Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on March 30 said that the entitlements in the State’s ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’ scheme will be doubled from April 2024, and dared the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to implement the social welfare scheme in States ruled by the party.
In this year’s budget, the assistance was increased to ₹1,000 from ₹500 for the general category and to ₹1,200 from ₹1,000 for the SC/ST category. The West Bengal government had spent ₹25,000 crore for the scheme to empower women, Mr. Banerjee said.
He dared the BJP to offer the cooking gas cylinders free of cost. “[If the] government issues a notification and promises that they will give cooking gas cylinders free of cost for the next five years, I will take back candidates from the 42 constituencies... This is my open challenge,” he said while addressing a gathering at Mathurapur in South 24 Parganas district.
