West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (PTI File) A day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stressed on how the shortage of funds is impacting government work during an administrative review meeting, West Bengal Chief Secretary Harikrishna Dwivedi Friday directed district magistrates to return any funds that were allotted to districts before March 2021 but are currently lying unutilised.
Dwivedi was addressing a meeting with district magistrates and police superintendents on Friday at Nabanna, the headquarters of the state secretariat in Kolkata.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary asked the DMs and SPs to look into additional revenue streams that could boost state coffers. He talked about how the government’s plan to operate truck terminals at state borders and collect parking and other charges will help in increasing revenue. “The government will take over collection of revenue at truck terminals in selected districts like Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Malda, North 24 Parganas. The decision was taken to increase the revenue of the government,” he added.
According to sources, the Chief Secretary has instructed DMs to give priority to applicants from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes while building houses under the ‘Bangla Awas Yojana’ — the state government’s flagship rural housing scheme.
He directed administrative officials to encourage more men to form self-help groups and train them under the ‘Utkarsh Bangla’ project. The ‘Utkarsh Bangla’ project aims at creating a pool of skilled candidates that are industry ready.
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