Kolkata, Dec 2 (IANS) With its traditional grass roots base substantially eroded, West Bengal’s ruling Left Front is laying stress on rural development to win back the masses ahead of the state’s 2011 assembly polls.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Wednesday met the district magistrates of 18 districts to discuss various issues on speeding up development work and to make sure benefits of the government schemes reach the people.

Several state ministers were also present.

‘We have decided to start distribution of Below Poverty Level (BPL) and Above Poverty Level (APL) cards from middle of this (December) month. This apart, the state government will take the initiative to store more volume of paddy this year,’ state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta told reporters here.

‘We’ll also strengthen the public distribution system and lay thrust on the implementation of several state and central government projects in the rural belt.’

Dasgupta said the state government would also focus on issues like rural electrification, drinking water shortage, education and health reforms in the rural areas.

‘The chief minister carefully listened to most of the district magistrates about what kind of problems they are facing in their respective areas to carry out the rural development works,’ Dasgupta said.

The rural vote bank had been the mainstay of the Left Front since it came to power in 1977 and brought in massive changes in the villages by undertaking large-scale land reforms and implementing projects benefiting the marginal farmers and agricultural labourers.

However, the aggressive industrialisation policies of the government that entailed acquisition of large chunks of land, mainly from the rural peasantry, saw the opposition parties launch sustained and intense farmer agitations.

As a consequence, a sizeable section of the farmers deserted the Left Front and switched allegiance to the opposition, jolting the ruling combine in a series of elections since last year.