Minister criticises Centre for pulling up Bengal

Without naming BJP, Subrata Mukherjee, state minister for Panchayat and Rural Development on Tuesday criticised the party for pulling up Bengal for its failure to carry out rural development while in reality the Centre has given seven awards to the state acknowledging its work in the sector.

"They often criticise us for our failure to do rural development but the Centre has given us seven awards in recognition of our work in the field of rural development," Mukherjee said while talking to press this afternoon.

Mukherjee said the state government has bagged seven awards for successful implementation of various projects for rural development. Narendra Singh Tomar, Union minister for Rural Development handed over the awards to the senior officials of the state at a function at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on Monday.

Mukherjee said, after coming to power, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had given maximum stress on rural development. "There is no scope for complacence and we have go many more years and do more work," he said.

He said the people of drought-prone Bankura are getting filtered water like Kolkata and work will start to address the water-borne diseases. "The Panchayat and Rural development department is committed to give drinking water every rural household in the next couple of years, he maintained.

Of the seven awards, five are state level and two are district level awards. Nadia district has bagged the award for successful implementation of 100 days work under Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.

Cooch Behar district has got the award for Geo MGNREGA where photographs of the assets created under MGNREGA with latitude and longitude are uploaded to a portal. Central government officials then make an on the spot visit and then send a report to a committee for consideration for the award.

The state has bagged four state level awards. It may be mentioned that for the first time, a two-day Panchayat meet was held in Kolkata in January where the Chief Minister had rewarded the best districts in rural development. It has been decided that the conference will be held annually.