Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today instructed the police to step up Naka Checking or night patrolling along the roads across the district to stop smuggling of arms and drugs. After addressing the party’s workers’ meeting at Krishnagar Government College ground, Miss Banerjee chaired an administrative meeting at Rabindra Bhavan where she emphasised that a section of people belonging to a certain party often smuggle arms, bombs and drugs to commit crimes.

“These people under the guise of Press or some dignitaries smuggle arms, bombs and drugs. Yesterday in Burdwan, four BJP workers were held for smuggling arms and bombs. Ahead of the elections, these activities may rise and you (police) will have to stop smuggling. You need to increase night vigil along the roads,” Miss Banerjee said. Miss Banerjee also expressed her disappointment about several ongoing development projects and said “Last year, the worst we faced was corruption. Nadia district was one of the districts where we had to deal with utmost care and focus.”

“Many trucks loaded with stones enter the district from other states with the help of some corrupt police officials. As a result, roads are being critically damaged due to the illegal transportation of heavy loaded trucks. This should be stopped immediately,” Miss Banerjee warned the Krishnagar district police superintendent. She also wondered why no police officials including the superintendent, were aware about the state-run ‘Path Bandhu’ project. She asked the DGP to implement the project across the district immediately. Miss Banerjee also expressed her anger on the tender bids in the zilla-parishad.

“There are incidents of infighting while grabbing tenders in the zilla-parishad. This should not happen. I want transparency in the tender bids.” While taking stock of the ongoing development projects like ICDS, crop insurance, Krishak Bandhu, minority scholarships, Kanyashree and others, Miss Banerjee at many cases was not happy with the performance. She asked the administrative officials including the district magistrate to speed up the projects as the assembly elections are in the near future.

Earlier in the workers’ meet, the TMC supremo also condemned the BJP-led government at the Centre for allegedly destroying harmony in the country by trying to forcibly implement the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act, the National Population Register and the National Register of Citizens. Iterating that she would not allow the implementation of CAA, NPR or NRC in Bengal, Banerjee cautioned the people of the state about alleged attempts by BJP to mislead them. “The BJP is trying to play a communal game in the name of implementing NPR, NRC and the CAA. Be cautious about it. We will not let them do this,” she said.