People queue to register for the BJP Govt Annapurna Bhandar scheme in Siliguri. Archive. | Photo credit: ANI
The Trinamool Congress criticized the Bharatiya Janta Party government’s Annapurna Bhandar scheme in West Bengal due to the tedious form filling process. The Congress state president also wrote to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari to simplify the process.
“Assurances before voting, only memories after voting,” TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote on social media on Friday (May 29, 2026), analyzing the form. He also shared an alleged mockup of the form that the BJP shared before the elections, which was only half a page long, and also shared photographs of the 11-page form recently released by the new government.
The Annapurna Bhandar is a social security scheme under which women in the state will receive a direct cash transfer of Rs 3,000 to their banks every month. The previous TMC government launched the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme in 2021 and reached out to nearly 2.4 crore women across the state. The TMC government paid Rs 1,500 per woman, and the BJP made an election promise to double the dolls once they came to power.
The Annapurna Bhandar scheme form asks for details like Citizenship (Amendment) Act status, whether names were removed under the Special Intensive Review (SIR) process, social status of people, vaccination status of children, number of literate and illiterate family members, bank account details of family members, health insurance status, total land ownership of the family, etc.
Probing this, TMC MLA Kunal Ghosh asked why welfare schemes are becoming conditional under the BJP. “So the logic of the new @BJP4Bengal Minister is simple: If you have not received the vaccine provided by the Government of India, do not bother seeking benefits from the welfare schemes of the Government of India!!!” he wrote on his social networks.
Ghosh also raised questions on why women have to give details of their entire family when the cash transfer benefit is only for women.
Meanwhile, netizens on social media have been creating sarcastic memes and videos on the 11-page form issued by the state government for the Annapurna Bhandar scheme.
“One or two pages is still fine. How will we fill out such a big form? Aren’t we that educated? This money was supposed to be mine, why do I need to add my husband’s account details?” a woman asked.
The plan will be implemented from June 1, but uncertainty over the form-filling process has left many in doubt.
“We can provide Aadhaar and voter cards, but the number of documents they ask for is not possible for illiterate people like us. We have decided to just not fill the form,” said another woman who registered under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme.
Meanwhile, State Congress president Subhankar Sarkar wrote to the West Bengal CM stating that the long process of filling out forms was causing problems among the people. “I urge you to take immediate and necessary steps by the state government to simplify the form issued for Annapurna Bhandar,” Mr. Sarkar’s letter said on Friday (May 29, 2026).
Published – May 30, 2026 09:56 am IST