Paray Samadhan benefits at least 2 cr people in state

Kolkata: At least 2 crore people have been benefited by the Mamata Banerjee government's Paray Samadhan programme, which aims to address the elementary-level work with a mission mode approach.

In the one-and-a-half-month-long outreach drive, infrastructure, manpower, supply and services related issues at the grassroot level were addressed.

As many as 10,180 schemes related to community-level issues were implemented after receiving requests for the same through Paray Samadhan camps. About 8,415 infrastructure-related issues, 1247 supply and services and 518 manpower issues were addressed.

The infrastructure related issues included repairing of roads, installation of street lights, among other things. Works, including deployment of doctors at healthcare centres and appointment of conservancy staff, were carried out while addressing the manpower related issues.

In the supply and services sector, garbage bins were installed. Steps were also taken to ensure sufficient supply of drinking water. As many as 425 cases of posting of doctors and nurses besides addressing 93 postings related to other departments have been completed through Paray Samadhan programme.

According to a data released by the state government, there was involvement of Rs 720.1 crore for the schemes costing between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 50 lakh. For projects amounting less than Rs 5 lakh, Rs 95.5 crore was spent.

Thirty-nine departments of the state government worked in coordination to ensure implementation of 10,180 schemes in all the 342 blocks and also in the areas under 118 municipalities and seven Municipal Corporations.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee released a detailed report on Paray Samadhan and Duare Sarkar programmes on Monday. Highlighting the success of the country's biggest outreach drive — Duare Sarkar — Banerjee said: "100 per cent work of all the applications received through the camps have been ensured. Similarly, Paray Samadhan also helped in ensuring completion of the elementary-level works. The initiatives were taken up as extension programmes in 500 district-level administrative review meetings."

With the Chief Minister mooting the idea of holding Paray Samadhan camps to ensure delivery of services at people's doorsteps, the community-level needs were collected at the grassroot level in a participatory manner.

Subsequently, a feasibility and financial viability study was conducted through field visit for execution of the same in the next level under close monitoring by concerned officials. A high-level task force was also set up to implement the schemes with proper coordination with District Magistrates and Sub-Divisional officers.

The Finance department enhanced the vetting powers of field engineers for fast execution of the schemes. Inter-departmental synergies ensured timely "last mile delivery of services".

A dashboard was also created for impact assessment to take quick decisions and conduct mid-term corrections.