Mamata chairs first cabinet meeting in north Bengal

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday chaired the first meeting of her cabinet at the new mini secretariat in north West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district, and announced tallotment of an additional 98 acres of land for the NTPC's Katwa thermal power project.

A slew of decisions on recruitment, health infrastructure, distribution of title deeds and creation of a new municipality were taken in the cabinet meeting at "Uttarkanya", a two-storey green building constructed near Phulbari and inaugurated Jan 20.

The Banerjee government has set up the secretariat with the declared aim of serving the people living in the northern part of the state.

Regarding the NTPC project, which has been in limbo following land and coal problem, Banerjee said the government would provide additional 98 acres of vested land.

The erstwhile Left Front government had acquired 556 acres on which the NTPC had proposed to build a 1,320 MW main power plant at Katwa of Burdwan district.

However, Banerjee said the project will now generate 1,600 MW.

Regarding the coal requirement, she said the government would provide the black gold from its pool resources through West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited.

"Our only condition is the state should receive 85 percent of the generated power," she said.

The cabinet also cleared a health directorate for north Bengal, saying it would create better health infrastructure in the region.

The meeting gave the nod for recruiting 3,714 people for the state transport department, out of which about 1,800 would be from north Bengal.

The cabinet also decided that 52,000 title deeds would be distributed Feb 16 across the state, touching each block.