Mamata asks party MPs to utilise dev funds before LS polls

Bolstered by her party's victory in the recent civic and Panchayat elections, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today met party MPs to finalise a blueprint to accelerate development work before the Lok Sabha elections.
Directing party MPs to properly utilise their annual local area development (LAD) funds, Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress supremo, asked them to work intensively for the people before the general elections.
"All MPs have been asked to mostly stay in their constituencies and build up rapport with the people, accelerate development work and complete all pending works before the Lok Sabha elections," Trinamool Congress leader and party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha Sudip Bandyopadhyay said.

"There is no point keeping money unutilised. We have won the panchayat and civic elections and we need to speed up development work," Banerjee told them.
Dissident TMC MP Somen Mitra and suspended party MP Kabir Suman were not present at the meeting.
Trinamool Congress bagged 13 out of 17 Zilla Parishads and won a majority of the civic bodies in the recently concluded elections.

Banerjee wanted total utilisation of MPLAD funds and warned MPs against inability to use funds meant for development, party sources said.
The MPs were asked to supervise the work of panchayats to ensure that the rural populace appreciates the development programmes undertaken by the newly-elected panchayats, they added.

Meanwhile, in a bid to provide better services to the people, the Chief Minister today sent out a strong message to state government employees and said they would be rewarded for good work and poor performers would be penalised.
"We have released a handbook on The West Bengal Right to Public Services Act, 2013 enacted by our government, for generating awareness among the citizens of our state. It is a part of our continuous effort to empower the citizens to get public service in a speedy, transparent and time-bound manner," Banerjee said in a Facebook post.
"The Act has unique provisions for rewarding employees for good work and penalising for failing to provide time-bound service," she said in the post.

"You should work to finish the job fast, accurately and on time," Banerjee said after releasing the handbook at a program in the Netaji Indoor stadium today.