Bandh plan to demand resuming of air service

COOCH BEHAR, Aug. 19: Annoyed with the postponement of resuming of air service from Cooch Behar Airport that was scheduled for last Wednesday (Independence Day) the business community is considering calling of a bandh in Cooch Behar.  

 

Secretary of Cooch Behar District Merchants Chamber of Commerce (CDMCC) Mr Rajendra Kumar Baid demanded intervention of the Union civil aviation minister Mr Praful Patel and state chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee into the matter. "We are not ready to accept mere promises any more", he said. He threatened that if the authorities concerned fail to resume the air service by 15 September they will have to call a 24-hour bandh in Cooch Behar district as a mark of protest.

 

District Trinamul Congress president Mr Rabindra Nath Ghosh said that the authorities had promised several times about resumption of air service but those promises were not kept till now. This time too they repeated the same thing. Now it is hard to believe that air service from Cooch Behar ever be possible. Cooch Behar is a downtrodden and neglected area for a long and the government too is not eager to improve the situation. He alleged that no agreement was signed between Airport Authority of India and any airlines operator about flights so far. At first an operator should agree to fly their aircrafts and then one should promise of resumption of air service, he said. "Catch fish at first and them promise us serving of fish fry," Mr Ghosh ridiculed.

 

District BJP president Mr Nityananda Munsi too criticised the governments both at state and Centre for their failure to resume the much awaited air service from Cooch Behar Airport.

 

Referring a news report circulated by a news agency, Md Saukat Ali of Concern for Cooch Behar commented that the existing situation of Cooch Behar Airport was disclosed in the statement of the director of Tantia Constructions Ltd (TCL) Mr Shaleen Khemani. According to a news item posted at "monstersandcritics.com" of Glasgow (UK) on 16 August the TCL director said in an interview with that news agency, "We are going to complete the new airport terminal at Dibrugarh by the end of this calendar year. The mobilisation work for Cooch Behar terminal in north Bengal is under process as well. We are expecting to complete it in the next 12 months from now". If the post was to believe the much talked about resumption of air service might not start soon though the authorities are trying to convince people of starting of the service within a month, Mr Ali said.

 

When asked, district magistrate of Cooch Behar Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha said he has no new information about the resumption of flights from Cooch Behar Airport. []