Balurghat, Nov. 5: More than five years have passed since South Dinajpur, the smallest district in the state, got its second subdivision, but it is yet to get the attendant infrastructure.

The tardy approach is affecting the morale of the employees as well as their work since the cash-strapped ruling Left Front government has failed to sanction the promised funds for various schemes.

South Dinajpur and North Dinajpur had been formed by dividing erstwhile West Dinajpur district in 1992 by the then chief minister Jyoti Basu. There were only seven blocks when South Dinajpur was carved out.

But a decade hence, the construction work of the subdivisional office is yet to begin, even after chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee laid the foundation stone of the proposed building on January 14, 2001. Bhattacharjee, who had attended the function a few months before the last Assembly polls, had announced: “We do not like to bluff the people but are only interested in speedy implementation of the projects.”

Balurghat residents have, however, found out the hard way that the chief minister did not “keep his word”.

Subdivisional officer Don Bosco Lepcha has also “no idea” about when the proposed construction will actually start. The site is spread over 7.7 acres. Though the government has allocated Rs 1.43 crore for this purpose, the “promised funds” are yet to reach the district authorities.

“Even though Buniyadpur has been honoured with the status of the headquarters of Gangarampur subdivision, it is yet to be awarded with the facilities simply because it is not a municipality.

Naturally, funds for area development were not allocated o time. And development has been the biggest victim because of these problems,” Lepcha said.

However, a Rs-2 crore plan was sanctioned to rearrange the town’s drainage system scientifically. The work on town planning is also ready to take off by declaring it as a notified area, Lepcha said. Gangarampur subdivision comprises Gangarampur, Bansihari, Kushmandi and Harirampur blocks. But, no sanction has arrived from Writers’ Buildings for the post of any treasury officer or an additional treasury officer, despite the fact that Bhattacharjee had inaugurated the treasury building at Buniyadpur more than a year ago. At present, a deputy magistrate has been officiating as the treasury officer. Even the sanction for the post of a lower division clerk is also awaited. There is no government car allotted for the SDO office as well. The cars have to be hired at a premium, the aggrieved officials alleged.