A latest report by the Right to Food and Work Network in West Bengal has identified that solely 42% of candidates who participated within the Duare Sarkar scheme had received what they’d utilized for on the time of the community’s survey. Duare Sarkar — which interprets to ‘Government at the Doorstep’ — is a flagship programme of the State authorities launched in December 2020 months, earlier than the 2021 Assembly election.
The survey comes forward of panchayat elections within the State, after six rounds of Duare Sarkar have been accomplished. “The major findings showed that most of the people visiting the camps each time were not first-timers and were applying for the same scheme/service over and over again,” the survey report mentioned. Another spotlight of the report was that the most-advertised scheme within the camps was the Chief Minister’s coveted Lakshmir Bhandar, which gives a month-to-month honorarium to girls. The most purposes had been from girls making use of for the Lakshmir Bhandar and Swasthya Sathi schemes.
The survey report, which was primarily based on data collected from 2,500 respondents throughout the State, identified that Central authorities schemes had hardly featured within the outlay of the camps. “In the latest round in fact, MGNREGA did not feature at all. Rights-based provisions did not see the publicity or uptake that short term cash transfer based schemes did,” the report mentioned.
The Right to Food and Work Network identified that a big quantity of individuals reported not having received advantages regardless of repeated purposes within the Duare Sarkar camps. “Almost 30% in the case of Khadya Saathi, and 46% in the case of caste certificate applicants, had not received their entitlements, as on the fifth round of Duara Sarkar completion,” their press assertion mentioned.
The report additionally identified that with the Duare Sarkar camps, the “existing system of governance via the panchayat and block/municipality seems to have taken a complete blow”.
“The system of accountability in whatever earlier form available in government and panchayat offices has disappeared as applicants visit these places post the camps only to be turned away and told to wait for the next camp. The Duare Sarkar camps have led to a total loss of control over selection of schemes and beneficiaries by ordinary voters,” the report mentioned, including that these camps had been “disempowering people” from this level of view and “encouraging centralisation”.
