West Bengal has announced plans to recruit for 7,190 panchayat department posts, build a new administrative complex on five acres in New Town and expand rural employment programmes, according to statements reported after a state-level review meeting in Bidhannagar.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari made the announcements during a review meeting of the Panchayat and Rural Development Department attended by Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Dilip Ghosh, Agriculture Minister Dudh Kumar Mandal, Minister of State for Panchayats Shantanu Pramanik and senior officials.
The proposed panchayat complex will be located near the sites earmarked for the proposed Calcutta High Court and state Assembly in New Town. Adhikari said the state would provide five acres for a full-fledged panchayat building to improve the review and coordination of departmental work. The report did not provide an estimated construction cost or completion date for the project.
The chief minister also announced that recruitment would begin for 7,190 vacant posts at the block level, including positions for staff and engineers. The state Cabinet has approved recruitment for about 7,200 permanent posts, while a further 1,000 contractual employees are proposed to be appointed for one year. Recruitment for the permanent positions is expected to be conducted through the Public Service Commission, with the process targeted for completion by April 2027.
According to the report, the state plans to place a recruitment-related Bill before a special Assembly session after the Diwali break. The proposed legislative process is intended to support changes to recruitment rules and advance the filling of long-standing vacancies in the panchayat system.
Employment generation was another central part of the review. Adhikari said the state’s ‘VB-G Ramji’ programme had set a target of providing daily earning opportunities to 22 lakh people. He also said the Centre had set a target of creating 22 crore person-days in West Bengal, with an allocation of Rs 22,000 crore. The state government said Rs 1,200 crore had already been released by the Centre.
The chief minister claimed that around 65.62 lakh person-days had already been generated and that an average of nearly 7.09 lakh person-days were being created each day. The report also said that approximately Rs 12,700 crore worth of work had been planned under various rural employment programmes, with about Rs 8,500 crore expected from the Centre and the remaining amount to be borne largely by the state government.
The state also reported changes to the rural employment database. According to the chief minister, around 31 lakh allegedly fraudulent job cards were cancelled after Aadhaar and KYC linking. Following central approval for issuing new job cards, about 10 lakh new cards were distributed through public welfare camps, Seva Setu and Sankalp Abhiyan, the report said.
Housing delivery under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awas Yojana was also discussed. An initial survey identified 54 lakh houses, but the number fell to around 47 lakh after further verification. The chief minister committed to completing construction of these houses within the next two financial years.
The announcements place administrative capacity, recruitment and rural employment alongside housing delivery as immediate priorities for the Panchayat and Rural Development Department. The next stated milestones are the proposed special Assembly session after the Diwali break and the targeted completion of permanent recruitment by April 2027.
