JAWAHAR NAVODAYA VIDYALAYA

Section 144 to pave way to erect Navodaya school

COOCH BEHAR, Dec. 11: Apprehending trouble during construction of the proposed buildings of the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya the Cooch Behar district magistrate, Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha has promulgated Section 144A of the CrPC prohibiting all persons from carrying arms in entire Tufanganj sub-division. The order will remain in force till 7 January.

 

The construction of the main building of the JNV was scheduled to begin from yesterday but due to massive demonstration organised by Trinamul Congress it was not possible.

 

A member of the Tufanganj JNV development committee Mr Tamser Ali, who is also a district secretariat member of the CPI-M, said, the classes of the JNV is going on at Tufanganj College as it has no building of its own. Referring the dispute over the land he claimed that 30-bigha of land was handed over to the state education department by the Regulated Market Committee (RMC) in 2005. Later, it was handed over to JNV authorities. Construction of the main building including class rooms, students' hostel, boundary wall and medical clinic was to begin from yesterday but Trinamul Congress supported agitators resisted it.

 

Mr Ali, who is also an MLA from Natabari, claimed that the Union government approved a fund to the tune of Rs 36-crore for the Tufanganj JNV. The construction work should start by 31 March of the current fiscal year otherwise it may go back unspent. He termed the Trinamul sponsored demonstration as a conspiracy to postpone the setting up of the school in Tufanganj. But, a school is not an industry, he opined.

 

On the otherhand, district Trinamul Congress vice-president Mr Niranjan Dutta said they too want the JNV but the building should be constructed at another place. The present site earmarked for it should be returned to the local traders, as there was a haat for a long. The Trinamul Congress will organise demonstrations in the interest of the local traders at the Tufanganj SDO office tomorrow and at the office of the district magistrate on next Thursday, he said.

 

It may be recalled here that the Trinamul Congress have been demanding rehabilitation of all the affected traders at the same haat from where they were evicted in September 2007. A few hundred shops were dismantled by the district administration at the haat controlled by the Tufanganj Regulated Market Committee on 25 August 2007 and the land was handed over to JNV authorities on the same day. Those shops were dismantled to clear the area for construction of the proposed JNV school building. The Trinamul Congress and the BJP had observed a bandh on 28 August 2007 against the eviction of traders from the haat. 

 

PHOTO : Trinamul Congress supported protest against construction of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya. In Tufanganj, Cooch Behar on Wednesday.