren’t tied to any one person or political party,” she explained.
Manoranjan Byapari, the TMC MLA from Balagarh in the Hooghly district and the head of Dalit Sahitya Academy, was also present at the meeting and asked Banerjee to select 45 dalit community centres across the state. Banerjee told Byapari that the names of all the community centres should be named after B R Ambedkar.
Banerjee recently announced the State budget, which included Rs 350 crore for schools that serve the requirements of the SC and ST people.
The Chief Minister then made several major announcements, including Rs 50 crore for a hundred new English medium schools for SC/ST and poor people, nearly 900 new schools in Bengal for Ol-chiki, Hindi, Nepali, Urdu, Kamtapuri, Rajbonshi, Kurmali, and English languages, and 200 schools for Rajbongshi language speakers.
