Kolkata, May 13 (IANS) The West Bengal government has decided to double the payments under the state-sponsored old-age pension and disability pension schemes in the state.

Till now, the monthly amount fixed under the two schemes was Rs 1,000. Sources in the state secretariat, Nabanna, said that the new state government under the leadership of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had decided to increase the amount to Rs 2,000 a month.

Although it has not yet been decided when the enhanced amounts will be paid, sources in the state secretariat said that, in all probability, the revised amount would be paid with effect from June 1.

However, an official announcement by the state government in this regard is yet to be made.

At the same time, sources said that a decision had already been taken to launch the West Bengal Annapurna Bhandar scheme, a project aimed at providing a monthly allowance of Rs 3,000 to women in the state.

Under the similar Lakshmir Bhandar scheme, which was introduced by the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government, the last payment fixed under the scheme was Rs 1,500 for women in the general category and Rs 1,700 for women belonging to reserved categories such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.

In fact, the announcement regarding the introduction of the West Bengal Annapurna Bhandar scheme involving a monthly payment of Rs 3,000 was made in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Sankalp Patra, or election manifesto.

Fashion designer-turned-politician Agnimitra Paul, a two-time BJP legislator from the Asansol Dakshin Assembly constituency in West Burdwan district, has taken charge of the Women and Child Development and Social Welfare Department, under whose jurisdiction all these allowance schemes fall.

For successive elections, women voters had been an important pillar of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress’ electoral success, and political observers believe that different women-centric welfare schemes introduced by the previous state government helped the party build a dedicated women vote bank.

However, in the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections, women voters shifted in a major way towards the BJP, which helped the party form its first government in West Bengal since Independence.

Political observers feel that the promise of Rs 3,000 under the Annapurna Bhandar scheme, among other factors, played an important role in shifting the women vote bank.

–IANS

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