Previous board of Siliguri civic body failed miserably, says min

DARJEELING: Minister of State for Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Chandrima Bhattacharya, who is on a tour of North Bengal, without naming the CPI(M), alleged that the earlier board of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) had failed miserably. They had even deprived the underprivileged from the welfare schemes, the minister claimed.

Bengal has ranked first in the scheme "Banglar Bari" with a geo tagging score of 97.45. "This is a house for all scheme. However, the previous board of the SMC had not implemented the scheme here. This could be the reason for the points we lost out on the 97.45 score," stated the minister. She stated that as the state government was paying 67 per cent share of the Housing for All scheme and the Centre was providing the remaining 33 per cent, thus the scheme is called "Banglar Bari" in Bengal.

Bhattacharya pointed out that the previous board did not implement the "Shelter for homeless" scheme in the SMC area nor did they identify land for it. "This is a routine visit. The present board under Gautam Deb is doing fine. They have chalked out a plan of the way forward and have started implementing it. I have asked them to give stress on 100 per cent on vaccination and strengthening of Urban Primary Health Centres," added the minister.