Water treatment plant to be inaugurated in Malda

Statesman News Service

MALDA, March 2: Finally the state public health engineering (PHE) minister Mr Goutam Deb has planned to inaugurate arsenic free water treatment plant for drinking water supply at Kahala in Ratua on 16 March.The Malda CPI-M party sources said that the water treatment plant will be inaugurated by chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in presence of three Union ministers.Mr Deb has already informed the party and department officials that Union rural development minister (URD) Mr Raghubansh Prasad Singh , information and broadcasting minister (I&B) Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munshi and foreign affairs minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee will be present at the inauguration ceremony.The local CPI-M MLA from Ratua and state minister for environment Mr Sailen Sarkar would be present at the inauguration ceremony. According to Mr Deb the URD minister Mr Raghubansh Prasad Singh sanctioned a lot of funds to West Bengal for safe drinking water project.It may be noted that the PHE department had planned to inaugurate the drinking water treatment project on 16 February but had to be deffered owing to the chief minister's busy schedule. Around Rs. 25 crore has been spent on the trial run of the drinking water project and though the plant has not been officially inaugurated, water supply has been started from the plant.Earlier it was decided that the CM would inaugurate another water treatment plant at Mehadipur in English Bazaar on 16 February and the second bridge over the river Mahananda between Old Malda and English Bazaar town. Lastly it was decided that the Lok Sabha Speaker Mr Somnath Chatterjee would inaugurate the Mehadipur arsenic free water treatment plant on 23 March.