Speed up development to compensate delay: Mamata
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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Curbs on movement, assembly remain in force in Kashmir after protests against Khamenei's killing
Srinagar (PTI): Normal life in Kashmir was affected for the fifth consecutive day as partial restrictions on movement of people remained in force as a precautionary measure.
The restrictions were imposed on Monday after spontaneous protests broke out across Kashmir a day earlier against the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israel joint strikes.
Chief minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday held a meeting with civil society representatives and religious leaders as part of efforts to bring the situation back to normalcy.
ALSO READ: Protests against Khamenei's killing: Curbs remain in force in Kashmir
After the meeting, Abdullah appealed to people to maintain peace while expressing grief and anger in "mosques, shrines and Imambaras".
The government has shut educational institutions till Saturday, and reduced mobile internet speeds.
"Restrictions on the movement and assembly of the people continued in many parts of Kashmir on Thursday," the officials said.
A large number of police and paramilitary CRPF personnel were deployed across the city to prevent gatherings of protestors, the officials said.
They added that concertina wires and barricades were placed at important intersections leading into the city, while asserting that these were precautionary measures imposed to maintain law and order.
The iconic Ghanta Ghar in the city centre of Lal Chowk here continued to remain a no-go zone after the authorities sealed area with barricades erected all around it on late Sunday night.
The move to seal the Ghanta Ghar came after it witnessed massive protests on Sunday after Khamenei's assassination in the joint air strikes by the US and Israel.
This is the first time since August 2019 -- when Article 370 was revoked -- that protests on such a large scale have taken place in Kashmir.
