MillenniumPost
Bengal

State Panchayats dept shifts two of its buildings to curtail expenses

Kolkata: The state Panchayat and Rural development department is shifting two of its major offices to its own building, Mrittika, with a view to stop wasteful expenditure of almost Rs 1 crore a year.

This comes when the state exchequer has nosedived due to the nationwide lockdown and Bengal government has taken up several austerity measures. The move has been taken following instruction of the state Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee, who in a recent meeting directed all concerned officers to immediately shift the offices to stop wasteful expenditure.

The office of the Institutional Strengthening of Gram Panchayat Programme was housed at Millennium City IT Park with posh amenities at Salt Lake Sector V. Every month the state government had to pay monthly rent of Rs 5 lakh for the same, besides the other maintenance charge.

Similarly, the office of The Society for Training and Research on Panchayats and Rural Development (STARPARD) was housed in another rented building at Ultadanga.

The state government also had to bear an additional transportation cost in order to maintain a proper liaison between these offices and Panchayat Bhawan at Salt Lake Sector III that houses offices of most of the top brass of the department.

Following the direction of Mukherjee, concerned officials took immediate steps and started shifting the offices to the department's own seven storeyed building - Mrittika - that is situated at DD Block in Salt Lake's Sector I. It was named by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and inaugurated around a year ago.

The two offices are getting shifted to four floors of the building that already houses the office of another wing of the department - West Bengal Comprehensive Area Development Corporation (CADC) - in two of its floors.

"Why should we waste money when we have our own infrastructure ready that is necessary to set up both the offices. It will save Rs 5 lakh rent that we need to pay for our office at Salt Lake Sector V. Shifting of these two offices will help us to save at least Rs 1 crore per month that can be utilised for some other constructive work," Mukherjee said when contacted.

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