Resumption of air service demanded

 

COOCH BEHAR, June 26: Cooch Behar District Merchants Chamber of Commerce (CDMCC) demanded resumption of air service using the renovated Cooch Behar Airport. They also threatened a general strike in Cooch Behar if the Union civil aviation ministry fails to resume the long suspended air service before the pujas.

 

Faxing a letter addressed to Mr Praful Patel, Union civil aviation minister, the CDMCC alleged that for the last two years the civil aviation department was assuring that flights of Indian Airlines would be resumed from Cooch Behar Airport very soon. Meanwhile the hindrances detected by the department were also removed, they mentioned.

 

A CDMCC spokesman said they had wrote a letter to the Union civil aviation minister on 25 October 2006 urging resumption of air service. Mr SK Chhikara, under secretary of civil aviation ministry, replied on 17 January of this year that "Cooch Behar Airport is still not ready for operation of flights and Indian Airlines does not have the spare capacity of turbo-prop aircraft for operation to that airport". "This reply make us think that the Central government does not want the industrial development in this remote district and improvement of communication also", the CDMCC spokesman said.

 

Sending copies of the letter to state chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Union information and broadcasting minister Mr Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and chairman of civil aviation standing committee Mr Sitaram Yechury, the CDMCC spokesman declared that they may have to call a bandh in Cooch Behar before the pujas if the Union civil aviation ministry fails to resume the long awaited air service from Cooch Behar Airport. []

 

BJP supporters courted arrest at Tinbigha

COOCH BEHAR, June 26: A large number of BJP supporters were courted arrest near Tinbigha corridor in Mekhliganj sub-division this noon. Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) organised the programme to mark the fifteenth anniversary of Tinbigha Handover Day. Tinbigha was handed over to Bangladesh to use as a corridor to connect that country's two enclaves – Dahagram and Angarpota - with mainland on 26 June 1992 following an agreement signed between India and Bangladesh.

 

Today, the BJYM organised a gathering at Dhapra under Kuchlibari police station. BJYM's all India vice-president Mr Ashok Sharma, state unit president Mr Rahul Chakraborty, state BJP general secretary Mr Rahul Sinha, presidents of Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar district units – Mr Dwipen Pramanik and Mr Nityananda Munsi and president of Kuchlibari Sangram Committee Mr Manomohan Roy addressed at that public meeting.

 

After the meeting at Dhapra the BJP leaders started for Tinbigha corridor on foot with a large number of supporters. They had a plan to stage a roadblock there to mark their protest. In front of Kuchlibari police station they were stopped by the police and were courted arrest. The BJP supporters sat down there on the road. Cooch Behar district BJP president Mr Nityananda Munsi claimed that the police set them free after about 20-minute declaring that 12,000 BJP supporters were courted arrested.

 

The BJP and BJYM leaders also addressed at a gathering near the bus stand in Mekhliganj this afternoon. Mr Munsi said the programme was organised to stage protest against the proposed construction of a flyover on Tinbigha so that Bangladesh nationals can use the corridor round-the-clock. In their address the leaders demanded Tentulia corridor from Bangladesh in exchange for Tinbigha corridor, driving out 'Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators' from Indian soil and exchange of all chhitmahals (enclaves) of India and Bangladesh. []