Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari kicked off Annapurna Yojana by transferring ₹3,000 each to the bank accounts of 28 lakh beneficiaries on Wednesday, while his government announced it would make the full list of beneficiaries public in a bid to ensure transparency.

The scheme for women would burden the struggling state exchequer with around ₹70,000 crore, making transparency imperative for fiscal discipline.

During a programme to kick off Annapurna Yojana at the Nabanna Sabhaghar on Wednesday, Bengal chief secretary Manoj Agarwal said that the government would put up the list of beneficiaries of the scheme on the website of the department concerned.

“We will put up the list on the website.... Anybody can lodge a complaint if he or she finds that anybody in the list is ineligible. Similarly, if someone finds she is eligible, but her name is not on the list, she can also apply. In both cases, we will conduct an investigation and initiate required measures. This will bring transparency into the scheme,” said Agarwal.

The chief secretary also said the state government has made multi-step verification of beneficiaries by officials mandatory to ensure that no ineligible woman gets the monthly dole of ₹3,000.

“After the beneficiaries fill out the (12-page) form, extension officers at the block level will verify the beneficiaries. Then, the BDOs will re-verify them. Officials who conduct the verification will have to sign after their approval. Once the verification is done, the final approval would come from the district magistrate,” said the chief secretary.

Inaugurating the scheme, Suvendu said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the guarantor of the scheme announced before the Assembly polls and that it was a happy moment for him to start it in Bengal.

“We transferred the benefits to the bank accounts of 28.25 lakh beneficiaries across the state. From now on, as and when names are approved after verification, they will be included in the list of beneficiaries of Annapurna Yojana,” Suvendu said.

He explained that the state government was forced to launch a form for women to fill out before getting the benefits under the scheme.

“As we found lakhs of ineligible beneficiaries in the list of Lakshmir Bhandar (the scheme launched by the previous Trinamool government), we had to launch the form. The beneficiaries of Lakshmir Bhandar should not worry as the forms will be available at the BDO, SDO, DM, borough and municipality offices. For those who can't go out and fill out the forms, the government will send officials to their homes and get the forms filled out,” said the chief minister.

Suvendu said women would be able to fill in the forms online at the socialsecurity@wb.gov.in website from Wednesday.

He said that the process of filling out the forms would continue for the next three months. It is expected that by that time, all eligible beneficiaries would be able to fill out the forms and get included under the Annapurna Yojana.

Not only the Annapurna Yojana, but the state government is likely to make beneficiary lists of all other welfare schemes public to ensure transparency and weed out ineligible beneficiaries, officials said.

A source said that if the government accepted the Lakshmir Bhandar list, it would have to pay the monthly dole to 2.21 crore beneficiaries. “But now, it appears that more than 30 lakh ineligible beneficiaries could be weeded out," he said.