CM irritated over stalled projects

8 August 2012

biswabrata goswami
JHARGRAM, 8 AUG: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee rebuked the officials of the district administration and police in Belpahari for not implementing the development projects she promised after coming to power.
In a meeting with district officials to take stock of the situation of development projects for the tribals of Junglemahal, the chief minister said:
“Amra khubi birokto (we are irritated). Keno eisab kaj holo na (why these works were not completed), kabe habe (how long it will take to complete) and ki karan eisab kaj na hoar pichane (what is the reason behind the failure of these works)"
The chief minister brushed aside the officials' excuse of lack of infrastructure for stalled projects.
“We have lost patience now. Why the ration cards for the poor people have not been distributed? Why many poor people are being exploited from getting 100 days job?” she said.
Miss Banerjee asked the administrative officials to work with the police to implement projects in the rural fringes of Junglemahal.
Although the BDOs in the meeting said that 82 Madhyamik schools have been upgraded in the Jhargram sub-division, senior officials say the entire process was done without following the rules of school upgradation. 
The state planning and development department has  proposed to hand over the responsibility of monitoring the development projects in the area to the ill-equipped paschimanchal unnayan parshad (PUP) department, a senior administrative officer said.
A few months ago the department was allotted a sum of Rs 183 crore for the execution of the development projects but the officials didn't know how to utilise the funds.
According to the state's house-listing and housing census-2011, as high as 36.5 per cent of total households were found to be travelling more than 500 meters from their homes to get drinking water compared to 30.4 per cent of total households in 2001.
“This figure is obviously high when any one goes through rural fringes of Junglemahal. There are several areas in Belpahari, Banshpahari and Kantapahari where tribal people walk more than a kilometer to fetch drinking water,” said Mr Ashok Mahato, a social activist.
During the past one decade, the growth in number of such households has gone up by more than 11 per cent - helplessness has become more acute.