Bengali migrant workers returning to state to get Rs 5,000 monthly aid: Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday launched a new welfare scheme to provide a monthly allowance of Rs 5,000 to Bengali migrant workers returning from other states for one year or until they find new jobs.

The “Shramashree” scheme was launched amid allegations by the Trinamool Congress that Bengali-speaking workers are being discriminated against in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party on the suspicion of being Bangladeshis.

The beneficiaries “who are coming back after being helplessly tortured” will also be given a one-time travel and rehabilitation grant of Rs 5,000.

Speaking after a Cabinet meeting on Monday, Banerjee said the scheme also includes enrolment in existing state welfare programmes such as Khadya Sathi, which covers food security, and Swasthya Sathi, which provides healthcare coverage.

The children of the migrant workers will be enrolled in government schools and persons without homes will be provided accommodation in community kitchen centres, the Trinamool Congress chief added.

The labour department will be the nodal agency for the scheme, with the workers returning to the state being required to register on the Shramashree portal, through which they will also be issued identity cards, The New Indian Express reported.

Banerjee stated that around 22.4 lakh Bengali migrant workers outside the state will be eligible for the scheme.

The chief minister said that people were “being labelled as a...

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