Mumbai: Amid the rising political mercury ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections, more than 2,000 members, including NRIs, management professionals, IITans, those from IIM, economists, doctors, social entrepreneurs, and domain experts from various Indian cities and from over 15 countries, including US, UK, UAE, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, several Middle East and European nations and Indian and foreign universities, are working together on an “apolitical” mission: #LetsChangeWestBengal. Their mission involves studying and analysing the problems at the grassroots problems in the state with a proper synthesis and logical roadmap of reforms to solve those problems and bring back Bengal to its glorious past.
The mission recognizes that Bengal was once the torch-bearer of ancient wisdom, resolute character and integrity and lost her way during the “transitional era of Indian democracy”. Bengal was the guiding force for the country once and has now lost her sheen with “transitional experimentation of various ideological efficacy”. Kanchan Banerjee, a healthcare expert from Boston, has been working on the idea of transforming Bengal since 2019 and had founded the apolitical, non-profit organization “Bangla Abar” under which now the #LetsChangeWestBengal mission exists. “Since 2012-13, we wanted to work on several projects on water resources, technology, creating more employment in the state, especially in areas where the unemployment rate is 40%, but there wasn’t much response and encouragement from the government in West Bengal. This pushed me to come up with this idea of creating a roadmap and working on problems of Bengal so that whichever party wins and supports us, we would work for Bengal’s betterment,” convenor and founder Kanchan Banerjee said. The work involves working with experts and a vast number of regular volunteers on the ground to know and document the problems and challenges facing Bengal. The mission involves research to find out “where Bengal went wrong”. The team of global experts and other key personalities are working on multiple fronts as part of the mission: to make the state debt-free as currently, the debt stands at more than Rs 5 lakh crore; bring about a better law and order situation in the state; usher in the best healthcare and education facilities, among other aims.