WB Govt pulls cobblers out of daily drudgery

WB Govt pulls cobblers out of daily drudgery

Posted on November 28, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

A thousand odd people, belonging to 150 families, living in the heart of the city for nearly 200 years have suddenly found a parent. The cobblers off S N Banerjee Road, settled here as a colony on Uma Das Lane, have been adopted by the state MSME department to become self-sufficient and come out of economic slavery.

This week, the cobblers were given a loan without any collaterals by a commercial bank, which is a first in its own right. “We are trying to develop this cobblers’ cluster of Janbazaar as a model, but what was important was revenue. On the one hand, the cobblers needed skill development and a decent working capital and on the other, we have to develop a completely mechanized modern shoe-making unit that can be utilized by all,” said state MSME secretary Rajiva Sinha.

“We realized that if the cobblers have to reach a breakthrough, just a soft loan and bettering their traditional skills will not help. They need land to build a new mechanized centre. But since the cobblers are too poor, we got the West Bengal Small Industries Development Corporation to buy a one-bigha plot at Beliaghata and give it on perpetual lease to the cobblers,” explained Sinha.

Ambedkar Diwas to be celebrated in Bengal on 30 December

Posted on November 28, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday announced that Dr BR Ambedkar’s 125 birth anniversary year will be celebrated in every block of the state on December 30.

Mamata Banerjee said she would personally attend the state-level program at Netaji Indoor Stadium here on that day.

“In honour of the great social reformer and architect of the Indian Constitution Dr BR Ambedkar, we have decided to celebrate Ambedkar Diwas all over the state on December 30 in a befitting manner,” she said.

The government has also decided to institute a chair named after Dr Ambedkar at Calcutta University.

New avenues in transport: New bus services for districts

Posted on November 23, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee launched new bus services for the districts today during her visit to Tehatta, Nadia district.

The Chief Minister flagged off 17 buses along 6 new routes at today’s function.

In the next one month, the West Bengal Government will introduce a fleet of 100 buses across districts. The routes have been decided via scientific reasoning. CTC will be operating these buses, which have all been bought with funds from the state government.

The services will benefit four districts around Kolkata – Howrah, Hooghly, North 24 Parganas and Nadia.

WB Govt to help artisans with export of handicrafts

Posted on November 21, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

The Bengal government is planning to boost export of handicrafts and provide artisans with direct access to export. The state will hold training workshops on export at the handicrafts fair. Over 3,500 artisans are likely to participate in the workshops.

The state’s micro, small and medium entrepreneurs (MSME), along with the textile department that is hosting the fair, has tied up with the Federation of Indian Exports organizations (FIEO) to train artisans. The Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also wanted to set up a mall to showcase the handicrafts.

Officials said that Bengal had exported handicrafts worth around Rs 500 crore in the last financial year.

Rajiva Sinha, secretary of MSME department, said, “This year’s fair is expected to be a major success. Last year, goods worth Rs 18 crore were sold.“

“The aim is to promote ex port of handicrafts and allied products from Bengal. FIEO officials will help and train artisans. We will teach them how to start exports and the processes required along with export documentation,“ said Debdatta Nandwani, deputy director general of FIEO’s eastern zone.

Image courtesy: The Hindu

West Bengal State Handicrafts Fair begins at Milan Mela

Posted on November 20, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

West Bengal State Handicrafts Fair, 2015 – one of the largest handicraft fairs in India – was inaugurated by the Minister for Industry, Finance and Commerce, Dr Amit Mitra today at Milan Mela grounds.

Minister for Small and Medium Enterprises, Mr Swapan Debnath was also present on the occasion.

The fair grounds will be open to the public from 1 PM – 8:30 PM daily.

More than 3500 handicraft artists are participating in this annual fair organised by the Department of Small and Medium Enterprises, West Bengal Government. The fair will be held till December 13.

West Bengal Government has instituted credit cards, modelled after Kisan Credit Cards, for handicraft artisans in the State. Skill development training will also be provided to them by the Federation of India Export Organization so that the manufactured products may be of export quality.

Through the credit cards, the artisans can take a maximum loan of Rs 50,000 and once they repay the loan, more amounts will be approved.

State Govt passes Bill to boost investment

Posted on September 29, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

The West Bengal Municipal (fourth amendment) Bill 2015 was passed in the Assembly on Monday where the time period of tax benefit to Information Technology Industry and Information Technology Enabled Services (IT and ITes) companies has been extended from five years to 11 years.

