Mamata Banerjee on Monday asked the departments, which have a direct impact on the daily lives of rural people, to redress in 30 days nearly 5.5 lakh grievances lodged with the government in recent months.

The chief minister held a meeting of secretaries of 15 departments, including health, panchayat, public works, agriculture and labour, at Nabanna, during which she took stock of the progress in redressing the grievances received with the government.

“The chief minister made it clear to the secretaries present in the meeting that they should take it upon themselves to ensure that all these grievances get resolved within a month or so,” said a senior official.

All these grievances were lodged with the Trinamul leaders, who have been visiting remote places across the state over the past few weeks under the Didir Doot programme launched by the ruling party.

“Most of the grievances are related to bad road conditions and lack of drinking water facilities. These apart, there are requests to include names in various welfare schemes including Lakshmir Bhanadar, Swasthya Sathi and pension schemes,” said a source.

The state government has already laid stress on repairing rural roads by allotting a sum of Rs 3,000 crore in the 2023-24 budget. The state is also working hard to provide piped-water supply in rural areas under the centre’s Jal Jeevan Mission.

“The departments concerned have been asked to monitor the progress of the work by forming separate steering committees. In case of inclusion of names in welfare schemes, the departments will keep a tab on a regular basis,” said a source. In addition to the steering committees in the departments, an ADM in a district will keep monitoring whether the grievances are being addressed on time.

“If required, the ADM will get in touch with aggrieved persons and enquire whether their grievances were resolved. In case it is getting delayed, the ADM will pursue the issues with the departments concerned,” the source added.

Multiple sources in the Trinamul said that the government is laying stress on grievance redress as this reach-out process had helped the ruling party recover the lost ground after the 2019 polls in which the BJP wrested 18 out of the 42 seats.

“Soon after the Lok Sabha polls, the Trinamul launched the Didike Bolo programme. The state government had acted in a timebound manner to redress the grievances lodged through the programme. The result was visible as the Trinamul had won 2011 seats in 2021 Assembly polls,” said a source.

The move, sources said, also clearly indicates that the ruling establishment is gearing up for rural polls in April.