Surge of development in Nadia district

Surge of development in Nadia district

Posted on November 23, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who visited Nadia district today, launched several projects for the people of the district.

She addressed a public meeting at Tehatta, where she inaugurated and laid the foundation stones for a bouquet of projects.

The projects WB CM inaugurated today include road projects, water suppy projects, several health care projects including multi super speciality hospitals for Nayagram and Barjora, new buses for the districts, administrative buildings, bridges, new equipment and godown for sericulture institute among others.

The West Bengal Chief Minister laid the foundation stones for road and irrigation projects, renovation of administrative buildings, a mini indoor stadium, godowns among other things.

The CM also distributed several services including cycles to students under Sabuj Sathi scheme,benefits under Tant Sathi scheme, Kanyashree, Yuvashree, Sikshashree, equipments to fishermen, Kisan and artisan credit cards, different agricultural machineries and equipments, pattas, saplings and a host of other such services.

New avenues in transport: New bus services for districts

Posted on November 23, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee launched new bus services for the districts today during her visit to Tehatta, Nadia district.

The Chief Minister flagged off 17 buses along 6 new routes at today’s function.

In the next one month, the West Bengal Government will introduce a fleet of 100 buses across districts. The routes have been decided via scientific reasoning. CTC will be operating these buses, which have all been bought with funds from the state government.

The services will benefit four districts around Kolkata – Howrah, Hooghly, North 24 Parganas and Nadia.

Gangasagar Mela to go green in 2016

Posted on November 20, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Ganga Sagar Mela next year would be declared Green Mela where sanitary toilets would be provided for all pilgrims, South 24 Paraganas district magistrate P B Salim said.

10,000 sanitary toilets would be set up for the mela, which attracts lakhs of pilgrims from across the country.

He said the pilgrims would be made aware of the demerits of open defecation at various stages of their journey right from the city to Sagar Island, where they take the holy dip on the occasion of Makar Sankranti.

Referring to the situation in the district vis-a-vis sanitation, he said the model set by Nadia, declared a total sanitation district, would be followed though South 24 Parganas had a much larger population.

“Next year on Gandhi Jayanti we plan to declare South 24 Parganas a total sanitation district. For this we are involving people from all sections – students, Anganwadi and Asha workers, SHGs, NGOs besides religious heads,” he said adding at present there are no sanitary toilets in at least seven lakh households in the district.

The government will provide Rs 10,000 for each toilet built and the beneficiary would pay Rs 900 or provide labour. In West Bengal 40 per cent of the people have no sanitary toilets at their homes compared to 58 per cent in the country.

Toilets for all: Bengal shows the way

Posted on November 19, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Today being the World Toilet Day, the West Bengal Government is committed towards Open Defecation Free status for the State by October 2019. Within 2015-16, districts like Uttar 24 Parganas, Purba Medinipur will be free from open defecation. Hoogly and Bardhaman will be free from open defecation by 2016-17.

Nadia, Bardhaman, Hoogly feature among the top four districts in the nation, in terms of toilets constructed in the last 2 years.

In the last 2 years, 11.92 lakh toilets have been constructed in West Bengal. In Nadia more than 2.42 lakh toilets have been constructed, in Bardhaman more than 1.5 lakh toilets have been constructed and in Hoogly more than 1.1 lakh toilets have been constructed. Nadia district was shortlisted for the United Nations global award for public service. Currently toilets have been constructed for 100% of the houses in Nadia district.

In the last 2 years, 11.92 lakh toilets have been constructed in West Bengal.

“The state has registered the highest progress in the country with 8.47 lakh new household toilets in 2014-15. In record time, Nadia district could reach out to all the households and construct more than 3.47 lakh toilets to ensure that everyone in the district has got access to sanitation,” the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.

The allocation has been proposed to be increased to Rs 8500 Crore in 2015-16 Budget, from the existing Rs 7460 Crore of 2014-15.

UNICEF all praises for Nirmal Bangla Mission

Posted on November 6, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Bengal will become completely open defecation free by 2019, a delegation from UNICEF led by Chief of Section for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sanjay Wijesekera was told by West Bengal government.

Representatives of UNICEF on Thursday held a meeting with the State Minister for Panchayat and Rural Development, Subrata Mukherjee where they were shown a presentation on Nirmal Bangla Mission.

The delegation from UNICEF was impressed by the progress of Nirmal Bangla Mission. Mr Wijesekera assured full cooperation to West Bengal government in this regard.

Subrata Mukherjee said, “Not only Bengal, Nadia is the first district in the entire country to be declared open defecation free. Several districts like Hooghly, North 24 Parganas, West Midnapore have performed exceptionally under Nirmal Bangla Mission. These districts have almost achieved their targets.”

“We have taken the initiative to build toilets in every household. We are discouraging people from open defecation should awareness campaigns. This will usher in a social revolution,” he added.

A booklet and music video on Nirmal Bangla Mission was launched by Subrata Mukherjee on the occasion.

Biswa Bangla stalls to showcase lost and forgotten art of Bengal dollmaking

Posted on October 28, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Biswa Bangla stalls will now showcase lost and forgotten art of dollmaking in the State.

A total of 27 genres of Bangla dolls, including rare ones, such as Bonga elephants of Sandra (Bankura), animal dolls from Belia (West Midnapore) and Shiva head of Nabadwip (Nadia), have been brought together at the state-run handicraft retail chain.

Some of the dolls are so rare that only one or two families in the entire state make them now. With the market for these dolls going down, most artisan families have stopped making dolls.

