After coming to power, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has made extensive efforts for the overall development of Jangalmahal. In her bid to develop this Maoist-affected region, she has also constituted a monitoring committee, headed by the chief secretary to review the implementation of various schemes and projects.
However, surprisingly, this committee has not met for more than five months. This failure may prevent the implementation of the development projects in a time-bound manner.
According to sources at the Writers’ Buildings, since being constituted in 2011, this committee which comprises of 16-17 departmental secretaries met at least once in a month to review the progress of projects as announced by the chief minister for Jangalmahal. The meeting was convened by state agriculture secretary Hirdyesh Mohan who was also the nodal officer of the committee. In January 2012, the chief minister relieved Mr Mohan of this responsibility and appointed state planning and development secretary Jaya Dasgupta as the nodal authority of this committee. “Since then no meeting of the monitoring committee has been held. Hence, monitoring of the implementation of the projects could not be possible. We fear that this will jeopardise the initiative of the chief minister who has made the overall development of Jangalmahal as her top priority,” a departmental secretary said on condition of anonymity.
On being contacted, Ms Dasgupta claimed that she was reviewing the schemes with officials of all related departments twice every month. “The chief secretary does not find time for the meeting, hence I interact with the officials to review the progress of schemes and projects in Jangalmahal. Only two days ago, I chaired a meeting. I submit the report to the chief minister on a regular basis. Schemes are being progressing well and lot of work orders have been given already,” she said.
A senior officer, however, refused to buy the argument that the chief secretary did not find time for the meeting. “Being the nodal authority of this committee, Ms Dasgupta is responsible to convene the meeting which is supposed to be chaired by the chief secretary. She did not convene any meeting of the monitoring committee for the last several months. Chief secretary is the head of the administration and there are so many issues which needs inter-departmental coordination which only chief secretary can handle. Large number of schemes are pending,” the officer elaborated.