Mixed response in Kamtapuri bandh

 

COOCH BEHAR, June 27: Mixed response was found during the bandh called by Greater Kamta United Forum (GKUF) in Cooch Behar district today. The bandh was called in six districts of north Bengal and eleven districts of Assam. The GKUF gave the bandh call demanding formation of a separate Greater Cooch Behar state comprising of seventeen districts and recognition of Kamtapuri language. The GKUF was formed recently comprising of Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party (GCDP), Kamtapur Progressive Party (KPP) and All Koch Rajbongshi Students' Union (AKRASU).

 

NBSTC buses were found plying with very few passengers while passenger vehicles of private operators were off the roads. Almost all shops were found closed today. Production units at Chakchaka Industrial Growth Centre complex functioned normally. Government offices and banks were found open but attendance was a bit low. District Magistrate of Cooch Behar Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha claimed that attendance was normal.

 

Cooch Behar SP Mr Anil Kumar said the bandh supporters damaged three vehicles in Cooch Behar and Dinhata. 475 bandh supporters were arrested from different areas of the district. At Putimari in Dinhata they damaged a NBSTC bus and at Baneswar in Cooch Behar they damaged a lorry and a Maruti car, the SP said. It was learnt that the bandh supporters at Putimari assaulted the bus driver. He was shifted to hospital.

 

GCDP president and also GKUF secretary Mr Ashutosh Barma claimed that today's bandh was total. He alleged that CPI-M supporters attacked their supporters to disrupt the bandh at Basantirhat in Dinhata. Last night police arrested their seventy supporters and ransacked some houses at Harirhat area, he alleged. On the otherhand, police said they went to Harirhat after receiving information that a group of armed people assembled there. When they arrived there the Kamtapuris damaged their vehicle. 43 persons were nabbed from the spot, police said. Mr Barma however refuted the allegations raised by police terming it as a concocted one. []  

 

Workshop on Right to Information

 

COOCH BEHAR, June 27: A workshop on right to information was held at District Institute of Education and Training in Cooch Behar yesterday. West Bengal Chapter of National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information organised the programme. General secretary of the organisation Mr DP Ray (MLA), Mr Amitava Choudhury, Mr Subrata Kundu, Mr Debabrata Chaki and others discussed on various aspects of the Right to Information Act.

 

Mr DP Ray said they work for building up an informed society and they believe that the most important happening of the last century was Satyagraha and the most revolutionary decision of this century is Right to Information Act 2005. The way Satyagraha upheld the strength of truth and united the entire India for the freedom movement, this RTI Act also speaks about truth, transparency and of good governance on one hand and on the other hand makes way for the people's participation in the democracy and empowers them for the informed participation which is most important for the social development, Mr Ray said.

 

Mr Ray observed that even after enactment of the RTI Act in eight different states this movement was not known in West Bengal. It is simply unfortunate, he opined. "We have organised forty-eight awareness generation camps and a few capacity building workshops in all the district headquarters and in almost all the sub-divisional towns till date", he added. Yet it is a long way to go and needs to organise many such programmes. They also authored a plan to organise capacity building workshops alongwith awareness campaign to harness the RTI Act, Mr Ray informed. []