Major development in power, housing sectors in 10 years: Report card

Kolkata: Housing in both rural and urban sectors and the power scenario in the state have witnessed massive development since the Trinamool Congress government assumed power under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee in 2011.

According to the report card of 10 years' development that was released by the ruling party on Thursday, under the rural housing scheme Banglar Awaas Yojana as many as 33.87 lakh houses were constructed at a cost of Rs 39,009 crore from 12.78 lakh houses involving an expenditure of Rs 3530 crore.

The state Housing department has come up with 3.90 lakh houses in urban areas at an expenditure of Rs 3,350 crore. The Housing for All (Banglar Bari) scheme that is implemented by the state Urban Development department has witnessed the construction of 4.30 lakh houses with an outlay of Rs 720 crore.

"Housing is one of the principal components for ensuring a decent living for the people and our government has been committed to the same. The common people should check on their own the authenticity of the development presented through the report card and then cast their votes," Panchayats and Rural Development minister Subrata Mukherjee said.

The subsidised food grain has been provided to 9.5 crore people under Khadya Sathi scheme .

State Power minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said the budget in the power sector had seen 352.5 per cent growth with Rs 2497.29 crore allocation against Rs 551.80 crore in 2010-11.

The domestic as well as the industrial connection have seen reasonable increases. Presently over 2 crore domestic consumers have power connection from 85 lakh in 2010-11, registering a growth of 136 per cent. The industrial consumers now stand at 1,12473 against 81113 in 2010-11 (40 per cent growth).

"Opposition often alleges that industries are not coming up in Bengal so power consumption is not much. The figures speak for itself that such allegations are baseless,"said Chattopadhyay.

He maintained that the complaint of low voltage had been addressed through setting up of substations in different parts of the state. "In 2011, low voltage existed in 320 regions in the state. Now, we have brought it down to a meagre 24. As many as 843 substations have come up till March this year from 521 in 2010-11, registering a growth of 55 per cent," he added.

A total of 1,18,128 km of new rural roads were constructed. The Union government has also awarded the Bengal government for the same.