Roadblock stir

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 17: Protesting against the fuel price hike and condemning the recent police firing in Dinhata the Trinamul Congress staged a massive roadblock programme in Cooch Behar district today.

 

Vice-president of District Trinamul Congress, Mr Niranjan Dutta said the Trinamul supporters organised the roadblock programme from 11 a.m. to 12-noon at 41 places in the district. President of the party's district unit Mr Rabindra Nath Ghosh, vice-president Mr Santosh Mukherjee and District Trinamul Youth Congress president Mr Rajib Narayan led the programme today.

 

Traffic movement was disrupted especially in Cooch Behar town and Ghughumari during the roadblock programme. Many Assam bound lorries had to wait for a long at Tufanganj near the Assam-Bengal border. []

 Visitors at the annual flower show at Raj Palace Garden adjacent to Cooch Behar Royal Palace in Cooch Behar of West Bengal on Saturday.

NRDC plans stir in rail stations on 28 February

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 15: Demanding speedy implementation of the New Maynaguri-Jogighopa railway project the New Railway Demand Committee (NRDC) will organise daylong sit-in demonstrations at all railway stations between Cooch Behar and Dhubri (Assam) on 28 February. The decision was adopted at the meeting of the NRDC held at Rasik-bil in Tufanganj yesterday. Joint convenors of NRDC Mr Chandi Pal and Md Tajmul Haq, Cooch Behar MP (Rajya Sabha) Mr Tarini Roy, Natabari MLA Md Tamser Ali, Mr Rajendra Baid and other leaders attended the meeting.

 

NRDC joint convenor Mr Chandi Pal said today that they were organising popular movements for a long to get the proposed railway route from New Maynaguri to Jogighopa in Assam. A few days ago the chairman of Railway Standing Committee Mr Basudeb Acharya (MP) came to survey the progress of work of the project. He too observed that the progress of work was not satisfactory and going on slowly. The senior railway officials had promised him that they might be able to run trains between New Cooch Behar and Golokganj by December 2009.

 

Prior to the tabling of the Union Railway Budget the NRDC will submit a memorandum to the railway minister to allot adequate fund for the project, Mr Pal said.

 

"As we believe that the proposed railway will be of immense help to the industrialisation of this region and may boost up the trade and commerce scenario of entire northeast region we want speedy implementation of the project", Mr Pal said. The new rail route may also encourage the regional economy, he hoped.

 

Revival of the long defunct waterway through Brahmaputra river was also discussed at the meeting. The Union government should come up to resume the waterway as early as possible, Mr Pal demanded. []

Homestead of Panchanan Barma acquisitioned

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 15: The state government has acquisitioned the homestead of the great social reformer, Roysaheb Thakur Panchanan Barma. A demand was there for a long to take over the land as a place of historic interest and also to pay respect to the great social reformer of this region. At last the government did it.

 

Declaring the take over, the state backward classes welfare minister Mr Jogesh Chandra Barman also laid foundation of a museum and a research centre at Khalisamari village in Mathabhanga of Cooch Behar on Friday. He went there to attend the 142-nd birth anniversary of Thakur Panchanan.

 

The minister said the work for setting up of the museum will commence in this year. Backward classes welfare department will extend financial assistance. Assistance from the Union cultural affairs department will also be sought for to make the museum and the research centre completed as full-fledged ones.

 

Mentionworthy, state chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had unveiled the bronze statue of Thakur Panchanan at Sitai Morh in Mathabhanga in February 2005. After unveiling the statue he had compared Thakur Panchanan with Shri Chaitanya and Rabindranath Tagore and declared of taking over of the homestead of the great social reformer. At last, the government came up to keep the promise after three years. []

No V-Day for her - A lone chicken survived from the recent culling drive. In a north Bengal village on Thursday.

Post bird flu situation reviewed, more fund sought

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 14: Though the state government has lifted the ban on trading and transportation of chickens the prohibitory order will continue in two blocks in Cooch Behar district till issuing of further order. These two blocks are Dinhata-I and Mathabhanga-I.

 

Samples collected from a few villages of the two blocks were tested positive of bird flu virus and massive culling drive was held in those villages. Officials of the animal resources development department however commented that the ban has no implication in the areas concerned because after the culling drive there are no backyard birds in those villages.

 

Meanwhile, state ARD minister Mr Anisur Rahman and health minister Mr Suryakanta Mishra reviewed the post bird flu situation through a videoconference on Wednesday. Cooch Behar ADM (Development) Mr Pannalal Mahapatra, CMOH Dr Sunil Kumar Shil and ARD deputy director Dr Tapan Kumar Roy participated in the conference.

 

Awareness about the ban on trading and transportation of chickens in bird flu affected areas, lifting of the ban in remaining areas, speedy enlistment of villagers whose birds were culled or died from bird flu and other related topics were discussed during the videoconference, the ARD deputy director Dr Tapan Kumar Roy said.

 

Cooch Behar ADM (D) Mr Pannalal Mahapatra said they asked for an additional fund of Rs 24-lakh from the government. Earlier, they had received Rs 50-lakh to combat the bird flu situation in Cooch Behar district.

 

The district administration had to spend a huge sum to pay wage to the labourers that were recruited to assist the culling teams, renting of cars, paying the drivers, buying of fuel, hospitality cost for the observers and experts who came to supervise the progress of culling drive and cost to maintain the members of the culling teams during quarantine period. The additional fund was asked for to meet these expenditures, the ADM (D) said.

