29-Jun-2017: New training programme COMMIT for State Government officials.

Government launched a new training programme Comprehensive Online Modified Modules on Induction Training (COMMIT) for State Government officials. The objective of this training programme is to improve the public service delivery mechanism and provide citizen centric administration through capacity building of officials who interact with the citizens on day-to-day basis.

The new training programme will supplement the earlier training programme and the advantage of COMMIT is that it is cost effective and has the potential to cover about 3.3 lakh officials annually, compared to 10,000 officials under existing 12-Day Induction Training Programme (ITP). The citizens can be easily accessible when we go digital. To achieve maximum Governance, it is necessary to equip the officials with the best possible tools to perform best to their ability.

COMMIT will be launched in 6 States of Assam, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal initially on pilot basis during the current financial year 2017-18 and within next year it is expected to cover all India level. COMMIT has been designed in such a way that it allows to translate the content in local/regional languages.

The COMMIT programme, developed by DoPT in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will supplement the existing 12-Day ITP launched in 2014-15 for newly recruited state Government officials to develop in them Generic & Domain specific competencies. The programme will cover approximately 74,000 State Government officials in the financial year 2017-18. It will be of 28 hours duration which will include e-Modules for 20 hours and face-to-face training for 8 hours. The 20 hours e-training would be imparted through specifically developed 12 Generic and 3 Domain specific e-Modules. The modules on soft skills will be delivered as e-Modules & through face-to-face training and the domain modules will be covered through e-Modules only. The programme will be implemented through State Administrative Training Institutes (ATIs).

15-Feb-2017: Kalimpong declared as 21st district of West Bengal

The Kalimpong subdivision of the Darjeeling hills became the 21st district of West Bengal.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made the announcement at Kalimpong. Kalimpong was once known for the Silk Route that passed through the region, connecting Nepal and Bhutan with the city. We will rebuild it. Our government will invest ₹ 220 crore on road construction.

When the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government came to power in 2011, there were 19 districts in the State. Alipurduar was made the 20th district of the State in June 2014.