Upcoming polls should not hit development works: CM

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said the development works, which were already sanctioned, should not get hampered or delayed due to the upcoming Assembly elections. 

The Chief Minister held the last administrative review meeting before the Assembly elections in which she acclaimed that most of the departments performed more than 100 per cent.

The administrative review meeting held at Town Hall where ministers of all the departments and secretaries were present. 

She said the Centre has stopped funding many projects. 

“Despite such situation when the Centre has stopped funding the projects and taking away huge money as there was a debt of the erstwhile Left Front government, we have allotted fund for the projects to keep those running as people of my state are getting benefitted out of those projects. 

From the Centre, we have not received funds worth Rs 10,000 crore. We have given Rs 14,000 crore to complete the projects. The Centre had deducted more than Rs 1 lakh crore from the state government,” she said. 

She said the elections date might be declared by the end of February or the beginning of March. 

“But the development work out of which the people will get benefitted should not stop,” she said, adding that the social-economic development is a continuous process and it should continue following the necessary norms. 

Banerjee said the state government officials including the district magistrates will get involved in the elections but at the same time the development work should continue side by side. 

“I feel proud that most of the departments have performed well. Most have performed more than 10 per cent,” she said.  

Benerjee said there were 103 administrative meetings so far and officials including block development officers were present at the administrative meetings which started after the change of guard in the state in 2011. 

Now everybody is working and helping people to get more benefit. Housing Department and Animal Resources Development Department have topped the performance card. Both the departments’ performance was 130 per cent each. Second in the list is the Forest Department with a performance of 126 per cent. 

The Agriculture Department’s performance is 123 per cent, Women and Child Development Department’s performance is 121 per cent and Health and Family Welfare Department recorded 119 per cent performance. 

Most of the department’s performance was more than 100 per cent, but performance of departments including tourism, food processing and Consumer Affairs Department are under 100 per cent.