Mamata Banerjee seeks direct interaction with block development officers in state

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday urged the block development officers (BDOs) in the state to contact her directly in case of any emergency and for implementing various development works in the districts and rural Bengal.

The chief minister held a meeting with all the BDOs here on Saturday and offered them her personal mobile number so that they could contact her directly in case of any emergency.

Also, the chief minister asked her office to collect mobile numbers and E-mail Ids of all the BDOs so that she could contact them for any emergency. The opposition parties, however, apprehend that the chief minister might try to bypass the zilla parishads and gram panchayats to carry out development work in the rural areas before the panchayat elections in the state.

Already Mamata's government had taken away financial power from some zilla parishads including the North 24-Parganas district and assigned the district magistrate to carry on the financial work in favour of the zilla parishad. The chief minister was addressing the West Bengal Civil Service Association's meeting here on Saturday.

Many senior state administration official, however, feel that the chief minister's instruction to the BDOs to contact her directly might create administrative problems in the districts as the BDOs normally function under the district magistrates and report to them for their daily duties.

But chief minister's green signal to the BDOs to contact her directly bypassing their superior officers might complicate the administrative network and pose problems before senior officials to work independently and implement development activities.