In a rare instance,sabhadhipatis of Trinamool Congress-controlled zilla parishads met state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta at the Writers Buildings on Thursday to discuss development plans in their respective areas. The sabhadhipatis of South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore zilla parishads Shamima Shaikh and Ranjit Mandal accepted the finance ministers invitation to attend the meeting where they discussed setting up of cyclone centres in those districts which were badly hit by Cyclone Aila in May this year. The government plans to set up such centres in South 24-Parganas,North 24-Parganas and East Midnapore with the Rs 100 crore that was sanctioned by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from the national disaster relief fund. With this money we will be able to set up 200 centres,which can be used as educational institutions during normal times. The centres will have facilities like drinking water and cattle sheds, Dasgupta said. The government had earlier asked for Rs 252 crore for setting up 357 such shelters. The meeting of Dasgupta with Trinamool sabhadhipatis comes a day after the two sabhadhipatis had boycotted a meeting which was chaired by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Earlier,Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had announced her party leaders will never attend a meeting called by the chief minister in the wake of rising political violence in the state that erupted after the Trinamool defeated CPM in the last Lok Sabha elections. The Trinamool Congress did not lose the opportunity to highlight the success of its leader Mamata Banerjee in bringing Central funds to the state. No sooner,Dasgupta left the press corner,Shobhon Chatterjee,president of the South 24-Parganas district unit of Trinamool Congress,flaunted a letter from Prime Minister which was addressed to Mamata Banerjee. The letter stated that it was in response to Banerjees request that the Prime Minister released the money. In the state if anybody is really trying hard to accelerate development it is our leader Mamata Banerjee, Chatterjee,who accompanied the sabhadhipati. We dont want to meet Buddhadeb babu because he is not arresting people who are criminals. But we have no problem sitting with other ministers when the question of development comes forward, the Trinamool leader added.
