The Nadia zila parishad, which bagged the first place in implementing the Centre’s projects in villages, won laurels from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday. Mamata presided over a meeting of zila parishad sabhadhipatis and district magistrates at the state secretariat to review the performance of zila parishads. In the chief minister’s report card on zila parishads, six districts — Nadia, North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, Burdwan, Hooghly and East Midnapore — have bagged top positions in implementing schemes like NREGS, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, Indira Awas Yogna, etc. On the other hand, zila parishads of Coochbehar, North Dinajpur, Bankura, Jalpaiguri and Siliguri Mohukma invited Mamata’s wrath for their poor performance. This is the first meeting held by Mamata to review the performance of zila parishads. Sources said Mamata has called the meeting in view of the civic elections to be held next year. “While the chief minister put stress on building of own sources of revenue for panchayats, she also told us to plunge into the job of resource mobilisation, as we are in needs of funds. She further said that we will have to see to it that the benefits of all government schemes reach those who are really poor,” an official said. At the meeting, Mamata said that the state panchayat department should sit every three months to take stock of performances of panchayat bodies. “It was an excellent meeting where the chief minister insisted that all central funds should be fully utilised,” said Principal Secretary (Panchayat) Saurav Das.
