Mamata greets people on Vishwakarma puja

Kolkata, Sep 17 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday extended heartfelt greetings to the people of the state on the occasion of Vishwakarma Puja, a festival that honours the skills and hard work of workers across various sectors.

The CM said that the state government has announced a state holiday on this occasion, especially to honour the migrant labourers.

"Wish everyone heartfelt greetings on Vishwakarma Puja. This time, to honour the migrant workers, we have declared a state government holiday on Vishwakarma Puja," Banerjee posted on X.

Lord Vishwakarma is the engineer-architect god of the Hindu pantheon.

She has urged migrant labourers to come back and announced a dole of Rs 5,000 for each of them on returning to the state for a period of 12 months or till they get a job.

At a public distribution programme held in Jalpaiguri last week, Banerjee stated that around 24,000 migrant families have already returned to the state under her government's rehabilitation efforts. PTI SCH RG