“Duare Sarkar”: Mamata Banerjee govt plans to go to every doorstep from Dec 1 through 20,000 camps

The Mamata Banerjee government launched on Tuesday a programme to reach its various programmes to people’s doorsteps. Called Duare Sarkar – which means “the government at your doorstep” – the programme involves 20,000 special camps functioning across the state which people can visit to enrol their names in any ongoing scheme or for registering their grievances and complaints. This will help the government gauge how much of its programmes and schemes have benefitted people and for what reasons people have not benefitted from them. This also includes identifying corrupt practises.

A task force has been formed to supervise the entire programme at district and block levels. Senior IAS officers have been appointed nodal officers and BDOs have been asked to visit camps. The programme is being publicised at various levels so that more people visit the camps. This includes taking the help of folk artists who will talk and sing about the benefits of visiting the camps and the various government-run schemes. There will be real time monitoring of the camps and the government wants to gauge whether the grievances have actually been addressed.

Schemes covered under Duare Sarkar:

• Swasthya Sathi: for extending cashless and free treatment to people, they are being asked to visit the camps at gram panchayat and municipality levels to submit their documents (this scheme has now been extended to include all those who do not have medical insurance).
• Issuing caste certificates to scheduled caste, scheduled tribes and other backward classes.
• Joy Jahar and Tafasili Bondhu pension schemes for tribals and the scheduled castes
• Grievances related to Khadyo Sathi
• Shikashree schemes for SC/ST and Aikyashree schemes for minorities. The camps will try to meet the gap between promises made by the government and how much people have actually benefitted.
• Kanyashree scheme: anyone who wants to register, can do so through the camps as the scheme intends to include all school-going girls.
• Grievances regarding Rupasree and Krishak Bandhu schemes
• Grievances on MGNREGS and 100 days’ work and issuing of job cards

[Image representational]