In an attempt to speed up and take the delivery of public services to the doorstep of the people, the West Bengal government on Monday announced an outreach programme ‘Duare Sarkar’ (‘government at the doorstep’).
“The stated designated objective of the scheme is maximum outreach through decentralisation and doorstep delivery,” Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said while addressing a press conference at the State Secretariat.
The Chief Secretary said that 20,000 camps will be set up across the State in four different phases, over which people will be enlisted in major flagship schemes of the State government. “There will be a real-time monitoring of the attendance at all the camps. We will also measure how much redressal is being done as per the grievances,” the Chief Secretary said, adding that the aim of the scheme was to “meet the goals of promise made by government to people [on] receipt of services”.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced the ‘Duare Sarkar’ programme during a visit to Bankura earlier this month. The major outreach programme is being planned at a time when there are only months to go before the State goes to polls.
The schemes covered under ‘Duare Sarkar’ are ‘Swasthya Sathi’ (extending cashless and free treatment to people); caste certificates for Schedule Castes (SC)/ Scheduled Tribes (ST)/ Other Backward Classes (OBC); Joy Jahar and Tafasili Bondhu pension schemes for people belonging to SCs and STs. The other schemes that will be implemented through the outreach programme are the Khadyo Sathi food security scheme and the Kanyashree scheme of conditional cash transfers to schoolgoing girls, among others.
The State government officials said that the programme will provide an integrated window for all services of all the departments in extension and outreach mode on specified dates “when our related officers will go with computers to give focused help on pre-designated dates in an announced manner”.
The task force will be set up from the State level to the Block level, and a standard operating procedure will be shared with all the officials for implementation of the scheme. The State government will have designated nodal officers at every level for implementation of the scheme.