Mamata unveils Rs 8,000-cr mass outreach programme ahead of 2026 polls

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

With less than a year to go for the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced a massive grassroots outreach programme, similar to another welfare initiative launched before the 2021 polls.

Unveiling the Rs 8,000-crore 'Amader Para, Amader Samadhan' (Our Locality, Our Solution), at state secretariat Nabanna, Banerjee said her government will hold camps across all 80,000 booths in Bengal, where people can raise localised civic issues like broken roads, lack of drinking water taps, defunct streetlights or leaking school roofs and have them redressed through an on-spot administrative mechanism.

The programme will begin from August 8.

On December 1, 2020, Banerjee launched the ‘Duare Sarkar’ programme for delivery of services and welfare schemes at the doorsteps of the people through outreach camps held at the gram panchayat and municipal ward levels.

"For the first time in India, people will decide their own solutions. This is true empowerment, this is what Atmanirbharta (self-reliance) looks like," Banerjee said, taking a dig at the Centre.

"The BJP talks of self-reliance, but we are the ones implementing it," she said.

Much like the 'Duare Sarkar', this new programme is being billed as a potential game-changer. Then too, with the BJP breathing down the TMC's neck, the ruling party had reached lakhs of people through welfare camps at the booth level.

A dedicated task force led by Chief Secretary Manoj Pant will oversee the implementation of 'Amader Para, Amader Samadhan', with participation from senior officials of all relevant departments, including finance and public works. District and state-level monitoring cells will be formed, while the police will aid in coordination.

Each set of three booths will form a cluster with a designated officer who will camp in each booth on rotation, listen to public grievances, and identify works to be undertaken.

The government has allocated Rs 10 lakh per booth, and the project will roll out from August 2, to be completed within 60 days, excluding the festive Durga Puja break.

"This is not about doling out favours. It is about solving real problems from potholes to pipelines by listening to the people at the most micro level," the chief minister said, adding that "the government will now walk into your locality, not the other way around.

In her speech, Banerjee also accused the BJP-led Centre of withholding Bengal's dues to the tune of Rs 1.75 lakh crore.

"Even so, with people's blessings, we are running 93 welfare schemes and now launching this new one," she asserted.

Political observers see this as Banerjee's latest masterstroke to cement her rural connect and regain narrative control before the next polls.

In the last three Assembly elections, TMC's support from rural Bengal has proved decisive. With BJP now focusing on booth-level mobilisation, the TMC's move to activate the administrative machinery directly at the booth level is also being seen as a tactical counter.

"It's Duare Sarkar 2.0 with a civic twist," a senior Trinamool Congress told PTI, not wishing to be named.

"This is about touching lives where it matters, just like we did in 2020. That time, it helped us seal the deal. This time too, it can," the leader said.