Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government and her party both continue "zero tolerance" on irregularities over distribution of relief among people who were genuinely affected due to Amphan.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) has issued show cause notices to more than a dozen of its leaders in districts, including Bankura, Burdwan and Hooghly, for their alleged involvement in irregularities over distribution of relief. At the same time the state government has given strict direction to all its officials at grassroot level to ensure that list of beneficiaries, has to be put up in the notice board of Block Development Officers' offices. The entire exercise has to be completed by July 2.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee gave a strong message that no partisan attitude in distribution of relief will be tolerated.
In Bankura, a show cause notice has been issued to former minister Shyamapada Mukhopadhyay. Show cause notices were also issued to Patrasayar Panchayat Samity's Sabhapati Parthapratim Singha and president of Trinamool Youth Congress of Taldangra block, Tapas Sur, in the district. TMC's district president Subhashis Batabyal said: "Show cause notices were issued to these three leaders and they have been directed to reply within 48 hours."
Allegations came up against Mukhopadhyay for distributing rice given by the party through an NGO run by his son. While allegations against Singha and Sur are of not properly distributing rice among authentic beneficiaries.
Show cause notice has also been issued to the deputy Mayor of Asansol Tabassum Ara. Two councillors of Asansol Municipal Corporation - Baby Khatun and Shankar Chakraborty - are also in the list of the leaders. Similar steps have been taken against the party's workers' union's leader Prabhat Chattopadhyay against whom allegation of not depositing Rs 20 lakh in the Chief Minister's COVID-19 relief fund that he had collected from people for the same.
Similarly, show cause notices were also issued to three more leaders of East Burdwan including Iftikar Ahmed, who is the INTTUC's president in the district. TMC has also issued show cause to the party's head of Arandi-I Panchayat at Arambagh in Hooghly after receiving a complaint from Panchayat Pradhan of Panchla in Howrah Mujibar Rahaman alleging that 80 per cent names in the list of beneficiaries are fake. Arup Roy, Howrah district's party president, said: "No one will be spared if his or her involvement is found in irregularities over distribution of Amphan relief."
On the other hand, the state Disaster Management and Civil Defence department has issued an order stating that "a simple paper application (by a genuinely affected person) would be treated as a valid application for consideration. An organised application process on pre-printed form should not be encouraged...Each application shall be physically verified and rectified by the Task Force created at the block level before disbursement of denial."
The state Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha has directed all the authorities of the Amphan affected districts to complete the entire process by July 2. The same has also been mentioned in the Disaster Management department's order also.