Mamata Banerjee holds first cabinet meeting in N Bengal

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today held a cabinet meeting for the first time outside Kolkata at the mini secretariat in North Bengal which was set up last month to decentralise administration and speed up the development programmes in the region.
Stating that before the state assembly election in 2011 her party had promised a secretariat in North Bengal, Banerjee said "and within 20 days of the inauguration of the secretariat we held a cabinet meeting there which proves that we do what we say."
North Bengal Development minister Goutam Deb said that the people of North Bengal districts now would not have to go to Kolkata to get their work done as the mini secretariat at Phulbari in Jalpaiguri district would have 20 departments other than the North Bengal Development department.