Mr Goutam Chakraborty, who was elected as the sabhadhipati of Malda Zilla Parishad with the support of the Trinamul Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), finally completed his five-year tenure despite protests by a majority of the Opposition. He had to face problems to run the board, failing to prove majority for passing its annual budgets, on more than one occasion. There was also a misunderstanding among the associate members of the Zilla Parishad belonging to the Congress, Trinamul and the BJP. But, Mr Chakraborty tackled all hurdles including the Opposition’s constant bickering including a court case when the CPI-M led Opposition challenged all permanent committees of the board, terming them as ‘illegal’ on the basis of the Panchayat Act. During his five years tenure, the one project that has left Mr Chakraborty aggrieved in his district is the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). Here he speaks with Manas Banerjee on why the project didn’t fare well and the success and failures of other projects in Malda.
Why has NREGA failed to produce the results it was expected to achieve?
In the gram panchayat level the programme of NREGA has not been executed properly owing to lack of monitoring. The reason is the system of monitoring where the block development officers (BDOs) were mainly responsible for monitoring and execution. But there was no separate cell for its monitoring and execution of planned schemes under the leadership of the district magistrate. In the last two years, the district has received more than Rs 43 crore, but the average number of days per household was 13.31 in the year 2006-07 and the average has gradually increased to over 15 in 2007-08. A few households have got 100 days work under the scheme.
I did not find a person who got compensation when the district administration failed to provide jobs within 14 days of registration. Several people had applied for compensation but none was compensated. When the gram panchayat pradhans had misappropriated funds under of NREGA and transferred job cards of the registered labourers and an inquiry had proved the irregularities, no action was taken against them.
This is a ‘black picture’ of during my tenure. There was lot of scope to provide employment for nearly seven to eight lakh daily labourers who are forced to go out of the state from this district in search of jobs. We have failed to use our labour force in utilising NREGA for irrigation and cultivation to develop barren lands in the Barind belt of this district.
Which project do you think was success in your district?
When we took charge of the Zilla Parishad, we found that only 12 km sanctioned road project under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojona (PMGSY). But, till 2006-07, a total of 132 km road schemes under PMGSY were in progress. Out of 132 km, a total of 104 km of the sanctioned road projects across the district is currently going on. We could not start 28 km of the road project owing to a lack of bidders. Though the P&RD (panchayat and rural development) department had floated tenders, not a single bidder took part due to some unknown reason.
The Central government project for the development of horticulture, especially in Malda, which is famous for mango and litchi production has also been a success. Nearly Rs 19 crore was allotted during my tenure for the development of horticulture and export of fruits, vegetables and other produces from this district. Under the National Horticulture Mission, nearly Rs 8 crore was allotted to the beneficiaries for the cultivation of mangoes and litchis and development of infrastructure in various sectors. Hundreds of beneficiaries have already received funds for the development quality cultivation. During my tenure we have been able to bring nearly Rs 11 crore for the development of mango and litchi research for export quality production and the Malda farmers will be getting benefit under the project after two years.
Which gram panchayat has done a commendable job during your tenure and which did not?
The Amriti gram panchayat is undoubtedly the best, which falls under the Chanchal-I panchayat samiti. Most of the gram panchayats could not perform well as the board was hung and it could not be formed with majority members belonging to the same political parities. The Chouki-Mirdat-pur gram panchayat in Manikchak block could not utilise funds due to this problem. The board was dissolved owing to lack of majority members of a political party and internal feud. ###
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