REFORM AND REPOSITION

MAMATA BANERJEE

- Romita Datta

There’s a sense of urgent purpose in the way Mamata Banerjee is approaching her new term in office. Two months into her third term on the trot, the West Bengal chief minister has already rolled out several initiatives the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had promised in its poll manifesto.

These include new welfare projects, including ‘duare ration’, to deliver rations to people’s doorsteps; ‘lokkhir bhandar’, which gives housewives Rs 6,000 in annual support payments (Rs 12,000 for women from SC/ ST communities); a Rs 10 lakh credit line for students seeking higher education; and ‘duare tran’, to deliver relief payments to victims of cyclone Yaas. These follow the template of the ‘duare sarkar’ programme her government ran before the assembly election, to improve delivery of government services by cutting out middlemen and thereby reducing corruption. Some benefits are already visible—for instance, the duare ration scheme reveals the state has 104 million registered ration cards, despite the official population being closer to 90 million.

During the assembly campaign, Mamata had vowed to reform the TMC if she returned to power, saying, “The only alternative to the TMC is a reformed TMC.” Her post-poll manoeuvres give the impression that this effort is in full swing. For one, she has created a separation between party and government—under a new ‘one-person-one-post’ rule, TMC leaders are banned from holding multiple posts, or from holding posts in both the government and the party organisation. Sources say she was willing to relinquish her own party post to set an example, but relented after party leaders asked her to make an exception for herself.