Controversy over Alipurduar women's college

 

COOCH BEHAR, July 22: Setting up of the proposed women's college in Alipurduar is suffering from a dispute over the land earmarked for it. Earlier it was decided that the college's building would be constructed on a six-acre land at Ward No. 2 in the town. But following a dispute between the Jalpaiguri Zilla Parishad and Alipurduar Municipality over possession of the land the construction work is yet to begin. It was learnt that Rs 35-lakh received from the Local Area Development funds of Alipurduar MP Mr Joachim Buxla and Alipurduar MLA Mr Nirmal Das for construction of the building is lying idle.

 

Launching of a separate college for women is a long-standing demand in Alipurduar. Eminent citizens and a number of organisations raised the demand on different occasions. Following the popular demand the local MP and the MLA too came forward and extended financial assistance to establish the college.

 

Alipurduar MLA Mr Nirmal Das said the problem is not scarcity of fund but of land. JZP had agreed to handover a six-acre land at Ward No.2 in the town but the authority of the civic body is creating problems to get it. Earlier, the proposed land was under possession of Satyanarayan Mill but after cancellation of the lease agreement that land was earmarked for the proposed women's college. The Alipurduar Municipality placed a board on the land claiming it as their own and this has created the controversy.

 

Mr Das who is also the secretary of the Alipurduar Women's College Organising Committee said they already conveyed the matter both to the state chief minister and the state higher education minister. They also intimated the matter to the Governor Mr Gopal Krishna Gandhi urging his intervention to dissolve the stalemate. Mr Das claimed that they received the required permission to run the proposed college in another educational institution in Alipurduar till completion of the new college building.

 

On the otherhand, Alipurduar Municipality sources denied the allegation rose against them. The civic body too want establishment of a women's college in the town. The problem over possession of the disputed land will be over after identification of its actual owner, an official said. Mr Das hoped that the impasse will be over very soon and then the construction of the building will begin. []