GREATER COOCHBEHAR

GCPP demands separate state

'The Greater Cooch Behar Peoples Party (GCPP) has organised a mass
gathering at Shahid Baag in Cooch Behar on Thursday afternoon. The
plan behind the gathering was to attract the Chief Minister's
attention prior her visit to Cooch Behar on 26 December.

During the gathering, the GCPP president, Bangshi Badan Barman-led a
seven member delegation to the District Magistrate and submitted a
memorandum addressed to the Union Home Minister through the DM.

Barman said that the people of Cooch Behar have been demanding of
proper implementation of the merger agreement by which erstwhile Cooch
Behar State was merged with India in 1949. According to the agreement
Cooch Behar should be a C-category state, but, the governments at the
Centre and at the state are not paying any heed to this demand. They
made it a mere district of West Bengal. "If the government fails to
fulfil our demands we will have to launch a fresh movement", he
warned.

In the memorandum the GCPP has raised question over the appointment of
North Bengal Development minister Gautam Deb as the chairman of Cooch
Behar Development Fund. A vast amount was left by the then ruler of
Cooch Behar State, Maharaja Jagaddipendra Narayan for the well being
of the people of Cooch Behar. A minister from Cooch Behar used to be
the chairman of the CDF, but the new Trinamul-led state government
posted a minister from Siliguri, Gautam Deb as its chairman. It is a
violation of norms, Barman alleged. He demanded that a minister or an
MLA from Cooch Behar should be the chairman of the Fund.

The GCPP also demanded appointment of a senior man from the successors
of the Cooch Behar royal family as the chairman of the Debatra Trust
Board, instead of the DM. The government appointed the DM as the DTB
chairman violating the norms, Barman alleged.