New Delhi: After announcing that West Bengal will undergo a cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the state has also carved out seven new districts. The total number of districts in West Bengal has now gone up to 30.
According to the ABP News sources, six of the seven new districts are Sunderban, Ichhemati, Ranaghat, Bishnupur, Jangipur, and Behrampur. One more district will be named in the Basirhat region.
After the announcement, the opposition in the state, Bhartiya Janata Party launched an attack on the Bengal Chief Minister And TMC calling it a gimmick to divert the attention of people and media from the WBSSC scam which involves former TMC leader Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee.
BJP leader and the party's IT cell chief Amit Malviya took to Twitter and said, "Mamata Banerjee’s decision to create 7 new districts and induct new faces is an attempt to divert attention from the #SSCScam. She must explain where a debt-trapped WB Govt get money to run new districts? With Paresh Adhikari still in her cabinet, new faces won’t wash the taint."
Meanwhile, the Bengal CM also announced that a cabinet reshuffle was on the cards, with four to five new faces expected to get inducted into the council of ministers on Wednesday.
Banerjee also said that several departments were currently functioning without any dedicated minister, and it wasn’t possible for her to shoulder responsibilities of these alone.
"We have to reshuffle our Cabinet. But (I) do not have any plan to dissolve the Cabinet and come up with a new one. There are several departments which has no one at the helm. I alone cannot shoulder (the) responsibilities of all these departments," Banerjee told reporters.
"We will introduce four to five new faces in the Cabinet. The reshuffle will be carried out on Wednesday," the chief minister added.
Departments of Panchayat, Public Health Engineering, Consumer Affairs & Self Help Group are currently looked after by Banerjee.