Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today issued a stern message to bureaucrats against negligence and tendency to pass on their work to juniors while asking departments to refrain from unnecessary expenditures and reiterating that the cash-strapped government will not take up any new projects except essential ones.

“Our own revenues have dipped due to the Covid situation. We lost Rs 22,000 crore due to the Yaas cyclone. Centre has reduced its share (of funds in many schemes). We are yet to receive over Rs 90,000 crore from the Centre. In such a situation we have to maintain restrictions. Refrain from spending outside budgetary allocations. No new schemes can be introduced without approval from the state chief secretary HK Dwivedi and the finance department. Only schemes that are important and essential should be taken up. Focus should be given on completing the ongoing projects instead of going ahead with new ones,” said Miss Banerjee while addressing the state administrative review meeting at Netaji Indoor Stadium.

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She said some senior officials pass on their work to junior officers, who in turn submit reports without checking the actual facts. “The DMs and SPs should give priority to the Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell. Providing services to people and catering to their complaints is our responsibility. Such lacunae and negligence would not be tolerated,” she said, adding that some principal secretaries work well but some don’t.

Annoyed at the banks for reluctance in giving loans under the Students’ Credit Card scheme, Miss Banerjee questioned whether there was any political reason behind it and yet again asked the state cooperation department to rope in the cooperative banks. “The banks should be informed that they are not doing us any favour by giving loans…. This is a government scheme, government’s money and the government is the guarantor but some banks are not cooperating. If required hold a state-level bankers committee meeting. We have to know whether there is any prohibition at the political level,” she said while directing to resolve the issue within 15 days.

Till now, 1.14 lakh students have applied under the scheme of which 14,000 applications have been approved and 25,000 have got provisional approval. She was also unhappy with the performance of West Burdwan district in construction of rural roads. “Why are you (West Burdwan district) lagging behind in everything? What is wrong?” she asked.

She asked the police and the health department to expedite the processes of filling up vacancies. Miss Banerjee asked ministers to regularly monitor work of their departments and look into proper implementation of the schemes adding: “releasing funds and holding melas were not enough”.

Emphasising on expediting work, Miss Banerjee questioned as to why the Dhano Dhanya auditorium was not completed even after eight years and added that the Biswa Bangla Mela ground was supposed to be ready by January but it has been deferred till March. She asked the state panchayat department to work well and said that districts namely East Burdwan and South Dinajpur are lagging behind in work.

Miss Banerjee said that Paray Shikshalaya classes would be organised by teachers for two hours from Monday to Friday for classes 5 to 7 and mid-day meals will be served after the classes. The ICDS centres would reopen after Saraswati Puja, she added. A total of 24 services have been included in the Duare Sarkar programme, which will be held from 15 February to 15 March