CM to lay foundation stone for Pathashree on March 28

Kolkata: The state government is working on a war footing to award work order for 12000-km rural roads with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee slated to lay the foundation stone for the Pathashree initiative, marking the beginning of construction and repair of rural roads on March 28 from Singur in Hooghly district.

Till February 25, work orders had been issued for 4795 schemes covering 5088.8 km involving an amount of Rs 1486.95 crore. The tender has matured for 5038 schemes covering 5474 km with a financial involvement of over Rs 1653.50 crore. Tenders have been invited for 7823 schemes of length 9778 km with an investment of Rs 3172 crore.

The total approved scheme, as per sources in the Panchayats and Rural Development (P&RD) department, has been for 8153 schemes, stretching over 10126 km at an expenditure of Rs 3282.75 crore.

The highest number of schemes that have been approved are in South 24-Parganas where 1738 schemes with roads of 1347 km length and an expenditure of Rs 482.66 crore have been approved.

The second in the list is Hooghly where 615 schemes of length 860 km with an expenditure of Rs 302.11 crore have been approved. In East Burdwan,..541 schemes of road length 867 km involving expenditure of Rs 316.67 crore have got approval.

The highest number of work orders has been awarded in South 24-Parganas for 837 schemes of road length 453.32 km worth Rs 152.82 crore. Hooghly is second on the list with work orders issued for 424 schemes involving 358.04 km rural roads with expenditure worth Rs 93.18 crore.

In North Bengal, Cooch Behar has the highest 360 sanctioned schemes of length 847 km with an expenditure of Rs 235.21 crore. Malda is second in this list with 289 schemes sanctioned with a road length of 271 km with a cost of Rs 84.06 crore.

The state government expects to award jobs to over 10 lakh job card holders of 100 days work in the Pathashree project. Over 10000 rural roads will be taken up under the scheme and for each road around 100 job card holders will be involved in such work.

The 100 days workers have been deprived of their due wages with the Centre not allocating a single penny for the 100 days work scheme. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on this issue and the State government has been urging the Centre umpteen times to release the money but the Centre’s step-motherly attitude has continued.