The implementation of the ‘100 days work' scheme in West Bengal had become a poll issue during the last parliamentary and assembly elections as had some other Centrally-funded rural development projects. But despite a change in government in the State, little seems to have changed on that front ultimately leading to a somewhat hurried shunting out of a Minister from his Department.
The decision taken by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to divest one of her Ministers of his portfolio on Monday is being linked to a letter received last week from the Centre that may just have precipitated matters.
The Union Rural Development Ministry has expressed its dissatisfaction on the pace of rural development project implementation and a letter written to ‘Mamatadidi' by Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, is believed to have hastened the divestment of erstwhile State panchayat and Rural Development Minister Chandranath Sinha of his portfolio while harnessing to the job a veteran like Subrata Mukherjee, presently the Public Health Engineering Minister and also a former senior Congress leader.
Letter
Addressing the Chief Minister as ‘My dear Mamatadidi,' Mr. Ramesh, in his letter dated December 24, said that loans being given by the multilateral funding agency, the Asian Development Bank, for development of rural road network, are getting delayed due to the tardy style of functioning of the West Bengal State Rural Roads Development Agency (WBSRRDA).
Some of the pending work covers the districts of Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia affected by Maoist activities and in view of the substantial backlog that West Bengal has in several rural sector projects including roads, the Union Rural Development Ministry had offered to increase the length under the Prime Minister's Gram Sadak Yojana length from 500 km to 1000 km.
However, a review done last week revealed that the WBSRRDA had been able to prepare a detailed project report for only 72 km. Highlighting this in his letter, Mr. Ramesh said: “Moreover the programme implementation consultant is also yet to be appointed . This is delaying the process of signing the ADB loan…”
The Central Minister sought the Chief Minister's personal intervention to direct WBSRRDA to expedite preparation of DPRs for 1000 km under the ADB loan.
In the case of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) too, Mr. Ramesh said that despite availability of funds, the State had not been able to generate employment as projected in its own official documents and crores of rupees lay unutilised. “The State government needs to make efforts for optimum utilisation of this unspent amount against meeting the demand for works under MGNREGA in various parts of the State,” Mr. Ramesh had said in a letter sent on November 30.
A review on MGNREGS implementation done in November found that West Bengal was lagging in all aspects of implementation of the flagship scheme.
Mamata's assurance
On her first day in office, Ms. Banerjee had announced her resolve to address issues relating to the 100-day work scheme and issuance of Below Poverty Line Cards saying that if people were forced to sell their babies for money then there was a serious need to address the problem.
She subsequently put Mr. Sinha in charge of rural development and panchayats but it was widely known that she was not happy at the pace of work.
A Cabinet reshuffle is in the offing next month. However, the sudden change caught most by surprise. Ms. Banerjee was also reluctant to talk about it, merely confirming the news in response to specific queries in this regard.
