CM announces projects worth Rs 1136 cr for South 24-Pgns

Sagar Island: Besides taking a set of projects to promote the local produce including Joynagarer Moya, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced various projects worth Rs 1136 crore for South 24-Parganas.

Banerjee inaugurated 58 projects worth Rs 270 crore and laid foundation stones of 29 projects worth Rs 866 crore from the administrative review meeting of the district.

Rajesh Pandey, Principal Secretary of the MSME and Textile department, informed the Chief Minister that a list of 3000 SHGs has already been prepared and they would be involved to stitch the uniforms. Already 15 clusters have been set up with a target of 100 clusters in this fiscal. Already synergies for MSME sector have been organized for North 24-Parganas, Howrah, Bankura, West Midnapore, Jhargram, Nadia and East Burdwan with stress on respective focus sectors.

Banerjee directed all people's representatives from MLAs to pradhans of Gram Panchayats to be in touch with the administration to help the local people get the work of stitching school uniforms as state government would be providing everything starting from sewing machine, fabric and training to help them ensure a good earning for them.

Expressing her anguish over the activities of a section of officers of Land and Land Reforms department, she said that the corruption in the department would be brought to an end and senior officers only have to take necessary steps in this regard. The Chief Minister has also directed to set up a hub for Joynagarer Moya for which the state government has applied for a GI tag. A jaggery hub would also be set up and a textile hub at PPP mode is coming up at Metiabruz. Different places of South 24-Parganas including Gangasagar would also be promoted as tourism destination.

Atri Bhattacharya, Additional Chief Secretary of Fisheries department, informed the Chief Minister that 60,000 out of the targeted 85,000 applications for Matshyajibi Card have been distributed and 14,500 applications have been submitted. Around 6,000 are under the necessary process. She also directed to improve infrastructure for pisciculture in the district and to improve infrastructure of south Asia's biggest fish trading centre at Diamond Harbour.

Inaugurating 97 schemes worth Rs 782 crores to supply safe drinking water, Banerjee said that tap water connection to every household under Jal Swapna Prakalpa would be completed by 2024 and also directed to ensure that water pipelines are not damaged to use drinking water for the purpose of agriculture.