West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced here on Sunday the setting up of a “Student Brigade” that would comprise student cadres who would serve the rural people for a period of two years and then be assured of jobs.
“The student brigade will serve the people in rural Bengal for two years. An employment bank will be created that will ensure that they get jobs afterwards,” Ms. Banerjee told a large gathering of supporters of the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad at a function to mark the organisation's foundation day.
“We are coming up with a Student Brigade. In the month of January, I will organise a massive rally of students and youth from across the State,” she said. The details of the ‘Student Brigade' were being worked out and by next year, the body would be functional.
Making a strong pitch for the participation of students in politics, she assured the audience that from now on students from West Bengal will not have to go to other States looking for jobs.
“Within three months, we have arranged for providing nearly 2.31 lakh jobs. About 46,000 teachers have been appointed,” she claimed.
Ms. Banerjee said in the past three months she had been able to solve the problems in the Darjeeling hills as well as that of return of land to farmers from the site of the now relocated Tata Motors small car factory at Singur.
‘We did it in 90 days'
“Whether it is Singur or Jangalmahal [the Maoist-affected region of the State], we did not take five years but merely in 90 days we have completed the commitment we made to the people,” she said.
“I shall now turn my attention to the Panchayats and the Municipalities.”
She urged students to participate in politics and also concentrate on their studies, Ms. Banerjee said that student politics as such was not bad. There may be a few stray instances, but it was not possible to blame student politics for them, she added.
