The Mamata Banerjee government will hold the seventh edition of its flagship Duare Sarkar programme from September 1 with a special focus on registering names of lakhs of migrant workers across Bengal as part of a plan to prepare an official database of those working outside Bengal and abroad.

During a meeting with district magistrates and other officials, chief secretary H.K. Dwivedi on Friday said that the government's priority in this leg of Duare Sarkar is to ensure registration of migrant workers with all the details.

"Apart from over 30 different welfare schemes, the chief secretary asked all the block-level officials to spot the migrant workers or their families with the help of local gram panchayats first and ensure their visit to the nearest camp of Duare Sarkar. The state government wants to reach out to them or their families with special benefits and that's why the database is very important," said a senior state government official.

Though the detailed schedule of this fresh leg of Duare Sarkar has not been announced as yet, officials said it would be along the lines of the past editions and continue for about a month.

The state's move on the welfare of migrant workers started after chief minister Mamata Banerjee constituted the West Bengal Migrant Workers’ Welfare Board — a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country — in March this year.

A source said though the government had announced a slew of schemes for the migrant workers, the absence of an official database with details of that populace became a handicap in implementing the schemes.

A rough estimate prepared by district administrations during the lockdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the state has around 22 lakh migrant workers in Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Jammu and Kashmir, among others in India. Another five lakh go abroad, mainly to the Gulf countries.

A senior official, however, claimed that the number could be much more.

For the next round of Duare Sarkar camps the district magistrates have been asked to open a separate desk for the migrant workers. The officials deployed at the table will collect documents and information like names of the migrant workers, contacts, and details of his or her dependents including the names of the nominees who would get benefits in the absence of him, place(s) of work, etc.

"The panchayat members will be asked to verify the applicants to ensure all those are genuine migrant workers. Once the database is prepared, it would also go through scrutiny before sending the final list to the state government," said a district magistrate.

A source said apart from providing financial help to the family members of a migrant worker in case of death or permanent disability, the state government has planned to set up various round-the-clock assistance centres at different strategic locations in the country.

The staff deployed in those centres would keep in touch with the migrant workers working in the region.

The primary plan is to set up three such assistance centres in Delhi, Kerala, and Maharashtra to cover three sides of the country where most of the migrant workers go to work.