By TCN News,
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee has decided to set up a separate department that will exclusively look after six North Bengal districts. Four of the six are MCDs (Minority Concentration District) of Category ‘A’ – it means they have both socio-economic and basic amenities indicators below national average.
The West Bengal CM disclosed it at the Annual Plan outlay meeting with Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia on 22nd June. The Annual Plan outlay for West Bengal for the year 2011-12 is Rs. 22,214 crores.
Earlier Mr Ahluwalia said the State needs to accelerate growth and make it more inclusive. He said the focus of the development initiatives should be health, education and employment generation.
In her response on the development strategy, Ms Banerjee said that focus would be on faster and more inclusive growth on sustainable basis. Better opportunities for employment and income generation would be created. Delivery of services would be improved and emphasis will be on development of Micro-small and medium enterprises.
She also said that a separate Department for the Development of North Bengal would be set up which will exclusively look after six north Bengal districts. Priority would be on implementation of flagship programmes for accelerated poverty alleviation, improved sanitation and universalization of education and health services.
The six districts of North Bengal are: Malda, Dakshin Dinajpur, Uttar Dinajpur, Koch Behar, Darjiling and Jalpaiguri. The first four are MCDs.