The Bengal government’s ambitious scheme, Amader Para Amader Samadhan (APAS), where people of all 80,000-odd booths across the state would raise local development issues and the state government would try to resolve them within three months, kicked off on Saturday with Mamata Banerjee inviting people to avail of it.
According to Nabanna, 634 APAS camps were held on Saturday and 1,81,665 footfalls recorded.
“People have actively participated in the programme. They have raised infrastructure-related issues they were facing. Officials will go through these problems and resolve viable issues after a closer look,” said a senior government official.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee wrote on X earlier in the day that the state government has earmarked over ₹8,000 crore for the scheme.
“APAS camp is a platform where local people shall deliberate, identify and prioritize their local infrastructure needs. Rs 8,000+ Crores is the outlay for APAS with Rs 10 lakhs allocated per booth and 80,000+ polling booths being covered by 27,000+ camps,” she wrote on her X handle.
Trinamool insiders said the scheme would help the party ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls as it would tackle and resolve minor development and infrastructure issues at the grassroots.
“Some development issues had cropped up in the past three years particularly in rural areas since the Centre did not release funds under several rural development schemes. We were facing questions over facilities like roads and drinking water. Some development-related issues will be resolved,” said a Trinamool insider.
The BJP alleged that the scheme would not bring any relief to common people but help Trinamool leaders earn “cut-money”.
A BJP leader said: “Roads are in bad shape across the state. No one will believe that the government can resolve issues related to roads, drinking water or repair of schools and anganwadi centres with ₹10 lakh as most booths are facing acute development problems.”