Howrah, June 7: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday took stock of the status of work under various state schemes and urged the administration to speed up the process of development that was halted for almost three months due to rural body elections.

"I understand that the developmental activities were temporarily hampered due to the Panchayat election process this year. Three months have been wasted due to Panchayat polls. Now it is time to speed up the work. Elections will come and go but the development should not be stalled," Banerjee said at a meeting of administrators in Howrah district.

Referring to the statistics of the hundred days of wage-employment (MGNREGA) in the district, Banerjee said it had completed 52 days and 60 days of work under the scheme in the last two financial years while this year the work has been done for only 14 days so far.

"Whatever work has been halted has to be compensated in double speed. We must target to complete at least 70 days of work under MGNREGA," she said.

West Bengal's Panchayat election was initially scheduled in the first week of May but it was rescheduled to May 14 following a Calcutta High Court order to extend the nomination deadline and announce a fresh polling date.

The government repeatedly claimed that the delay in election process was hampering the state's economy and development as all works were stopped due to the model code of conduct.

Talking about the law and order situation, Banerjee said some pockets in the district witness regular incidents of violence and crime and asked the police to immediately identify the regions responsible for fomenting trouble.

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Ramgarh (Jharkhand) (PTI): Jharkhand police on Thursday said it has unearthed a network of interstate cyber frauds and arrested four miscreants for fraudulent transactions through a bank account in Ramgarh district after complaints of 274 suspected transactions in 24 states.

The states where complaints for fraudulent transactions were registered included Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

The action followed inputs received through 'Samanvaya portal', a centralised, web-based platform launched by the Union Home Ministry to curb cybercrime.

"We arrested four cyber miscreants after a current account with Kuju (Ramgarh) branch of the State Bank of India was found to have registered suspected financial transactions in 24 states with the help of the Pratibimba portal of the Home Ministry through the Samanvaya portal," Ramgarh Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar Lunayat said.

During the probe, police found that the account was opened under the MSME Udyam Registration scheme in the name of Shree Ganesh Enterprises, he said.

The account had been linked to as many as 274 complaints from different states related to cyber fraud and illegal fund transfers.

The registered proprietors of the enterprise were identified as Rahul Gupta (37), Ravi Kumar Verma (34), and Ajay Sharma (33), all residents of Ramgarh district, a statement from the Ramgarh police said.

During interrogation, Rahul Gupta and Ravi Kumar Verma revealed that they had opened multiple current accounts at the behest of Ritesh Agrawal alias Munna (40) and Sonu Kumar Jha (34).

They admitted receiving Rs 1.2 lakh in exchange for facilitating the opening of these accounts.

"The accused further confessed to sharing OTPs, activating mobile banking services, and handing over control of the accounts to the main operators through WhatsApp and Telegram groups. These accounts were then allegedly used to route fraudulent transactions.

Police said mobile data analysis of the accused led to the recovery of crucial digital evidence, including details of SIM cards, bank accounts, passbooks, ATM cards, QR code scanners, Aadhaar cards, and PAN cards shared through messaging platforms.

A total of four accused have been arrested so far and sent to judicial custody.

A case has been registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 and Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Further investigation is underway, the police said.