Industry, pre-requisite for society devp: Buddha

Krishnagar, May 20: West Bengal Chief Minister Budhhadeb Bhattacharjee today said industry was a pre-requisite for development of the society.

''It is true that we require peasants for development, but we also need industry for the development of the society,'' he aid while speaking at the inauguration of a Jana Kalyan Centre here.

He said '' In West Bengal, 20 per cent of the population live below poverty line, '' and asked the Municipality, Panchayats and NGOs to take an active part in their uplift.

In this context he pointed out that ''Out of the 30,600 villages in the state, people in 4,612 villages live in very poor condition.'' He said efforts were on to make these people benefit from the mid- day meals and books which are being distributed among the poor.

He informed that fifty-seven lakh women in the state have been successfully brought under the self-dependant category, he said.

He said cotton 'Tangail' sarees, woven in the district's Shantipur area, were being exported to foreign markets. Besides, attempts were also being made to export mangoes to the US, he said.

''We are also planning to export flowers from the Mullick Ghat bazar to Netherlands,'' he added.

UNI

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