Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday asked his Cabinet colleagues to pull up their socks and perform before the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

He reportedly criticised the various departments for “under performance”.

The CPM state secretariat on Monday held a review meeting to assess its ministers in the presence of Bhattacharjee and Commerce and Industries Minister Nirupam Sen. They asked the ministers to speed up the process of utilising Central funds and try to finish the work of all ongoing developmental projects by March 31.

CPM state secretary Biman Bose said: “We have asked our ministers to have better coordination to achieve the goal. The performance of all the departments were also discussed.”

Sources said the chief minister is unhappy about the state rural development department’s performance in implementing the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The Left Front government’s achievement rate is only 22 per cent as compared to the national average of 40 per cent.

As the scheme was the showcase project of the UPA government, the state Congress has already hinted that it will campaign against the failure of the Bengal government in implementing it. Keeping this in mind, the CPM has already asked all its district committees to evaluate the progress of the programmes.

After March 31, the party leadership will review the situation related to the utilisation of Central funds and the progress in the development projects.

The party top leaders also said that funds meant for tribal development are lying unspent in the districts of Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore. The leadership also asked Minister for Tribal Welfare Deblina Hembram to speed up the process of utilising Central funds.

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