Address drinking water crisis in the pockets: Mamata

Purulia: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee directed the district administration to address drinking water scarcity in some pockets in the region.

Addressing the administrative review meeting here on Tuesday afternoon, she said a project to augment drinking water at an estimated cost of Rs 1,100 crore has been taken up and it will be ready by 2022. Once the project is ready, the drinking water crisis in Purulia during summer will be a matter of the past.

She also asked the District Magistrate to prepare a plan to supply drinking water in the drought-prone areas.

"The District Magistrate should coordinate with other departments to ensure that people living in the drought-prone areas get drinking water in summer."

A Micro Small and Medium Enterprises and Textiles (MSME) park will come up on 25 acre of land at Hura. District Magistrate Alokesh Prasad Das said he had sent the proposal to the MSME department. The Chief Minister said plates from saal leaves have a bright future which can be kept at the Biswa Bangla store as well. She asked the mask maskers to reduce the size of the Chau masks that are being sold.

"People now stay in flats and if the sizes of the masks are reduced, then more people will buy them and use them as room decoration pieces."

Banerjee also asked the district administration to expedite construction on Kisan mandis and criticised the nationalised banks for not giving credit to the farmers. She asked the cooperative banks to come forward and bail them out.

The Chief Minister said Raghunathpur is coming up as an important trade centre as it is situated off the freight corridor. She warned that no attempt should be made to extort money from businessmen and said stringent action will be taken against those against whom charges of extortion will be proved. She urged people to lodge complaints with the administration against the extortionists.

"I want to make this point categorically clear that no ration shop owner or anyone else will keep the cards of the beneficiaries. They will keep their own cards as no one has the right to keep them in their possession," she said.

The Chief Minister also maintained that many development works have been carried out throughout Bengal and it is the duty of the administration and the Trinamool Congress to make people aware of them. "The BDOs should visit the ICDS centres and intensify public contact."

She urged the Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samity members to build contact with the people. "Those who want to do politics staying in their homes have no place in this party. Go out and talk to the masses, listen to their grievances and try to resolve their issues."