November 9, 2009

1600 crores for Maoist-hit districts

KOLKATA,4th November,2009: The state government plans to spend Rs 1,600 crore in this financial year for the development of the three maoist affected districts West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia, even though officials conceded that they were facing much difficulty to implement development works in the three districts according to plans.
Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will hold crucial meetings in West Midnapore on the prevailing law and order situation and will make a review of development schemes this this weekend. Going by the government claims, the CM has a tough task cut out for him. For a bounty of Rs 1,600 crore spread over four months before March 2010 means spending Rs 400 crore a month for the three districts that works out to a little above Rs 130 crore for each district. However, state officials are still not sure how to spend this huge amount when block level officers fear to tread in the Maoist-dominated villages.
A little arithmetic explains how difficult is the job spending Rs 4.2 crore a day in each of the districts. Sources in the CM's secretariat said that the government plans to execute development works. "The fact that the block level officers were facing difficulty came up during the last review meeting," a senior official said. Fact is that the task force of government officials set up to spearhead development work has submitted a plan to build civic infrastructure in these remote places. But the implementation met with a jolt due to Maoist disruption.
The CM will hold three meetings in West Midnapore on November 7 and November 8. The first meeting would be on the prevailing law and order situation with the district SP. The second meeting will be with the district magistrates, superintendent of police of the three districts where law and order situation and development schemes would be reviewed. The third meeting would take place on November 8 where the chief minister would meet the BDOs of some of the sensitive blocks of West Midnapore.

No comments: