Author: AITC

West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee her 3-day North Bengal tour today. She inaugurated a slew of projects for Siliguri-Jalpaiguri region at Bhaktinagar earlier today at 4 PM and then left for Kalimpong.

On September 2, the StateGovernment will hold a bipartite meeting with the GTA. The meeting will bechaired by the Bengal Chief Minister and senior officials including the Chief Secretaryof the State will be present.

On September 3, the Chief Minister willattend a programme organised by the Lepcha Development Council.

On July 17, during her last visit to theHills, the West Bengal Chief Minister inaugurated the Balason water projectfrom where drinking water would be supplied to Darjeeling. She also inaugurateda Safari park at Sukna near Siliguri, which is a project taken up by the stateforest department, which will come up over an area of 261 acres at a cost of Rs255 crore.

The Chief Minister said that the state government had written to the Centre for granting Scheduled Tribe status to 11Darjeeling hill communities. She also officially announced the formation of Tamang board. She assured that the drinking water problem in Kurseong would also be sorted out as work for a pipelined water project had been taken up.

The state Government is taking strictmeasures to implement the rules regarding attendance and punctuality ofteachers in government schools. It was found that in many schools rules werenot followed, so the government decided to implement them even more strictly.

The guidelines:

• It is compulsory for teachers to be presentin school between 10.35 AM and 4.30 PM

• Signing attendance register will not beallowed after 11.05 AM

• Three late-marks will result in deductionof one casual leave. If all casual leaves are exhausted, teachers will have togo for 'leave without pay'.

Incidentally, in the field of highereducation reforms are on too. The Calcutta University has started an onlinegrievance redressal mechanism on its website where students can lodge theircomplaints about any problem they might be facing in the institution.

The West Bengal Government is taking yetanother step to provide better service to the common people from the government'send. From now on, attendance details of state government employees will beavailable online. On a mouse-click any citizen will be able to find out theattendance of any government departments.

The step comes after the implementation ofAdministrative Calendar by the state government on January 1. TheAdministrative Calendar, which also is posted in Government websites, givesdetails of the projects undertaken by the government and their expected date ofcompletion.

Incidentally, a number of departments havealready started the usage of biometric scanners for attendance purpose. Thishas been done to make the employees come to office by the scheduled time. 

Thestate administration has decided to feed the same data of attendance in theinternet. The health department, which has already started the system atvarious levels, has been taken as pilot. Biometric attendance has alreadystarted in the Swasthya Bhavan atSalt Lake.

The State Government is also thinking onbringing change in the West Bengal Service Rule in case of attendance and punctuality.

State agriculture department has announcedworth Rs 14 crore compensation to farmers as cultivation of aman paddy (ricegrown in the wet season during June to November) was affected in Purulia andBankura districts due to lack of rain.

The decision for providing compensation tofarmers was taken during the visit of the state Agriculture Minister MrPurnendu Bose to Purulia district. He was accompanied by Principal Secretary ofagriculture department and Parliamentary Secretary (agriculture department) MrSubhasish Batabyal, who visited several blocks of Purulia and Bankura onFriday.

The minister said the state government willpay the affected farmers in several areas and will also help in cultivatingalternative farming. He also held a meeting with senior officials of theagriculture department, several panchayatpradhans, MLAs and asked them to encourage the farmers for alternativefarming. It has been learnt that deficit of rain in Purulia is above 22 percent and there was a rain deficit of 21 per cent in Bankura.

Paddy cultivation had targeted for morethan 3.86 lakh hectare of land in Bankura but above 2.95 lakh of land wascultivated for growing of aman paddy. Aman paddy cultivation had targeted for 2.72 lakh hectare of land inPurulia but above 1.78 lakh hectare of land was cultivated for sowing of amancrops.

The high commissioner of Malaysia to India,Datuk Naimun Ashakli Bin Mohammad, came down to Nabanna to meet West Bengal ChiefMinister Ms Mamata Banerjee on Friday. The diplomat had brought with him a10-member team to discuss investment opportunities in Bengal.

State Finance Minister Amit Mitra said thatthe Malaysian delegation had members from various sectors of industry and theyheld discussions on improving trade relations. They also tried to find outopportunities in Bengal.

Investment opportunities in various sectors

The Malaysian delegates discussed onimproving tourism sector and how they can be involved in the development of theinfrastructure sector.

The Chief Minister told them that theBengal government planned massive development in the infrastructure sector andthat she wanted to build 3,000 kilometres of state highways throughpublic-private partnership.

Dr Mitra said that the Chief Ministerrequested the Malaysian companies to come forward for building infrastructurein the rural parts of the state. The Malaysian team members also asked aboutopenings in education and housing sectors.

Follow-up meeting in September

Dr Mitra said that another team ofMalaysian industrialists will also visit Nabanna in September. He added that asthe Malaysian companies had expertise in developing infrastructure, they willdiscuss on infrastructure development, particularly in areas in rural Bengaland north Bengal.

The finance minister said that there wouldbe an industry meet called Bengal National Summit during the Biswa Banga Sammelan in the city inJanuary next year.

Interest in mono-rail

He said that a Malaysian company calledScomi, which built mono-rail in Mumbai, had already met the chief minister inSingapore and expressed their interest to invest in Bengal.

The high commissioner said that they werelooking for opportunities to invest in the state particularly in highway andhousing sectors. He also asked the people of Bengal for visiting Malaysia asthere is now direct flight to Kuala Lumpur from Kolkata daily at an affordablecost.

Sanjay Budhia, honorary consul of Malaysiain Kolkata who accompanied the high commissioner, said that he had taken aninitiative so that flights to Malaysia were not withdrawn from Kolkata.

Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee announcedseveral incentives and schemes for WBCS officers on Friday.

Addressing the annual general meeting (AGM)of WBCS (Executive) Officers' Association on the day, the Chief Minister rolledout goodies in ample measure and sent spirits soaring among the government officials.

The benefits include proposal of a housingcomplex in New Town, Rajarhat, setting up model schools for their children indistricts, provision of laptops for BDOs and career advancement opportunitiesamong others.

Incentives for outstanding work

The Chief Minister assured every effort toensure an upward mobility in their career graph, with the promise of promotionsand overseas training. Singapore, which recently played host to the ChiefMinister and was her first overseas stop in her quest to draw investment to Bengal,tops the list of proposed training venues for now.

The Chief Minister said that specialsecretaries with exemplary performance record would be considered for promotionas departmental secretaries with independent charge. The post, till date, hasbeen exclusive to IAS officers.

More WBCS officers in high posts

The state administration currentlycomprises 165 joint secretaries, up from 145 during the Left Front days. The ChiefMinister proposed to create 50 more joint secretarial posts, which isconsidered equivalent to the status of a district magistrate.

“Currently, we've just one officer postedas district magistrate, a post generally occupied by an IAS officer. The ChiefMinister has now proposed to promote two more officers of WBCS cadre asdistrict magistrates,” Sourav Chaki, general secretary of WBCS (Executive)Officers' Association said.

Promotions at regular intervals

He added that officers, who have been inservice for eight years, would now be considered for promotion to the post ofdeputy secretary and not assistant secretary, as is the norm currently.

As per the current practice, officers witheight years of service experience, are considered for promotion to assistantsecretary and those with 16 years of service under their belts are elevated tothe rank of deputy secretary.

The Chief Minister proposed setting up ofmodel schools on the lines of Kendriya Vidyalaya for the children of officersfrom the state civil service cadre.

The West Bengal Government on Friday decidedto take strict measures and stock up potatoes to keep situations normal duringthe three-day strike starting called by some traders.

According to a member of state cabinet, thestate will move strongly against the traders if the price of potatoes continuesbe on the rise. Since potato is an essential commodity, the state governmenthas the right to seize potatoes from traders and sell them to people at therate fixed by the government, the minister informed.

The state government came up with thisdecision after holding a high- level meeting on potato price crisis at Nabannaon Friday. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee presided over the meeting. Higherofficials of police's enforcement branch, agriculture minister and agriculturesecretary were also present at the meeting.

Meanwhile, the state government is procuringpotatoes directly from farmers and storing them in a government warehouses. Thegovernment will sell these potatoes to retailers directly to be sold in theretail market at Rs 14/kg, the price fixed by the government.

Supreme Court's verdict on theallocation of coal blocks, that came out on August 25, echoes the views expressed by Parliament's StandingCommittee on Coal and Steel. The committee first termed the allocations since 1993 as”illegal” in 2013.

“I am happy that Supreme Court upheld ourthinking,” Senior Advocate and Trinamool Chief Whip in Lok Sabha, KalyanBanerjee, the former Chairman of the standing committee on coal, said reactingto the Supreme Court's verdict on coal block allocation.

Housepanel vindicated

The committee under the chairmanship ofTrinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee also recommended cancellation of allotmentof all blocks where production has not started. There is much in common between the court's ruling and the panel'sobservations. The panel too had said all coal blocks were distributed in anunauthorized manner and there was no transparency in the process.

Toeing the line in the CAG's Coalgatereport – first reported by few media houses on March 22, 2012 – that theexchequer did not get any revenue from allocation, the House panel recommendedthat all personnel who have been involved directly or indirectly in the allocationprocess should be investigated for their role.

“All Coal Block allotted from 1993 onwardswere illegal, there was lack of transparency. Because of such allotments theGovernment did not earn a single paisa. All were given free. The conduct of theScreening Committee was not transparent. The Standing Committee recommendedthat the Coal Blocks where production has not yet started, the allotmentsshould be scrapped,” said Mr Banerjee.

Coalgateat a glance

• The CAG's Coalgate report, tabled inParliament in 2012, had said the government gave away windfall benefit of Rs1.86 lakh crore to private entities by distributing blocks without bidding.

• The draft of the CAG's report said thegovernment extended windfall gains of Rs 10.67 lakh crore to private andgovernment entities by distributing 155 blocks without bidding between 2004 and2009. 

• The final CAG report lowered the estimated windfall gains to Rs 1.86 lakhcrore by excluding the state-run companies and joint ventures with governmententities from the final report.

• In all 218 coal blocks were allocatedbetween 1993 to 2010 — 5 under P V Narasimha Rao government, 4 under H DDevegowda, 32 under Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and 175 under PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh.