ELECTION

River erosion may harm Left Front

COOCH BEHAR, April 1: Erosion of rivers is a round the year menace in Tufanganj. There are several rivers in this sub-division in Cooch Behar district and the locals have to suffer due to erosion.

In the last three-tier panchayat elections the river erosion issue came up in Tufanganj and the Opposition parties especially the Trinamul Congress did their campaign armed with this issue. It yielded result too. The ruling Left Front had to take its hands off from two Panchayat Samitis – Tufanganj-I and Tufanganj-II. The Trinamul Congress and the BJP bagged a number of gram panchayat seats too. This time, they took up the issue for the Lok Sabha election.

During the previous monsoon efforts had been taken to save Baro-Laukuthi village from the massive erosion of Sankosh river with bamboos and sandbags. But, those were washed away leaving a few empty bamboo-frames that were used to keep the sandbags intact. Another monsoon is coming but no initiative has taken yet to resist the erosion. The panic-stricken villagers fear of disaster. Their resentment may flatten the vote-bag of the Congress-Trinamul Congress alliance candidate.

Sankosh, Gangadhar and Raidak-II rivers have kept separated the Baro-Laukuthi village of Bhanukumari-I gram panchayat from the rest of Tufanganj-I block. Country boats are the main mode of transport in this area where more than 500 families reside. Electricity is yet to arrive here. There are no blacktop roads. Flood is an annual phenomenon. The erosion of the rivers turned many villagers landless, who are mostly farmers.

Not only Baro-Laukuthi, the residents of neighbouring villages like Mahishkuchi, Rampur-I, Rampur-II, Balabhut and Barokodali are also worst sufferers of river erosion. As there was no arrangement of power supply the farmers cannot irrigate their cultivable lands. Availability of drinking water is also an acute problem.

District Trinamul Congress vice-president Mr Niranjan Dutta said the Left Front failed to improve the condition of the area during its regime. The aggrieved residents expressed their anger in the panchayat election and this may happen again in the Lok Sabha election.

The CPI-M MLA of Tufanganj, Ms Aloka Barman denied that no improvement was happened during the Left Front rule. The allegation raised by the Opposition parties are baseless and politically motivated ones, she said.