NBSTC

Leftists left as 'unwanted' in folk festival

Uttar Banga Lok O Adivasi Sanskriti Utsav (North Bengal Folk and
Tribal Cultural Festival) will be held at Sitalkuchi Gopinath High
School ground on 23-24 December. The festival will be organised by the
Lok Sanskriti O Adivasi Sanskriti Kendra in association with
Information and Culture Department. State Forest minister Hiten Barman
met the media persons on Thursday over the programme. North Bengal
Development minister Gautam Deb will inaugurate the festival on
Sunday.

The leaders of the Left Front in Cooch Behar have alleged that the
festival is nothing but a Trinamul Congress programme. No elected
representative of the Left Front was invited to join the festival. The
Sabhadhipati of Cooch Behar Zilla Parishad Dilip Biswas, Cooch Behar
MP (Lok Sabha) Nripen Roy, even Sitai MLA (Congress) Keshab Roy were
not invited in the programme. The invitation card consists of the
names of ruling Trinamul Congress MLAs. An ex-MLA (now associaqted
with TMC) was also included in the list of guests but the sitting MPs
and MLAs of the Left Front were excluded. They were not invited too,
Left Front sources alleged.

The Forest minister, Barman however denied the allegation. He said
that all have been invited but it is not possible to print all names
in the invitation card.

NBSTC's tourist service from 30 December

The much awaited tourism service named 'Sabujer Pathe Hatchhani' (Call
of the green) of the North Bengal State Transport Corporation will be
reintroduced from 30 December, the last Sunday of the year. On that
day two buses will be pressed into service in Cooch Behar- Jayanti-
Baneswar and Cooch Behar- Jaldapara- Jhalong- Bindu routes. After that
the service will be will be available on Saturdays, Sundays and
holidays. If the service turns viable it will be a regular one as it
was before winding up of it by the former chairman of the NBSTC,
Rabindra Nath Ghosh.

The Managing Director of the NBSTC, C Murugan said they will try to
add folk dance programmes for entertainment of the tourists during the
journey at Jayanti and other places. Local tribal folk culture troupes
will be contacted for the purpose. Tickets for the green journey will
be available from the special booking counter of the Old Bus Stand in
Cooch Behar from 25 December as before, he informed.

Leaders of all the unions of the corporation have welcomed the news of
revival of the 'Sabujer Pathe Hatchhani' service. It will be helpful
in increasing revenue to the financially sick corporation, they
opined.

Mentionworthy, the tourism service was lifted soon after assuming of
power by the Trinamul Congress in the state. The chairman of the newly
formed Board of Directors of the corporation, Rabindra Nath Ghosh
(Trinamul MLA) declared its death. After demands came in from
different quarters for its revival the NBSTC authority decided to
reintroduce it with approval from the present chairman, Gautam Deb.