CM Suvendu urges Bengal migrant workers to return, cites 125-day job guarantee
West Bengal CM says the VB-G RAM G scheme guarantees Rs 34,500 annually per job card holder, with the state targeting 22 crore person-days of employment by March 2027
Kolkata, Nov 4 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday urged migrant workers from the state to return home, citing the employment opportunities available under the VB-G RAM G scheme, which guarantees 125 days of work.
"There is huge scope under the VB-G RAM G scheme, which offers a guarantee of 125 days of work. I urge migrant labourers to come back and work in their own state. Come back and work with your family. Rs 34,500 per annum is guaranteed for each job card holder," he said.
Briefing reporters after a review meeting with the panchayat department, which was attended by senior officials and Panchayat Minister Dilip Ghosh, Adhikari said several inter-department issues had been resolved, and work under the scheme was progressing well.
He said the Panchayat and Rural Development department would become the "model department" in the state within two years.
The state is working towards meeting the Centre's target of generating 22 crore person-days, while work allocations worth Rs 12,000 crore had been made jointly by the Centre and the state, he said.
So far, 65.62 lakh person-days of work have been generated, with daily employment reaching 7.09 lakh, Adhikari said.
Work days generated are projected to reach 3.81 crore by November, 7.63 crore by December, 13.34 crore by January and 20.63 crore by February, touching 22 crore by March 2027, an official release said.
More than 22 lakh workers have sought work, and all have been given jobs, it said.
Ghosh said the government aimed to increase daily employment to 10 lakh person-days by December, with a target of 17 lakh.
He alleged that at least Rs 80,000 crore was lost by the previous state government over the past four years because of corruption.
Adhikari said the Centre had cancelled 31 lakh fake job cards during the MGNREGA regime.
Following clearance from the Centre, the state has addressed discrepancies related to Aadhaar seeding and issued about 10 lakh new job cards.
The state has about 2.3 crore Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Cards, and around 90 per cent of beneficiaries have completed e-KYC, the release said.
The FTOs of all earlier work have also been verified on the ground, it said.
Work has started in all 3,339 gram panchayats, with an average of over 10 projects being undertaken in each, the release said.
Through convergence with the forest department, tree plantation has been taken up in about 25,000 villages, and permanent assets worth around Rs 7,356 crore are expected to be created through the joint effort of various departments, it added.
The Cabinet has approved the recruitment of 7,190 personnel through the Public Service Commission to strengthen the panchayat administration, Adhikari said.
The recruitment rules would be amended after the Assembly session, with the newly recruited personnel expected to be deployed by April 2027, he said.
Another 1,000 contractual personnel would be recruited for one year to prevent a manpower shortage, the chief minister added.
A full-fledged Panchayat Bhavan would be constructed on a five-acre plot in New Town, near the proposed sites of the Calcutta High Court and the state Assembly, Adhikari said.
Adhikari said a booklet detailing 375 work schemes has been published, which will be taken to rural people, and these schemes will be campaigned with the help of folk music and other means.
The 375 works are categories of permissible works notified by the Rural Development Ministry, covering rural infrastructure, water conservation, livelihood generation and disaster mitigation, the release said.
Each family building a house under the Banglar Awas Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana will get 90-95 days of work under the scheme, earning about Rs 27,000 in additional wages, it said.
On rural housing under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Ghosh said 47 lakh beneficiaries who had been deprived of houses during the previous regime would be provided homes over the next two years.
The state aims to emerge as one of the country's top-performing states under the scheme by December, the release said. PTI