West Bengal Government Announces Pension Relief and Waives Fees for Digital Land Records

MP, July 4, 2026, Kolkata: The West Bengal government on Friday announced that it would release 50 per cent of the long-pending pension arrears of retired state government employees within this month.

In another relief measure, the state's BJP government scrapped authentication fees for obtaining digitally signed copies of land records and plot information.

The announcements came on a day when Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, addressing the inaugural session of a two-day orientation programme for newly elected members of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly at the New Town Convention Centre, said Bengal would once again lead the country and that his government was committed to restoring the state's past glory.

He also urged the newly elected legislators to work together to revive the state's democratic institutions and legislative traditions.

It was learnt that the state government would release the pension arrears for the period between 2008 and 2015.

The pension arrears will be directly credited to the bank accounts of the pensioners.

Speaking at the orientation programme, Adhikari alleged that the state's 34 years under the Left Front had crippled West Bengal and that the situation worsened during the subsequent 15 years of the Trinamool Congress government.

Stepping up his attack on predecessor Mamata Banerjee, he claimed the state had "never fared so poorly under any Chief Minister since Independence."

"For 34 years, everything happened according to the party office's directives. Nothing happened from the Assembly. What happened in the previous 15 years, I would not like to reiterate. The district officials and police officers often ignored elected representatives from the Opposition, and they excluded them from official government functions. Opposition MLAs were not invited to government programmes," Adhikari said.

"The Leader of the Opposition was not invited to any administrative meetings in the past five years. The LoP was suspended from Assembly proceedings five times. Out of 60 months, I was suspended by the LoP for 12 months," he added.

However, he softened his attack by saying that he does not intend to dwell on political criticism, and it does not feel good for a Chief Minister to go back in time and point out the previous governments.

He underlined that his intention was not to make political attacks but simply to place the facts before the first-time legislators.

"I will not say negative things, but I want to place the facts before you. Elections are about political contests. Governance is different," he added.

The Chief Minister also said MLAs from all parties were now invited to administrative meetings and Budget discussions.

"I call every MLA, including those from the Opposition, to my administrative meetings and Budget discussions. We are moving together. We want to make the state stand on its feet now," Adhikari said in the presence of the current Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Ritabrata Banerjee.

Recalling the Assembly's historic role during the Partition of India in 1947, he said the House had voted in favour of West Bengal remaining with India after Syama Prasad Mookerjee argued the case before legislators.

"Bengal's future was decided in this very Assembly. We must acknowledge that history and uphold its legacy," the Chief Minister added.

Meanwhile, in a parallel development, the Suvendu Adhikari government reduced the financial burden on citizens by waiving all application and authentication fees for obtaining digitally signed copies of land records and plot information online.

The decision, which came into immediate effect, was announced by Adhikari on Friday through a post on X.

"Our government is committed to ensuring that citizen services are transparent, hassle-free and easily accessible. I am delighted to announce today that we have officially waived the application fee (enquiry charges) that the previous government levied for obtaining Records of Rights (RoR) and plot information," Adhikari wrote.

The announcement followed a notification issued by the Department of Land and Land Reforms and Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation on July 2, amending the Bengal Records Manual, 1943, under powers conferred by Section 57 of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955.

People will now be entitled to receive a digitally signed copy of Khatian or Record of Rights free of cost.

No application fee or authentication fee will be charged, irrespective of the number of pages in the record, it stated.

It was also learnt that there are investment proposals worth Rs 2,100 crore in the state, with a new hosiery unit and a steel plant set to be established.