The Shiva Head of Nabadwip is now made only at the time of Basanti Puja, to mark the mythological wedding of Shiva and Parvati. The local artists create colourful masks of Shiva. Unlike terracotta figures, which are baked in ovens, these dolls are dried in the sun. The masks, once painted, are then taken door to door to collect money for the ritual. These artisans make dolls only during Chaitra.

The Biswa Bangla authorities are trying to present the different dolls to the connoisseurs in India and abroad. We have already seen a good demand at our London store. We are also coming up with miniature dolls, along with a short history for them. This makes for an excellent collectors’ item.

It took six months to find some of the rare dolls. The Bonga elephants are not made anymore. They were made by tribals in Bankura, and were dedicated to the Santhali deity, Singh Bonga, at a place called Zaher. In some cases, artistes were convinced to revive their art. The figurines need to have utility too. We assured them a good price and a market too. The unique feature of the elephant is its round shape, nowhere found in other dolls. Animal dolls of Belia have unique features and incorporate semi-circular shapes of the ears. The elephants of Belia are different from other genres with their long round trunks and large ears.

Mamata brings ‘toilets for all’ plan to the Sunderbans

Posted on September 29, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

After making Nadia the first ‘open defecation free’ district in the country, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is all set to implement the Sabar Shouchagar (toilets for all) model in the Sunderbans, a UNESCO world heritage site.

The Sunderbans, a tourist hub, has been declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO for its rich biodiversity and is a home to the famed Royal Bengal Tiger.

Located in South 24-Parganas district of West Bengal, it is a vast area covering 4,262 sq km including a mangrove cover of 2,125 sq km in India alone, with a larger portion in Bangladesh.

The district administration of Kolkata’s adjoining South 24-Parganas has embarked upon the project by selecting 13 out of 29 blocks for the cleanliness drive.

“We have selected 13 inaccessible rural blocks of the Sunderbans region to transform them into open defecation free areas. Slowly, we will also work in other 16 blocks,” South 24-Parganas district magistrate said.

“We have also decided to make Sagar Island an open defecation free area by January, before the Ganga Sagar Mela. In 2007, when I was an additional district magistrate here I had thought of implementing it. This time, we have been able to do that successfully,” the district magistrate said.

He further said that this time the Sagar mela (to be held early next year) will be a completely plastic-free zone as well.

“Understanding the importance of eliminating open defecation, we had decided to accord highest priority to sanitation. We built about 3,55,609 toilets in Nadia over a period of time”, said Salim.

The district leadership of Nadia also took a collective decision on October 2, 2013 and launched an innovative Sabar Shouchagar movement.

The district ensured 100 percent sanitation coverage by March 2015. Later, the model was taken up by the state government for implementation in each and every district.

Published on Daily Mail dated 28 September 2015

Nadia, North 24 Parganas to be arsenic-free by next year: PHE Minister

Posted on September 1, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

West Bengal Government has taken initiative to make the districts of Nadia and North 24 Parganas arsenic-free by next year. Out of the 83 arsenic-affected blocks in the state 38 are in these two districts.

State Public Health Engineering Minister Subrata Mukherjee said the measures are being taken to complete the work by next summer. By this time, all the blocks in these two districts could be connected with pipelined arsenic-free drinking water. The PHE Dept is also working on making the ground and surface water arsenic free.

The PHE dept has allotted Rs 561 crore for the 17 blocks of Nadia district and Rs 738 crores for the 21 blocks of North 24 Parganas in this purpose.

Eight districts of the State have arsenic-related problems. The Government has given maximum importance to fight this cause.

The prime responsibility of the PHE Dept is to supply pipelined drinking water to all the villages and fight arsenic-related problems, the PHE Minister said.

Bengal Govt to e-auction land for Analytics City in Kalyani

Posted on August 18, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

The West Bengal government will next month hold an e-auction for bidding of land to set up an analytics city early adjacent to Kalyani Township in Nadia district in association with the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCC&I).

Speaking at Round Table Meeting with the stakeholders of the ambitious project, organised by the BCC&I, state Urban Development Principal Secretary Debashis Sen said the government would soon publish an advertisement inviting “Request For Proposal” (RFP) from those willing to participate in the tender process.

“After finalising this process, the state government will proceed for bidding of land through e-auction early next month to develop the “Sammriddhi-Kalyani Analytics City,” Sen said.

The project, one of the six smart cities of the state based on various themes, had received special mention in the meetings of the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her recent visit to London.

With an investment of Rs 3,000 crore, the project would come up in about three years on 52 acres offered by the state government to develop the city.

The article was first published by PTI

Nadia only district from India to be awarded the United Nations Public Service Awards

Posted on July 4, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee announced on social media that the district of Nadia is the only district in the country to be awarded the the prestigious United Nations Public Service Awards this year for excellence in delivery of public services for “Sabar Souchagar” under Mission Nirmal Bangla.

The West Bengal Chief Minister on social media wrote:

“Nadia is the only district from India to have been awarded the prestigious United Nations Public Service Awards this year for excellence in delivery of public services for “Sabar Souchagar” under Mission Nirmal Bangla.

This is the highest global recognition in public service delivery.

In a programme at Columbia, South America, Dr P B Salim, District Magistrate, Nadia and Shri Bani Kumar Roy, Sabhadhipati, Nadia Zilla Parishad received the coveted award and citation from Acting Secretary General of the United Nations on 26th June, 2015.

I am proud of my entire Nadia team for this outstanding achievement. My best wishes to all of them.”