Unit Area Assessment system of valuation for the purpose of property tax will also be introduced at the industrial townships of Nabadiganta, Kalyani, Bantala and Durgapur, it was said.

Previously, the time frame for providing tax benefit for the IT and ITES companies was five years. Now, six more years has been extended to the IT and ITES companies for providing tax to the state government.

While placing the Bill, Firhad Hakim, state urban development and municipal affairs minister said that the decision has been taken in order to give some benefit to IT and ITES companies so that they could set up their unit in the state.

The Bill mentions that the final base unit area value of land comprising building or any vacant land or covered space of building or portion thereof, shall remain in force for a period of five years from the date of publication of the scheme, if not directed by the state government otherwise.

The Bill also mentions the time period and modalities of exemption from payment of the property tax on any land or building, which is exclusively used for Information Technology Industry or Information Technology Enabled Services.

Also, they can enjoy higher floor area ratio, the Bill mentioned. It also mentions that the unit area assessment system of valuation for the purpose of property tax will be included in industrial townships.

Bengal taking steps to improve the quality of mid-day meals for school students

Posted on June 9, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

The West Bengal Government is taking steps to improve the quality of Mid-Day Meal (MDM) provided to the school students.

Replying to a debate in support of the budgetary grant for his department, state’s School Education Minister Dr Partha Chatterjee said the Government was taking steps to check the quality of rice used by engaging officials of the food and supplies department.

Once the food was cooked, it would be tasted and checked by the cook and a teacher after which it will be offered to the students, he said, adding the chefs will also be trained in cooking and hygiene.

Dr Chatterjee said his department was setting up 969 dining halls at a cost of Rs 29 crore for students across the state. The utensils in which the food was served and cooked will also be changed for which a proposal has been sent to the Finance ministry for approval of funds.

Incidentally, in 2014, West Bengal secured 3rd rank among the states in implementing the midday meal scheme in schools across the state.

97% of the students enrolled in various schools in West Bengal are the beneficiaries of the scheme, a Central government report revealed, which comes to a whooping 1,22,98,419 students in all. According to a similar survey done in 2010-11, West Bengal was at the 12th position.

Biswa Bangla: Bengal’s schemes now globally recognised

Posted on May 20, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Shaking away the shackles of the past, West Bengal has now emerged as a model of not only India but the entire world.

Several of the schemes and projects initiated by the Trinamool Government in West Bengal have gained international recognition, thus paving the way for Biswa Bangla.

Kanyashree

The ‘Kanyashree Prakalpa’ or ‘Kanyashree Scheme’ is one of the flagship schemes of the Government, which gained widespread recognition. Launched on October 1, 2013, in about a year-and-a-half, more than 22 lakh girls have registered under the scheme. The government plans to extend the benefit to 40 lakh girls in the next two years.

UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) has become a partner of the West Bengal Government for the implementation of Kanyashree scheme. The partnership between UNICEF and West Bengal Government is not a superficial involvement but a technical partnership. The Department for International Development (DFID), United Kingdom and UNICEF had together selected the scheme for presentation at the Girl Summit 2014 in London.

WB Govt observes Kanyashree Dibas on August 14

Nadia district gets UN Award

Another scheme to get such recognition is the ‘Sabar Souchagar’ or ‘Toilets For All’ project for the district of Nadia. It won the first place in the Asia-Pacific region in the ‘Improving the Delivery of Public Services’ category at the United Nations Public Service Award 2015.

The project has also been selected by Loughborough University, UK as an inspiring model for eliminating open defecation, and it is to be presented at the WEDC International Conference in July.

Nadia declared as India’s first ODF district

Bengal Panchayati Raj

The project to strengthen panchayati raj institutions in West Bengal has been immensely praised by World Bank. According to the World Bank report presented in 2013, the performance of gram panchayats improved substantially on all fronts.

As a result, out of 1000 gram panchayats from nine project districts, 792 qualified for receiving the block grant of FY13-14, based on an independent Annual Performance Assessment undertaken between May 2012 and September 2012.

Rural development – Priority of WB Govt

Health insurance

The World Bank and the Global Alliances for Social Protection programme (GIZ) have lauded West Bengal’s progress in executing the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY). The scheme provides cashless treatment benefits of up to Rs. 30,000 per family annually through a network of 1,043 hospitals throughout Bengal.

