KOLKATA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday on September 17 will be celebrated as ‘Annapurna Divas’ in West Bengal every year, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari announced on Thursday.Addressing a programme in Salt Lake near Kolkata, Adhikari said the day would be observed every year as the Annapurna Yojana was “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guarantee”, news agency PTI reported.“Every year, September 17 will be celebrated as ‘Annapurna Divas’ because the Annapurna Yojana was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guarantee. We have already implemented it for a large section of women,” the chief minister said.Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually addressed the ‘Annapurna Divas’ event organised by the state government and spoke about the Rs 3,000 monthly assistance provided to women under the scheme.“Within a few days of forming our government in Bengal, work began on the Annapurna Yojana. Today, many women receive financial assistance directly into their bank accounts,” Modi said.“There are no middlemen and no ‘cut money’. Our government aims to ensure that not a single eligible woman is deprived of the benefits of Annapurna Yojana. We are working relentlessly towards achieving this goal,” the PM added.Modi said Rs 3,000 is deposited every month into the bank accounts of women under the scheme, adding that the fourth instalment was reaching the accounts of approximately 1.5 crore women, PTI reported.“This is a significant support for them. Today, the fourth instalment of the Annapurna Yojana is reaching the accounts of approximately 1.5 crore sisters, providing Rs 3,000 per month,” he said.Adhikari said the cash benefit had been transferred to the accounts of most of the 1.58 crore Annapurna Yojana beneficiaries for the September instalment, with the remaining transfers to be completed by the end of the day.The chief minister also said PM Modi had announced that a list of 50 lakh beneficiaries under the PM Awaas Yojana in the state was being prepared. He said all new houses under the programme would be owned by women.Women sports personalities, including Poulami Ghatak, Indu Puri and Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, inaugurated the programme organised to celebrate Annapurna Divas.Adhikari said that in the last four months, the government had set up a commission headed by retired Justice Samapti Chatterjee to inquire into atrocities against women in the state, PTI reported.He asserted that the BJP government was committed to ensuring that no woman in the state was subjected to atrocities and called upon women to come forward to create an addiction-free Bengal.Adhikari also said West Bengal was in a precarious position in teenage marriages and teenage pregnancy, with Murshidabad and South 24 Parganas leading on these counts.“I assure that during this government’s tenure, no girl under the age of 18 years will be allowed to be married. Those who have done so and those who assisted such marriages will be punished as per law,” Adhikari said.(With agency inputs)
