TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee takes initiative to promote his Diamond Harbour ‘model’ constituency

TMC National General Secretary and party MP Abhishek Banerjee interacts with medical staff during the inauguration of a free medical camp organised for the treatment of villagers of Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency, in South 24 Parganas on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Trinamool Congress MP, Abhishek Banerjee launched an initiative called ‘Sebaashray‘ to provide health care services to people of his constituency on the second day of the new year.

Under this initiative, there will be health camps across the seven Assembly constituencies under his Lok Sabha constituency for the upcoming 75 days. This comes as a move to strengthen his “Diamond Harbour model”. 

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While launching the initiative Mr Banerjee mentioned that on average there will be over 40-50 health camps in each Assembly Constituency. He added that every patient will get “free of cost medical treatment, free of cost medicine distribution, and every patient to receive a unique token ID following registration. We have also arranged a strong referral system, through which the patients will be referred to 12 hospitals.” They are also set to conduct free medical tests like BMI, blood pressure, diabetes, haemoglobin, malaria, dengue, ECG, triple serology, HIV, Hepatitis-B, and Hepatitis-C.

Around 1,400 doctors have been roped in for this initiative. The leader also claimed that each camp can cater to at least 6,000 people. 

He hit back at people who had questioned his previous “old-age pension” initiative and had called it a gimmick for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He said, “We have organised the Sebaashray and there are no elections this year. We don’t practice politics that swoops in during elections and settles temporarily.” 

Mr Banerjee had also previously organised the ‘Doctor on Wheels’ program and completed “100% vaccination in Diamond Harbour through a drive” as part of his initiatives for his constituency. 

Diamond Harbour ‘model’ 

The phrase ‘Diamond Harbour model’ was first coined during the COVID-19 pandemic when the leader who is in this third-term TMC MP from the constituency had organised 50,000 self-tests in a single day above the ones already provided by the Mamata Banerjee government. 

During this push to promote his ‘model’ constituency, Mr Banerjee and his party workers also claimed to have fed 3 lakh families and 14 lakh people during the pandemic.  

The promotion of the Diamond Harbour ‘model’ through various schemes and initiatives by the National General Secretary, and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, Abhishek, for the past few years has created ripples in the political circles of the State. With leaders of the opposition parties raising questions about why there is a need to launch separate schemes in Diamond Harbour when the State already has various schemes set in place for its people.