West Bengal has been invited to share its experience in social sector insurance in a global learning forum in Berlin, organised in June 2015 by World Bank and GIZ.

WB CM distributing benefits to people

Bengal – A model for India

Posted on May 20, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

There was a saying, ‘What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow’. Thanks to three decades of misrule and defective governance of the Left Front, the phrase had lost its meaning. Not any more.

In the last four years, Bengal has reclaimed her position as the best among states in several sectors and has become a model for others to emulate.

The government of West Bengal sincerely believes in inclusive governance. WB CM has been working relentlessly working for people of all castes, religions, genders, communities and creed.

When Trinamool Congress led government came to power in Bengal, it had inherited a huge debt amounting to almost Rs 2 lakh crore. Despite the debt burden, governance has not slowed down in the state.

1. More than 75 lakh people of the State have been benefited by the fair price medicine shops set up on the initiative of the West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee. It has been estimated that during the last one and half years, since the opening of fair price medicine shops in Government Hospitals, the medicine buyers have received at total discount of Rs 205.51crore.

2. The State has also launched fair price diagnostic centres where procedures like dialysis and MRI are available at nominal cost. Treatment for cancer, cardiac and blood-related ailments has been made free.

3. West Bengal has also bagged international recognition in the implementation of the national health insurance scheme. The work on the programme had been highly appreciated by the World Bank and Global Alliances for Social Protection from GIZ (German Cooperation).

4. West Bengal was once a Left-Wing Extremism affected state. After 2011, thanks to the developmental initiatives of the state government, Maoist violence has subsided in the Jangalmahal area. Peace reigns there now.

5. West Bengal’s Kanyashree scheme has benefitted 22 lakh girls till date. Launched in 2013, the scheme provides financial assistance to girls to pursue their education. The scheme, which has been appreciated by UNICEF and honoured at London Girls’ Summit 2014, has hugely brought down the rate of dropout among school-going girls.

6. Recently the Rajya Sabha passed a Private Members’ Bill for the protection of rights of transgender. West Bengal had formed a Transgender Development Board, the first in India, way back in March, 2015.

7. The government is also committed to the upliftment of backward classes. On the lines of Kanyashree scheme, WB CM started the Shikshashree scheme for SC/ST students in the state. WB CM also created an independent ministry for Tribal Development.

8. The state government has introduced 17% reservation for OBCs without affecting the general category seats. Instead the government increased the infrastructure for accommodating the OBC students.

9. The government has set a record in building toilets. Nadia district received the United Nations Public Service award for being the first district in India to be declared ‘open defecation free’.

10. The State of West Bengal has received 11 national prizes for its work at the Panchayat level in the year 2014. Bengal was best among States in expenditure for creating jobs under NREGA scheme.

11. Excise Department was conferred the prestigious Platinum Award by Skoch Foundation at the 37th Conference on “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance”, hosted with support by a number of Central Government Ministries for the unique initiative of introducing e-Abgari Scheme for online filing of tax and tracking performance under the Excise Department.

12. Panchayat and Rural Development Department has also been conferred the Skoch Order of Excellence for outstanding work in 100-Days Work Scheme and Skoch Order of Merit for Web-based Monitoring System by Institutional Strengthening of Gram Panchayats Project in Bengal.

13. Bengal had been adjudged as the BEST STATE in All India Skill Competition, 2013 and awarded Certificate of Merit and Running Shield.

14. West Bengal bagged the Krishi Karman award for the third year in a row in 2014 for outstanding performance in the agriculture sector.

15. The tableaux of West Bengal government, featuring the famous Chhau dance of Purulia, bagged the first prize at the Republic Day parade in 2013.

WB Govt launches Aprajita – Tutorials for Children with Special Needs

Posted on May 4, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Department of Women Development and Social Welfare, Govt of West Bengal has launched a special tutorial programme for students with disabilities for Doordarshan Kolkata (DD-I Kolkata).

The programme named Aprajita, which was first aired on 2nd May, 2015, will run for 26 weeks every Saturday from 7 PM to 7:30 PM and repeat telecast on every Tuesday.

The programme was inaugurated by Hon’ble Minister in charge, Dr Shashi Panja along with the Commissioner of Disabilities Smt Mita Banerjee.

This programme is aimed at improving the quality & status of Children with Special Needs (CWSN) studying between class IX and XII. CWSNs may ask questions to clear doubts in various subjects. Eminent special educators will provide these tutorials.

This is the first of its kind initiative by the West Bengal Government.