Annapurna Yojana crosses 1.2 crore mark

Kolkata: Annapurna Yojana has crossed the one crore mark. Around 1.2 crore women are set to receive Rs 3,000 each in their bank accounts under the state govt’s Annapurna Yojana from July 1, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Tuesday.“The administration has received around 1.5 crore applications for Annapurna Yojana so far. After the verification process, around 1.2 crore applications have been found genuine, including 5 lakh from tribal women. They will start getting money from tomorrow in their bank accounts,” he said.Registration for the scheme began in May and has continued through both online applications and forms submitted at govt-organised Jan Kalyan Shivirs (June 15-18) across the state.

According to official figures, around 28 lakh women received the financial assistance in June, while the beneficiary base is expected to expand significantly in the next phases.“The state govt has accelerated the rollout of the scheme. Applicants can now visit the Annapurna portal to check whether they have been approved to receive the July instalment,” a senior govt official said.The state govt will organise a programme at Netaji Indoor Stadium on Wednesday where several women will receive symbolic cheques of Rs 3,000 in the presence of the CM.

“The municipalities in North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly have been directed to send 40 women each, who are Annapurna Yojana beneficiaries, to the Netaji Indoor Stadium tomorrow. Each sub-division of these four districts will send 160 Annapurna beneficiaries to the programme. Rs 3,000 will be directly credited to their Aadhaar-linked bank accounts tomorrow,” a senior govt official said, adding that the addition of beneficiaries to the scheme would continue.In the budget, the state govt has allocated Rs 36,000 crore for this scheme.Earlier, the CM announced that the existing Lakshmir Bhandar scheme would continue during the transition phase before being fully integrated into Annapurna Yojana. He had also said that the enrollment process for Annapurna Yojana would remain open for 90 days, starting from June 1.“Our initial assumption was that the list of Lakshmir Bhandar beneficiaries had already been verified.

But we have received numerous complaints. Nearly 30 lakh people whose names have been permanently removed from the voters’ list and who have not approached tribunals are still receiving Lakshmir Bhandar benefits,” the CM had alleged.Lakshmir Bhandar has around 2.2 crore beneficiaries.The govt said income taxpayers, govt employees, regular salaried individuals, and pensioners would not be eligible for Annapurna Yojana. However, CM clarified that applicants under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) process or those undergoing judicial review under the SIR process would remain eligible.The administration has been collecting detailed family data during enrolment for Annapurna Yojana to ensure only eligible women will get the benefit of the scheme.