I will look into areas of darkness: Babul Supriyo

KOLKATA: Union Minister of State for Urban Development Babul Supriyo today said he would try to look into the "areas of darkness" in the department and has been consulting former ministers like Saugata Roy and Deepa Dasmunshi, both from West Bengal.

"Both Saugata(da) and Deepa(di) were ministers there. I have spoken to Saugata(da) and will speak to Deepa(di) to learn from their experiences. It's a big department and there are so many scopes which have excited me.

"So many ministers have worked there, but little work has been done. I will try to find out the reasons for that...I will try to look into the areas of darkness in the department," the singer-turned-politician said in his first visit to the city after becoming a minister.

"I have visited the department only for three days, I will seek help of my officers whose experience will definitely help me," he said.

Reacting to senior Trinamool Congress leader and Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee's statement that Supriyo is a "half-minister" as he has been sworn in as an MoS, the MP from Asansol said, "I know Subrata(da) personally for a long time. I know it is not his personal opinion...I would rather say that it's a half-hearted comment."

Mukherjee had slammed the BJP for making Supriyo a minister of state, saying that an MoS cannot do anything for the state.

On Parui murder case, Supriyo said he would rather like to have a discussion on the matter before commenting anything on it.

"Today is an auspicious day and I will not like to comment anything on this...I will rather have a discussion with my party before saying anything on it," he said.

Talking about the JNNURM housing projects in the state for which the Centre has stopped disbursement of funds Supriyo said though money was released by the Centre, it was not utilised properly.