Minister unhappy with progress of projects under civic bodies

Kolkata, Feb 22 (PTI) Unhappy with the progress ofvarious development programmes under different civic bodies inWest Bengal, state''s Urban Development and Municipal AffairsMinister Asok Bhattacharya today claimed that allocated fundsof at least Rs 400 crore would remain unutilised.

"I am unhappy with the progress of various developmentprojects undertaken by different civic bodies in the state. Inmany projects hardly any work gets done. Officials of thecivic bodies also fail to attend important meetings despiterequests," Bhattacharya regretted talking to mediapersons.

Giving an example, the minister said that against anallocation of Rs 250 crore under the state project ''Housingfor Urban Poor'', Rs 75 crore was released. But the civicbodies spent only Rs 3.52 crore, he said.

Similarly, under the ''West Bengal Urban EmploymentScheme'' Rs 125 crore was released by the state governmentagainst an allocation of Rs 250 crore. But the civic bodieshave been able to spent only Rs 19.83 crore, Bhattacharyasaid.

Saying that 80 per cent of the civic bodies were runby the opposition Trinamool Congress and Congress, theminister said that "the opposition parties have to beresponsible for this failure for which the poor have beendeprived of getting benefits".

During the day, the minister held a video conferencewith the chairmen of different municipalities in the state totake stock of the progress of various ongoing projects. PTIAKB