West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has sent two letters to the Centre, expressing her government’s willingness to implement the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme and Ayushman Bharat schemes if the funds are routed through the State. The Trinamool Congress government has been under constant criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership over the non-implementation of these central schemes.
The letters addressed to Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar, and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on September 9, were made public on Tuesday on the official Twitter page of Egiye Bangla — the State’s digital interface.
Earlier in the day, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar raised the issue of non-implementation of PM Kisan in West Bengal by tweeting “Why deny @MamataOfficial the benefit of Rs 8400 crores to lac WB farmers by failure to participate in PM Kisan Nidhi. So far every farmer has lost Rs 12,000 that would have come to his bank account. Urge CM – Crocodile tears will not relieve pain of farmers.”
In the letter to Mr. Tomar, Ms. Banerjee said the State government has introduced the Krishak Bandhu scheme for financial aid to farmers
“Every farmer/sharecropper receives ₹5,000 from the government. The scheme envisages a death benefit of ₹2 lakh. More than 73 lakh farmers are being covered under this in Bengal,” the Chief Minister wrote.
In the letter addressed to Mr. Vardhan, she mentioned the Swasthya Sathi scheme, that provides 100% free treatment, medicines and diagnostics to all in government hospitals. In both the letters Ms. Banerjee said funds for both schemes should be routed through the State government.
