'Panchayats dept schemes changed picture of rural Bengal'

Kolkata: The various schemes taken up by the Panchayats and Rural Development department have brought out sea changes in rural Bengal and earned the confidence and support of people, Subrata Mukherjee, the minister in charge, said in the Assembly on Friday.

Mukherjee said the misuse of the Panchayat laws by the Left Front had led to their downfall. "The laws had been made during Siddhartha Shankar Roy's regime when I was a Cabinet minister. The Left Front implemented the laws and got initial success. But later, the misuse of these laws brought down the LF government."

Commenting on the absence of Congress and Left Front MLAs in the Assembly, he said: "This is for the first time since 1952 when the first Assembly election of Independent India was held that there are no Congress and Left MLAs. The MLAS from Congress and Left Front were well conversant with the laws that govern the Assembly, but the present Opposition MLAs are ignorant about the laws and it is difficult to interact with them."