A host of government officials on Thursday descended on Ballabhpur Danga, the tribal hamlet in Santiniketan’s Sonajhuri forest where Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday made a surprise detour on her way back to Calcutta to meet villagers and even wield the ladle at a roadside food stall.

The hamlet buzzed with activities on Thursday when officials came to look into the issues that villagers had raised with the chief minister on Wednesday.

When Mamata walked down the hamlet’s dusty tracks — stopping by a food stall to help cook vegetable curry — many residents told her about the lack of toilets and disability pensions, and the continuing water crisis, among others.

Taking their complaints seriously, Mamata had immediately turned to Birbhum district magistrate Vijay Bharati and said: “You (district magistrate) will construct 130 toilets here from my Duare Sarkar camps and work should start from tomorrow (Thursday). Vijay (DM), you are doing very little. I am telling you and this is my instruction.”

On Thursday, villagers woke up to a flurry of activities as SUV after another with “Government of West Bengal” stickers drove into the village to list grievances and demands.

“We had no idea that work on our complaints would start so fast,” said villager Matal Mardi as a government vehicle zoomed past him.

District magistrate Vijay Bharti on Thursday said he sent “six sets of officials” to study complaints and find out those left out of government schemes.

“We started work in the village from today (Thursday). The survey is over and we instructed the electricity department to ensure power supply to a few shops and households. We will sanction extra funds to construct toilets. Everything will be done as soon as possible according to the chief minister’s directives,” Bharti said.

Shops to get electricity by Monday include the now-famous food stall, said sources. Its owner, Babu Bagdi, said: “Today (Thursday) electricity department officials told me that my shop will get power connection very soon. It happened as Didi had come to my shop.”

A team from the Bolpur-Sriniketan block headed by BDO Sekhar Sain and additional district magistrate (zilla parishad) Sabyasachi Sarkar looked into toilets and other benefits that could be given to villagers.

Four dusty tracks would be turned into concrete stretches, said an official.

An official who visited the hamlet said many homes had toilets that were however too small to use.