Utilise development funds, Mamata asks Trinamool MPs

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday asked her parliamentarians of her Trinamool Congress to ensure utilisation of their entire constituency development funds before next year's general elections.

"She asked all the party Lok Sabha members to go to their constituencies and strengthen mass contact. She asked all of us to see to it that the entire Member of Parliament Local Area Development fund was utilised before the notification for the Lok Sabha polls," party's Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandopadhyay told media persons after a meeting between Banerjee, the party supremo, and the MPs at the state secretariat in Howrah.

Banerjee also asked the MPs to oversee the functioning of the panchayats so as to draw the support of the rural masses.

Party sources said Trinamool would oppose crucial bills like creation of Telangana and Prevention of Communal Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) that are likely to come up in the winter session of parliament.

All but three Trinamool MPs attended the parleys. While dissident Lok Sabha members Somen Mitra and Kabir Suman were not present, Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh is now under arrest for his alleged links to the multi-Crore Saradha Group chit fund scam.