TMC report card highlights GDP growth

News Desk: Highlighting the achievements of 10 years of its government in West Bengal, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress on Thursday released a report card at its party headquarters.

“The Report Card highlights the developments achieved in the past 10 years under 11 subsections that include Economy, Education, Health, Food, Housing & Sanitisation, Electricity, Roads, & Water, Farmers, Women Empowerment, SC/ST Empowerment, Employment, and Social Security,” a press statement issued by the party said.

Senior ministers including Subrata Mukherjere, Partha Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim and MPs Derek O’ Brien and Sudip Banerjee were present at the event.

Among the other things the document emphasises that the average per capita income “more than doubled from ₹51,543 in 2010 to ₹1,09,491 in 2019.”

“Bengal’s GDP has grown from ₹4.51 lakh crore to ₹6.9 lakh crore (53% increase). Agriculture and allied services grew by 30%, industries by 60%, and service sector by 62%,” the document added.

On the issue of employment, the report card said 1.63 crore people were provided employment for 249.3 crore man-days of work generated under MGNREGA over the last 10 years.

“Nearly 89 lakh small businesses operate in Bengal today compared to 34.6 lakh in 2012, employing 1.35 crore people; the number of factories in Bengal increased from 8,322 in 2010 to 9,534 (15%) in 2020, with average factory worker’s earnings rising from ₹1.3 lakh to ₹2.3 lakh (77%),” the document said.

Speaking on the education, State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said that after coming to power in 2011, the TMC had raised allocation for the education sector to ₹37,069 crore from ₹13,872 crore. “As part of the ‘Sabujsathi’ scheme, 84 lakh cycles were distributed. Thirty new universities have come up in the State since 2010,” Mr. Chatterjee said.

The release of the report card follows the TMC’s launch of the “Duare Sarkar” (government at doorstep) scheme, an outreach programme where people can apply for government services. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also appeared at a Duare Sarkar camp in the Bhawanipur area of Kolkata.