Mamata Banerjee on Monday kick-started her campaign for the rural polls with a public meeting in Cooch Behar district where she vowed to crack down on corruption in the three-tier panchayat system.

“You get benefits from government schemes and don’t need to spend a penny. If anyone asks for money to help you get benefits from any scheme, click the person’s photo and send it to me. I will take care of it,” the chief minister told the rally in Cooch Behar 1 block.

The Trinamul Congress chairperson then reeled off the social welfare schemes introduced by her government and claimed that the party had not nominated anyone who was found involved in corruption for the July 8 polls.

“Those who indulged in corruption have not been provided with party tickets. This time, the candidates were selected on the basis of the recommendations of ordinary Trinamul workers,” she said.

In the past few years, allegations of malpractices, nepotism and corruption were raised against several elected representatives of Trinamul across the state.

“This is one of the reasons for the introduction of Duare Sarkar where services were directly delivered to the public. The panchayat system was virtually kept out of the programme,” pointed out a source in the state administration.

After the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, as complaints of financial irregularities were levelled against the rural bodies, Mamata started distancing herself from the three-tier panchayat system.

After the BJP had won 18 of 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal in the 2019 general election, a grievance redress cell was activated in the chief minister’s office. The cell received more than 12 lakh grievances in the past four years and 98 per cent of them were resolved.

On June 8 this year, the state government introduced “Sorasori Mukhyomantri” where people could lodge their complaints through a phone call. In the past fortnight, around 5,000 complaints were lodged and most were resolved, said a source.

Senior officials said drives like Duare Sarkar and the round-the-clock grievance cell indicated that the government’s top brass had reservations about the functioning of rural bodies.

“The panchayat system should be for the government’s service delivery. If alternative initiatives were being taken to redress peoples’ grievances and provide benefits to them, it gives a clear hint that the other system is not functioning,” said a bureaucrat.

Mamata’s campaign on Monday was her first for panchayat polls in the past 10 years. The chief minister had campaigned for Trinamul in 2013, but she didn’t attend any political programme for the 2018 panchayat elections.

On Tuesday, Mamata will speak at a rally in Kranti of Jalpaiguri district. She is likely to address people in Jungle Mahal, East Midnapore and Birbhum, said sources.

Trinamul national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee will start his campaign in Nadia on Tuesday.

Additional reporting by Snehamoy Chakraborty