Calcutta, Nov. 9: An agency set up by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee two years ago to oversee development work in Maoist-infested districts is yet to find space for its head office in Bankura.

The 29 staff members needed to run the Paschimanchal Unnayan Parshad — it has been granted Rs 40 crore for 2008-09 to aid projects in the five districts — have also not been hired.

The chief minister, who was the prime mover behind the agency, himself narrowly escaped a Maoist attack a week ago.

“We have not yet got an office. We have a plan to construct one in Bankura town. But nothing has progressed yet. We are now looking for a building to rent,” said A.B. Chakraborty, secretary of the paschimanchal unnayan affairs department.

In 2006, Bhattacharjee formed the department with minister Sushanta Ghosh at the helm to draw up development projects for the backward people in Bankura, Purulia, West Midnapore, Burdwan and Birbhum.

The same year, the government also engaged an IIT Kharagpur team to work out a plan for the poor in the five districts.

The team identified several gaps and suggested a separate agency that would employ the poor in these districts for government projects like building houses under the Indira Awas Yojana, digging canals and building water tanks. The parshad was to be that agency.

The government also wanted to set up district offices in Purulia, West Midnapore, Burdwan and Birbhum. But with no head office, the secondary set-up would make little sense.

“The non-implementation of projects for one crore backward people, 60 per cent of who are below the poverty line, is largely responsible for the rise in Naxalite violence. The rebels are wooing the people by taking advantage of their poverty,” an official of the department said.

The failure to recruit 29 people for the head office in Bankura has added to the delay, he said. “We are just preparing the recruitment plan.”

Villagers think the development promise is a lie. Sumi Murmu, 32, who lives in Lalgarh, West Midnapore, said: “We are too poor to make both ends meet. The government has so far done nothing for us,” she said.