Sagardighi (Murshidabad), Feb. 8: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today inaugurated a college building at Lalbag near here that had been inaugurated two years ago by higher education minister Satysadhan Chakraborty.

Classes have been on for the past two years at the Subhas Chandra Bose Centenary College building that Bhattacharjee “opened” today. At the programme, 220 km from Calcutta, the chief minister said: “Murshidabad is lagging behind other districts of south Bengal.”

He later laid the foundation stone of a thermal power plant at Sagardighi. Work on two 250-MW thermal units in the first phase of the project at Monigram village, 240 km from Calcutta, will cost about Rs 2,000 crore. The district magistrate was asked to acquire the land required by December. The two units would be completed by 2007, Bhattacharjee said. The plant will ultimately have a capacity of 2,000 MW.

“When construction begins, about 4,000 local people will get employment,” Bhattacharjee said. “There will be no dearth of funds”. The chief minister said he has worked that out with finance minister Asim Dasgupta and power minister Mrinal Banerjee. “Both ministers have assured me that the funds for the project are there. It is only after receiving their assurances that I have come to lay the foundation stone,” said the chief minister.

Months before the Lok Sabha polls, Bhattacharjee said a food processing unit will also be opened in Murshidabad soon. “Vocational training will be introduced at all higher secondary and secondary schools. We have taken up the task of paying full salary to schoolteachers,” he added.