Darjeeling, June 15: Bimal Gurung today called for a referendum to find out if residents of
the hill town would be in favour of the Darjeeling district
administration’s move to set up a hawkers’ market at the Chowrasta.
On Friday, the Darjeeling
municipality had directed the district magistrate’s office to stop construction of the market as the plan of the project hadn’t been
sanctioned by the civic body.
On May 22, a group
of residents stopped contractors from marking trees at Chowrasta so
that they could be cut down to make way for the hawkers’ market whose
foundation had been laid by the chief minister in January.
In a post on
Facebook, the GTA chief executive said: “With all humility, I first wish
to counter a myth that ‘the Administration is the most powerful entity
in India’. It is not. Thanks to our constitution, that honour goes to
the common people of our great nation. As the people of Darjeeling are
opposing the construction of a concrete structure in Chowrasta, as
planned by the District Administration, I feel that a referendum must be
undertaken to determine if the people are supportive of the district
administration’s move or not.”
A referendum is not a commonly used option by administrators in India.
A rare instance
was January 4, 2003, when the Siliguri Municipal Corporation asked
residents in four wards of the Sevoke Road area to vote on whether trees
along a stretch from Panitanki More to Bypass area should be uprooted
to widen the Sevoke Road. The majority of the people favoured the
uprooting of the trees.
Sources said Gurung was aware of the referendum by the SMC and he wanted a similar exercise in Darjeeling.
Amar Singh Rai,
the chairman of the Darjeeling municipality, said: “We are open to this
idea. A referendum would definitely help us gauge public sentiment on
this issue.”
Gurung said Chowrasta was the only patch
of green left in Darjeeling town and no work should be undertaken there.
“I have always said that no trees should be cut in Chowrasta in the
name of Development, and specifically said so in relation to the
proposed hawker’s market on May 23, 2014. That does not mean that I am
supportive of a building which is built in Chowrasta without cutting any
trees. I am against any concrete building in Chowrasta. Period! It is
the only patch of greenery that we have left in Darjeeling town,” said
the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief.
He also said: “... I am against the
location of the hawker’s market as selected by the district
administration, which spoils the sanctity, serenity and tranquillity of
Chowrasta.”
The GTA chief said
he was not against a market for the hawkers. “I strongly support the
hawkers’ right to a permanent place from where they can earn their
livelihood, and towards that end the GTA has already given the
Darjeeling Municipality Rs. 1 crore to construct a hawker’s market in
Chowk Bazar.” Puneet Yadav, the district magistrate, couldn’t be
contacted.