Central team to visit 15 districts of Bengal to review progress of ongoing schemes

Kolkata: Secretary of the state Panchayats and Rural Development department P Ulganathan on Friday chaired a virtual meeting with the District Magistrates and asked them for cooperation and coordination with the Central team coming to Bengal on July 25 to review the progress of the ongoing schemes like Awas (housing) Yojana and Gramin Sarak (rural roads) Yojana that are being executed with funds shared by the state and the Centre.

According to sources, the central team will make separate visits to 15 districts of Bengal starting from July 25 till August 22. They will also take stock of the 100-day work programme.

Each of the central teams will visit at least four to six Gram Panchayats and two blocks where such joint schemes are being implemented.

South 24-Parganas, East Midnapore, Cooch Behar, Bankura, West Midnapore, Birbhum, Murshidabad, North 24-Parganas, Alipurduar, Purulia, South Dinajpur, North Dinajpur, Jhargram, Nadia and Kalimpong districts will be covered by them.

South 24-Parganas, Bankura, Birbhum and Kalimpong will be visited by July 30 in the first phase.

The rest of the districts will also be taken up within a specific schedule in the month of August. "Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has raised the issue of non-disbursal of funds under the Bangla Awas Yojana and the Bangla Gramin Sarak Yojana for the last few months on more than one occasion. Hence, the visit of the central team is significant," a senior Nabanna official said.

Recently, the Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj informed the state government of the central teams' visit to the state for a review of the schemes.

Principal Secretary of the state Women and Child Development department also joined virtually and asked the District Magistrates to constitute District Level Selection & Monitoring Committee for selecting the Sangha/Mahasangha, and hold its first meeting in regards to the standard operating procedure (SOP) for supplying food articles like masur dal, mustard oil and iodised salt required for Supplementary Nutrition Program (SNP) under Anganwadi Services, under the WBSRLM (West Bengal State Rural Livelihood Mission).

The DMs were asked to identify ICDS Projects (about 5 in each district) where this SoP can be piloted.

The SNP is meant for small children and pregnant and lactating women.