Kolkata: May it be Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, none of the centre’s schemes would have the same name in West Bengal as the state government recently issued a circular to rename these schemes.
The direction has been given by Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee, who feels that there was no need to give the centre the entire credit for the schemes when the state government was bearing 40% of the cost for implementing the central government schemes. Earlier, the state governments used to bear only 10% of the cost for central schemes, but now with the increase in the state’s responsibility, the Bengal government has decided to change the names.
According to the circular, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan will be named Mission Nirmal Bangla.
The letter dated April 12, issued by the Panchayats and Rural Development Department to all secretaries and district magistrates says: “Attention is drawn to the specific names given by the state government to different rural development schemes with shared resources of the Centre and the state government. Programmes nationally known as Aajeevika (National Rural Livelihood Mission), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Grameen) should now onwards be known as Anandadhara (State Rural Livelihood Mission), Banglar Gramin Sadak Yojana and Banglar Griha Prakalpa, respectively”.
The letter signed by Saurabh Kumar Das, Additional Chief Secretary, categorically states that only the names given by the state government should be used for correspondence and the instructions came from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
