After almost a six-month gap Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to visit the districts to hold administrative meetings. Her district tour will begin with visits to North Bengal towns where the Chief Minister will take stock of situations, officials at State Secretariat Nabanna said.
The resumption of Banerjee’s administrative meetings amid corona crisis comes in the backdrop intensified movements on the part of principal Opposition party BJP.
The Chief Minister will reach Siliguri on September 21 where she will stay for a night before holding meetings with district officials of Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri districts at “Uttarkanya” building which is the second secretariat of the State.
After meeting officials there she would the district authorities of Darjeeling, Coochbehar and Kalimpong before returning to Kolkata on September 24, sources said.
Soon after coming to power Banerjee had started regular administrative trips to district headquarters taking along with him respective ministers, and secretaries. During administrative meetings she would confront local authorities and evaluate their progress report on various pending projects. Besides she would also meet local people to take feedbacks from them.
The formula had yielded results with the effect that projects were speedily completed.
Banerjee had held an administrative meeting out of Kolkata for the last time in the month of March when she visited Malda. Subsequently with the outbreak of corona pandemic the programmes had to be halted.
On whether corona protocols would be compromised in the crowded meetings in the district a senior official said “all precautions are being taken.”
Meanwhile, pooh-pooing the resumption of administrative meeting State BJP leader Sayantan Basu said “such eyewashes would hardly yield any result because the people have already made up their minds to throw out this Government… We had said that in 2019 we will make them half and we have done that by reducing the TMC to 22 out of 42 seats … Now we have promised to make them ‘saaf’ (clear them out) and we will do that with the help of the people. No amount of administrative meeting will help.”
Bengal Minister Partho Chatterjee however said “The victory of 2019 has gone to BJP’s head and in the past one year they have shown their metal to the people. Now they have once again made up their mind because they know that their future lies with Mamata Banerjee and not the communal party like BJP.”
Meanwhile, the State BJP had decided to stage a Nabanna march on October 6, party sources said adding the march will be organized to raise a number of issues including corruption, syndicate raj, falling law and order situation etc.
