Kolkata: The Panchayat and Rural Development department in Bengal has created 5111 km of village roads providing a big boost to rural connectivity since the Mamata Banerjee government assumed power for the first time in 2011. From 2010 to 2011, 1442 km of village road was constructed. "We have enhanced the rural connectivity three times since 2011 and very few states in country can match the village road infrastructure that we have created. The total budget for rural connectivity in the 2019-20 fiscal has been Rs 2432 crores," said Subrata Mukherjee, Panchayat and Rural Development (P&RD) minister while laying a report on the work done by his department at the state Assembly on Monday. Mukherjee alleged that the Centre has been pressurising the state government to put up banners or hoardings in the name of Prime Minister after finishing construction of a road. "Now the fund share of road on the part of centre and state is 50:50. So why should we name roads after the PM and not after our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee? We are naming roads as Bangla Gramin Sarok Yojana and are mentioning no specific name," Mukherjee said. He maintained that a few years ago, the centre had a special scheme for four backward districts in the state in which fund was approved for every single road requisition by the state. "But now this scheme has stopped otherwise road development in these areas have been expedited," he added. Not only in rural connectivity , the P & RD department has done commendable work under all the schemes run by it that includes Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act, Banglar Awas Yojona, Mission Nirmal Bangla, Anandadhara and Samabyathi. In 100 days work , the department has created 33.83 man-days in the year 2018-19 up from 15.53 crore man-days in 2010-11. A total of Rs 6,219 crores has been allocated in this scheme. Speaking about the Nirmal Bangla programme, Mukherjee said till 2016-17, 2322434 toilets have been constructed which is five times than 46,6311 toilets that had come up in 2010-11. "We have been able to achieve 100 percent open defecation free Bengal. No other state in the country has achieved this feat. Now the challenge is to sustain it,"he added. Bengals progress in implementation of various projects of the Panchayat department has been acknowledged by the centre and in national level meetings. Bengals example comes up for discussion time and again, said Mukherjee.

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