 

Mr Mahapatra claimed that they had paid Rs 40 per culled chicken on the spot soon after culling. The total sum paid as compensation was Rs 26,49,970 and it was not included in the expenditure report as was submitted to the government, he added. []

Demonstration against killing of forest dwellers

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 13: Demanding arrest and punishment of the forest guards involved in killing of Samuel Rava of Porobusti, a large number of people demonstrated at the office of the additional district magistrate at Alipurduar today. RSP dominated North Bengal Forest Mazdoor Union (NBFMU) organised the programme.

 

President of the NBFMU Mr Nirmal Das (MLA) and secretary Mr Manohar Tirkey (minister) submitted a memorandum to the Alipurduar ADM Mr Susanta Dutta and deputy field director (West) of Buxa Tiger Reserve Mr Ashok Pratap Singh. They demanded adequate compensation to the family members of the deceased Samuel Rava and implementation of the legitimate demands of the forest dwellers.

 

NBFMU president and also the Alipurduar MLA Mr Nirmal Das alleged that the poor dwellers of Porobusti got opportunity to work for only 14 days under NREGA scheme till now. Forest guards gunned down Samuel Rava, a boy of the village, without any provocation when he went to collect firewood for domestic use on 8 February. Six forest dwellers of the area were killed in the past two-and-half years, he alleged. The NBFMU is not in a mood to witness such happenings anymore as silent spectator, he declared. []

RSP memorandum

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 13: Condemning the recent police firing in Dinhata the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), a major constituent of the ruling Left Front, organised agitations at the block development offices in Cooch Behar district today. Secretary of the party's district unit, Mr Gopal Chaki said they submitted memorandums to the district magistrate through the BDOs concerned demanding assurance that nothing of the kind of Dinhata incident be occurred in future and making of the administrative system transparent. []

Congress against tri-Nation Forum plan

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 13: The Congress came down heavily on the objectives of the 12-day tri-Nation rally that was concluded at Changrabandha in Cooch Behar on Tuesday. It was organised by India-Bangladesh-Pakistan People's Forum.

 

Condemning the lectures delivered by the chairman of the tri-Nation Forum, Mr Debabrata Biswas (MP) and others, the president of Cooch Behar District Congress Mr Shyamal Choudhury said, "We learnt that the Forum leaders called upon people for uprooting of the pillars of the barbed wire fencing along the Indo-Bangladesh border. We think it is nothing but an act of treason. Before talking about abolishing of the border the Forum leaders should convince the governments of Bangladesh and Pakistan about the non-necessity of the border."

 

Mr Choudhury believes violent clash may occur if anyone tries to uproot pillars along the International border or damage the fencing. The Border Security Force will not remain a silent spectator. In that case who will bear the responsibility of any loss of life, he questioned. Will the Forum leaders wash off their hands by organising a few protest rallies condemning BSF firing on innocent people? Mr Biswas is a responsible member of the Parliament and so he should not utter anything that goes against our motherland's interest, he opined.

 

The senior Congress leader said Pakistan is still allocating a huge amount in defence budget. Thousands of people had to die after the partition of India. A number of wars were happened among the three countries. And now, members of a Forum are saying of uprooting border pillars and to facilitate easy movement of people in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan as people can do to go to Bhutan and Nepal. "We cannot agree with the proposals of the so-called Forum and we like to condemn their plan", Mr Choudhury said. It will certainly create disturbance in this region, he opined. []

Row over death of NVF constable in Dinhata incident

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 13: The statement of AIFB general secretary Mr Debabrata Biswas over the death of the NVF personnel, Krishnakanto Barman, who had died in the clash between police and FB supporters on 5 February at Dinhata drew sharp reactions from senior police officials. Mentionworthy, five FB supporters were also killed in police firing on that day.

 

Mr Biswas had alleged that the NVF constable was killed by bullets fired by the police, not because of attacks by FB protestors. He also said that there was substantial evidence to prove that the NVF personnel had been killed in police firing. His statement has appeared in these columns of The Statesman today under title : "Bloc blames police for NVF jawan's death".

 

President of Cooch Behar District Trinamul Congress Mr Rabindra Nath Ghosh too believes that the NVF jawan, Krishnakanto Barman had died of police firing. He demanded a CBI probe into the Dinhata firing to unearth the truth. "We have no faith in the judicial inquiry or magisterial inquiry because it takes time to complete such an inquiry and the government keeps the report undisclosed if that goes against them", Mr Ghosh said.

 

When inquired about the matter, a top brass police official of Cooch Behar District Police termed the allegation as baseless. He however added that police officials couldn't reply such allegations raised by political leaders. "A political leader can say anything but we are not in liberty to say or reply their allegations directly", he said.

 

On condition of anonymity the official said that the NVF constable had received severe head injury and there were several marks of injury on his body. He was lynched by the mob. There were a number of eyewitnesses of the incident and video clippings too can prove it. The death certificate and the post-mortem report may be able to clear all confusions over the matter, he claimed. The deceased NVF man did not hurt anyone and his lone fault was that he was doing his duty at Dinhata, the official added. []

 

Timber haul

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 12: During a massive drive during the past three days the Cooch Behar social forestry division officials seized illegally felled timber worth Rupees one-lakh from some villages adjacent to Assam-Bengal border. Cooch Behar ADFO (SF) Mr SK Baroi said they seized logs and sawn timber like Sal and Teak during the drive. []