Sops shower for rural Bankura

With panchayat elections drawing close, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced a slew of projects aimed at wooing the rural population of Bankura district. At a rally in Bankura's Onda, she announced several projects ranging from supplying drinking water to villages to setting up of bus terminals and industrial training institutes.

"When we came to power, there was no water in Bankura. I had instructed Public Health Engineering Minister Subrata Mukherjee to implement a water supply project. Today, we are inaugurating the Rs 1,100 crore water supply project under which safe drinking water will be supplied to 18 lakh people in 14 blocks and two municipalities. This is the difference between our government and the earlier one," she said.

The Chief Minister also announced free power to farmers saying the hike in diesel prices has affected agriculture. "Farmers are unable to cultivate their land because of lack of money. The government has decided to provide power connections to the farmers free of cost. The subsidy will be given to them through Kihan Credit Cards," she said.

She also said financial help to the tune of anything between Rs 10,000-45,000 will be given to poor farmers to help them purchase farming equipment.

She said her government has taken a number of projects aimed at strengthening healthcare and education infrastructure in all the districts of the state.

Multi-super specialty hospitals will be set up and funds have been provided for improving the road infrastructure in Bankura, she said. In every block there will be one Industrial Training Institute and 20 bus terminals, she added. Eight model schools will be constructed and fair price medicine shops will be opened, she said.

Mamata, who had earlier accused the Centre of not providing any monetary assistance to the cash-strapped state, said the financial health of the state was like that of a poor man trying to marry off his daughter.

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