Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s message to elected Trinamul representatives to refrain from making money out of welfare schemes seems to be hitting home in north Bengal.

A former village head has been arrested and a councillor rebuked in Malda district for alleged lapses in the past 24 hours, while a Trinamul block chief in Alipurduar has ordered elected members of all panchayats in the area to complete through e-tender projects that cost Rs 5 lakh or more.

In Malda, Trinamul councillor Paritosh Chowdhury was rebuked by minister Sadhan Pande for silence on water bodies in his wards being illegally filled by land sharks.

Pande has been assigned to look after the party in the district. On Tuesday, some residents informed him that large water bodies were being filled at the behest of some Trinamul councillors of the local Englishbazar Municipality.

Pande called Chowdhury and was heard in public warning the councillor that legal action would be taken against him and others if such illegal work was not halted immediately.

The minister did not stop there and called up Alok Rajoria, the district police chief. “Please take all necessary steps to prevent such activities. The water bodies should be protected,” Pande told the SP over phone.

Kaushik Bhattacharya, the district magistrate, said “in accordance with the minister’s order, round-the-clock surveillance of vulnerable water bodies has been initiated”. “We will take prompt action if any complaint of illegally filling water body reaches us.”

Asked, councillor Chowdhury said: “He (Pande) said the right thing. Those who were filling the water body were asked to stop it. The work has been stopped now.”

In Mahanandatola gram panchayat of Malda’s Ratua-I block, a former pradhan and Trinamul leader was arrested on Tuesday night for alleged embezzlement of public funds in a sanitation scheme. A block official had filed a complaint of misappropriation in November 2017 against Sukesh Yadav in Mission Nirmal Bangla.

In Alipurduar, Manoranjan Dey, the Trinamul president of Alipurduar-I block, has instructed elected members of all 11 panchayats of the block to release e-tender for any work that costs Rs 5 lakh or more.

“Anybody, whether a member or a local leader or party worker, found indulging in any illegal activities to make money from these works or trying to extort money from beneficiaries of welfare schemes, will face legal action,” said Dey.