In order to understand the impact of the outcome of Lok Sabha Election 2024 towards the development of West Bengal an Interactive Session “Manthan: Evaluating the 2024 Election Outcomes in West Bengal” was organized on 19th June 2024 at the The Institute of Social and Cultural Studies’s Central office, Kolkata.
As a Keynote Speaker for the session Dr. Ashok Lahiri, MLA, West Bengal State Legislative Assembly extended his support. The event was attended by the senior journalists, academicians, Institute’s associates and multi-sectoral stakeholders. The event followed Chatham House guidelines regarding its proceedings.
The discussion mainly featured how the state of West Bengal now aims to draft its blueprint of progress in terms of economy, trade, industry, health, education and defence, with the ruling party reserving the majority of seats in Lok Sabha Elections 2024. The discussion featured the voter’s ratio encompassing the fact that there has been a growth among the female voters alike in the rest of the country.
The State of West Bengal in the last decade has been encountering severe challenges pertaining to migration from the neighbourhood. The state unfortunately also has been charged with the cases of corruption, scams and malpractices against the rights of women in various regions. The MLA, Dr. Lahiri from Balurghat constituency highlighted about the lacunas between the policy and practices, disbursement of monetary resources that have been slowed down by the Central government time to time to ensure the development of the state. He postulated some strategies which the central government aims to devise in order to rupture the existing power structure that condemns the easy access of resources in the rural areas of West Bengal.
The discussion remained interactive and thus the journalists and academicians depicted their point of views and also through question and answer session tried to understand the pace of progress along with the apathy being faced by the rural fringes due to the state’s unruly power structure.
The Interactive session was put to halt with a Vote of Thanks by the Director of the Institute Shri Arindam Mukherjee, who thanked the MLA for his participation and sharing of his valuable observations along with the audience who remained instrumental in turning out the session lively and enriching.