Civic body to launch eviction drive

 

COOCH BEHAR, Dec. 16: The Congress-run Cooch Behar Municipality is going to launch the second phase of the eviction drive in the town to make the streets and footpaths encroachment-free. The aim behind this plan is to restore the cleanliness and beauty of this heritage-town. The first phase of the drive was held about six months ago.

 

Chairman of Cooch Behar Municipality, Mr Biren Kundu said the civic body is getting ready to start the eviction drive within a few days. It will conduct the drive in association with district administration. The date of commencement of the drive will be announced after discussion with the district magistrate, he said.

 

During the eviction drive the civic body will clean up the encroached roadside drains, footpaths, unauthorised constructions and other places. It will be better if the encroachers leave after dismantling their unauthorised sheds voluntarily before launching of the drive, he opined.

 

Mr Kundu said unauthorised construction of different roadside sheds and shops came up again at many places that were cleared of encroachment a few months ago. These will be dismantled during the eviction drive and all the materials will be confiscated, the chairman declared. []

 

WBMOA conference

 

COOCH BEHAR, Dec. 16: The 73rd Cooch Behar district conference of West Bengal Ministerial Officers' Association (WBMOA) was concluded at Karmachari Bhavan in Cooch Behar today. State Co-ordination Committee's Cooch Behar district unit president Mr Pulak Kanti Biswas inaugurated the two-day conference yesterday. On behalf of WBMOA central leadership Mr Prabir Chakraborty and Mr Jiban Bannerjee attended at the conference where 250 delegates participated.

 

Mr Shyamal Bhaduri tabled the secretarial report. Six resolutions were adopted after discussions. In the secretarial report it was alleged that administrative officials are not sincere enough about attendance and punctuality and so it is still a residual problem in a section of employees. The bureaucrats are using rented cars, computers and telephones by spending government fund and they are engaged in furnishing official bungalows. This practice is affecting the work culture of the employees, the report says. []

 

NREGA : Poor performance in Cooch Behar

 

COOCH BEHAR, Dec. 16: Cooch Behar district received Rs 46.15-crore in three instalments since May of this year for employment generation to ensure job for 100-day in a year to rural people. The fund was extended under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). But, till now, Rs 8.9-crore only was spent in different employment generation schemes according to the latest NREGA progress report.

 

The poor performance of NREGA schemes has evoked sharp reactions from different quarters.

 

President of Cooch Behar District Congress Mr Shyamal Chaudhury termed the expenditure shown in the report as mere paperwork only. He alleged that rural people are yet to get the benefit from the NREGA schemes. The scheme has brought an opportunity to the ruling party to keep control over the rural unemployed people by luring them of jobs, he said.

 

The CPI-M controlled gram panchayats may use the fund before the ensuing three-tier panchayat elections to bring the rural voters to act for them. The huge fund extended by the Centre will be used to purchase votes, Mr Chaudhury alleged.

 

President of Cooch Behar District Trinamul Congress Mr Rabindra Nath Ghosh alleged that the NREGA plan lost its objective in this district. He alleged that large-scale corruption is going on over distributing of Job Cards. More than eighty percent people are yet to get their Job Cards. Mere possession of Job Cards cannot ensure getting of jobs. The CPI-M is controlling the whole matter. A CPI-M supporter can get fake Job Cards and it is also possible to get Job Cards on hire, he alleged.

 

Mr Ghosh also alleged that the cadres of ruling party are forcing rural people to give subscriptions to their party fund from the money received against working in any NREGA scheme. A large number of unemployed rural people are still leaving this district to seek jobs in outer provinces. Proper and corruption-free implementation of NREGA schemes may stop the outflow of the poor people, he opined.

 

President of Cooch Behar district unit of BJP Mr Nityananda Munsi demanded implementation of NREGA schemes in all villages to ensure jobs to the poor people. He sharply criticised the ruling party for making the process slow to get political mileage.

 

Denying political interventions in implementing of the NREGA scheme the district magistrate of Cooch Behar Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha said commencement of the scheme was delayed largely due to official formalities and documentations. The recent monsoon was also a factor to slow down the progress. At present the scheme is running smoothly, he claimed. Replying a question over corruption in issuing of Job Cards the DM assured that proper steps would be taken after receiving of any specific complaint.

 

  Sabhadhipati of Cooch Behar Zilla Parishad and also a secretariat member of district CPI-M Mr Jnanendra Chandra Chanda too claimed that monsoon was the factor that delayed the progress of NREGA scheme here. The villagers were busy in tilling or harvesting and so they did not come up to get the benefit of the NREGA jobs. Now, the situation is changing and it will turn to better within one month, he said. He turned down the allegations of the opposition parties that the CPI-M controlled panchayat bodies played a role to get political mileage from the Central scheme. []

 

Winter camp

 

COOCH BEHAR, Dec. 16: Special winter camp of National Service Scheme (NSS) of Tufanganj College is going to begin on Monday. It will be held in two phases. The student volunteers will participate in different social service activities during the camp. NSS programme officer Mr Kishore Kumar Chatterjee said the programme would end on 26 December. []