West Bengal government allocates Rs 300 crore to workers who lost jobs due to note ban

West Bengal government has allocated a fund of Rs 300 crore to provide financial assistance to workers from Bengal who had migrated to other states for work and have lost jobs due to demonetisation and have returned home. The scheme to provide financial assistance has been named “Samarthan”.

It may be mentioned that state finance minister Amit Mitra had announced the unique step of providing financial assistance to “stand beside the skilled workers” while presenting the Budget in the Assembly on February 10. Bengal is perhaps the only state in the country to take such a step for demonetisation-hit workers.

On Monday, the state government has decided to allocate Rs 300 crore for the scheme initially for nine districts. Under the scheme Rs 50,00 will be given to each of 50,000 such workers to start their own business so that they can earn their livelihood.