Bengal : West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is all set to roll out the much-awaited ‘Duare Ration’ (ration at doorstep) scheme across the state in the next two months. Addressing an event on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples in Jhargram on Monday, Banerjee said, “We made several commitments including Student Credit Cards, Duare Sarkar, new medical colleges before the state polls and we fulfilled most of them. Among a few, ‘Duare Ration’ is pending and it will be rolled out in the next two months.”

Nearly 28 shops (one in each of 22 districts and six in urban areas) will deliver ration at doorstep to beneficiaries.

On one of the biggest outreach programmes under the banner of ‘Duare Sarkar’ (government at doorstep), she said, “Once again we are going to roll out ‘Duare Sarkar’ from August 16, 2021 onwards and it will continue till September 15, 2021. Already 3 crore people benefitted from ‘Duare Sarkar’. We have decided to organise ‘Duare Sarkar’ twice in a year and those who want to collect more information about our government schemes, they can visit Bangla Sahayak Kendra (BSK).” ‘Duare Sarkar’ is an outreach programme where benefits of government schemes will be delivered to the people at their doorsteps, through camps organised at the Gram Panchayat and Municipality Ward level. This was Banerjee’s first visit to Jhargram after winning the recently held Assembly Polls in Bengal. In an attempt to extend her gratitude towards the ST community for voting in favour of Trinamool Congress, she was seen dancing with others on tribal beats during the event.

On long pending recognition of ‘Sarna Dharma’ (worshipping the woods/nature) of the tribal people, she said, “Keeping in mind about the sentiments of tribal people, I have written a letter to the central government for the official recognition of the ‘Sarna Dharma’ which is pending for several years. I am grateful to you all who voted for us. Please don’t take us wrong…if you have a problem, I will resolve it.”

Once a Maoist stronghold, Jangalmahal’s substantial vote bank of the Left Front has pushed the saffron brigade ahead of the ruling TMC in recent years. This helped the BJP to create history by securing 18 Lok Sabha seats (out of 42) in Bengal (in 2019). According to Election Commission (EC) statistics, even though BJP lost to TMC in 2014 Lok Sabha, the vote percentage of the saffron brigade has increased significantly to 20% in the Jangalmahal districts. Similarly, in the 2018 Panchayat election, the BJP vote share rose by 27% in Jangalmahal districts as TMC suffered massive setbacks at Jhargram, Purulia and in Bankura.But in the last Assembly polls few months ago, TMC aggressively managed to regain its lost ground in the tribal dominated areas.