Airport in dark

 

COOCH BEHAR, Sept. 25: The Union minister of state for civil aviation Mr Praful Patel said in Kolkata on Sunday that "the airport in Cooch Behar is almost ready and will be inaugurated next month". But the district administration in Cooch Behar is still in dark. When asked, a senior official said, they are yet to get any information about inauguration of the renovated Cooch Behar Airport or resumption of air service from this airport. []

 

GCDP to start another fast-unto-death programme

COOCH BEHAR, Sept. 25: Recalling the memory of 20 September 2005 the Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party (GCDP) is going to organise a fast-unto-death programme once again to get their demands fulfilled. On that day three policemen including an ASP and two supporters of The Greater Cooch Behar People's Association (GCPA) had to die following large-scale violence in Cooch Behar. This time the GCDP will try to maintain peace ignoring all provocations during the fast-unto-death programme. The schedule of the programme will be finalised in October in a meeting of the GCDP leadership.

 

Yesterday, a large number of GCDP supporters participated in a token hunger strike for six hours at Shahid Baag in Cooch Behar. Seeing the response the GCDP president Mr Ashutosh Barma said today that they are going to start a fast-unto-death programme within a month. The date of commencement of the stir will be decided in October.

 

Mr Barma said they never backtracked from their demand for implementation of the merger treaty by which Cooch Behar State was merged with Union of India. "Since the formation of the GCPA we are fighting for it and still we are fighting under the GCDP banner", he said. Referring yesterday's hunger strike Mr Barma declared that they are ready to continue their movement for years to achieve success.

 

The GCDP president declared that they already selected candidates to field in the next three-tier panchayat elections. Their candidates will wrest in about nine hundred Gram Panchayat seats. They will also field candidates in Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishad seats. During their campaign they will give emphasis on implementation of the merger agreement, Mr Barma said. Clarifying the demand Mr Barma said that the formation of a separate state was in the merger agreement and so demanding of a separate state is not very important always. He said that they have no choice of a particular name for the proposed state. It may be Kamtapur or Cooch Behar.

 

The GCDP president said that they have no enmity with CPI-M, Forward Bloc or any other political party and so they will not target CPI-M or any other party during electioneering. "Achieving of the goal is the main target of GCDP", Mr Barma said.

 

Welcoming the GCDP's plan to participate in the elections and field candidates in the panchayat elections, the Cooch Behar Left Front convener and also the CPI-M secretary, Mr Chandi Pal said, "There are many parties and we are ready to accept another party in the democratic system". He suggested that the GCDP should shun the path of violence and secessionism. They should adopt the democratic system.

 

At the same time Mr Pal said, "We know that the Kamtapuris are still keeping relations with militant outfits like ULFA, KLO, Maoists and Jharkhandis. If they want to join democratic system they should cut off their relations with those outfits, otherwise we will have to believe that they are trying to do something following a hidden plan." "The CPI-M knows the past activities of the Kamtapuris and so we cannot believe in their openly declared policies easily", Mr Pal said. []