Minister-in-charge for Panchayat and Rural Development (P&RD) Pradip Kumar Mazumdar today admitted that the reason behind the delay in implementing the central housing project in the state was the renaming of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojona as the Bangla Awas Yojona. However, speaking to reporters here, Mr Mazumdar said renaming of the housing scheme was childish. Asked to comment on the ongoing investigations by the central team in Malda district on the scheme, Mr Mazumdar said: “Let them investigate the matter.
” He also said: “My department would not investigate the matter, as the department has not yet received any complaint.” It may be noted here that the minister was here today to hold a review meeting with the district administration of North Bengal districts, except for Malda. The minister arrived at Mainak, a state government tourist lodge a bit late as his flight could not land on time at Bagdogra Airport due to bad weather conditions. On the issue of central funds meant for the 100 days’ job, Mr Mazumdar said: “There are several states which are allegedly involved in misappropriation of its funds in large scale, but the Centre has not yet stopped them.
But it has stopped funding here when the Centre said it detected irregularities on funds of Rs 4 crore meant for the 100 days job,” Mr Mazumdar said. The minister said that he was here to attend a review meeting to know about any problem in implementing state-sponsored schemes, following instructions from chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been asking the district administrations to implement those schemes as soon as possible so that needy people are benefited,” Mr Mazumdar said, adding, “My duty here is to resolve the problems and to expedite implementation of state sponsored schemes.” According to political observers, the objective of today’s meeting was to utilize funds before the financial year-ending (2022-23) and ahead of the forthcoming rural elections in West Bengal.