Mamata trains gun on Centre over zero dredging at Farakka Barrage

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday blamed the Centre for not carrying out dredging in Farakka Barrage for several years, despite repeated pleas from the state government.

She was addressing an administrative meeting in Murshidabad's Berhampore, where she asked Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha to take up the issue.

Banerjee pointed out that navigability of the barrage has been badly affected due to lack of dredging and added that adjoining areas often get flooded during heavy rain, as the barrage loses the capacity to hold water.

Senior state government officials who were present at the meeting told the Chief Minister that during a meeting in 2005, barrage authorities had said that they would conduct dredging from time to time. But unfortunately, dredging has not been done even once till now.

Banerjee also took stock of various development projects in the district. She pointed out that Bangla silks which are supposed to be developed in a similar line as Rajsahi silk of Bangladesh, are not up to the mark.

If the print of Bangla silk is improved, it would do great business as it is greatly popular among women, Banerjee said. The officials told her that a mega handloom cluster has been set up at Nabagram area, along with a dyeing unit.

The Chief Minister urged the officials to take necessary steps to improve the quality of silk.

She also took stock of the distribution of chicks among the villagers, which has been carried out with the involvement of various self-help groups.

Pointing out that the district has only been able to provide 51% coverage under Krishak Bandhu scheme with 2,51,000 farmers being enrolled, she instructed officials to ensure that it gets increased to 100%. As of now, 2,36,000 people have been provided with cheques under the scheme.

After taking stock of the situation of farmers in the district, she instructed officials to provide 100% insurance coverage to all farmers who are facing crop losses. On questioning officials of the Agriculture department, the Chief Minister was apprised that 2,26,327 people have been reached through various state government schemes in the district.

Meanwhile, Banerjee also instructed cooperative banks to provide assistance for Kharif cultivation. She said that each farmer should be provided a minimum of Rs 5,000 as loan. As of now, 2,66,000 farmers have been enrolled for the loan facility. She instructed bank officials to speed up the loan process.