Women queue up at banks, POs for Annapurna Yojana

Kolkata: Less than two weeks before the rollout of state govt's Annapurna Yojana, women have started queuing up at local banks and post offices to get their accounts linked with Aadhaar and mobile numbers to avail of the monthly Rs 3,000 benefit under the social scheme.On Tuesday, a notification issued by the department of woman & child development and social welfare stated that "the stipulated financial assistance of Rs 3,000 per month shall be credited directly to the Aadhaar-linked bank account with effect from June 1."About 24 hours after the notification, post offices and public sector banks across the city saw long queues of women. Maya Sharma, a resident of Ballygunge, queued up at a local post office with documents. "My husband is a driver of a govt officer and as per his advice, he asked me to get my account linked for the benefit," she said.As per the notification, all the existing beneficiaries of Lakshmir Bhandar Scheme "will be migrated to the Annapurna Yojana, except dead, shifted, deleted and absentee electors identified during SIR 2026". The beneficiaries of Lakshmir Bhandar who have filed appeals before the SIR tribunal or applications under Citizenship (Amendment) Act will get financial assistance under the new scheme till disposal of their applications.Several beneficiaries who got the monthly allowance of Rs 1,500 under Lakshmir Bhandar before the change of govt in the state were also seen in queues. Sulata Mondal, a beneficiary who went to a bank at Santoshpur, said: "My bank account was not linked before. Now that the link is mandatory for migration to the Annapurna Yojana, I have come to get my account linked."Rupa Das of Lake Gardens said: "I work in the house of a KMC official who asked me to get my bank account linked, otherwise I will miss out on the benefit. As it is the 20th of the month, I did not delay and came to the bank today."For new applicants, an online application facility will be launched on the Annapurna Yojana portal from June 1. The applications will be examined by authorised govt officials. After verification/enquiry, BDOs in rural areas and SDOs in urban areas shall recommend the list of eligible applicants to DM for sanction. In KMC areas, this process will be completed by the civic body, according to the notification.