Govt food outlet plan | Deb tours hill fringes | Skip hills, says minister

Siliguri, Aug. 13: The state government will start distributing food items to people at 11 centres across the hills from tomorrow, the second day of a janata curfew in the hills.

“The distribution will be made from police stations, police outposts, block development offices or panchayat offices. Our plan is to start the delivery of essential items from 10am tomorrow and provide rations to the last person in the queue. The distribution will continue till ration shops open in the hills,” north Bengal development minister Gautam Deb said today.

The announcement was made after a meeting of Deb, food minister Jyotipriya Mullick, home secretary Basudeb Banerjee and senior police and administrative officials in Siliguri.

The outlets will be opened at Garidhura, Rohini, Panighata, Dudhia, Mirik, Soureni, all in Kurseong subdivision, Bijonbari, Sukhiapokhri, both in Darjeeling subdivision, Gorubathan, Pedong, and Algara, located in Kalimpong subdivision.

Of these 11 places, Garidhura, Panighata, Rohini, Dudhia and Gorubathan are closer to the plains and may be easier for the government to access.

Deb said the distributors had already been directed to despatch the items like rice, wheat and kerosene to the 11 centres from tonight.

“If everything goes according to plan, we will start the distribution from 10am tomorrow. The food minister and I will visit all the locations to oversee the distribution which will be similar to the PDS. The families in the hills can avail themselves of the items by showing ration cards.”

“We have adequate stock of foodgrains for the distribution. Further, we plan to open a godown in Siliguri on an interim basis for storing food grains to meet any contingency in Siliguri or the Dooars. In case, there is an indefinite strike in the hills or the Dooars, we can load the food grains onto trucks and reach them in the affected areas with police escort,” said Mullick.

Today’s meeting also resolved to operate more buses of the North Bengal State Transport Corporation in the hills.

“Today, we ran five buses to the hills and tomorrow, the number will increase. Buses which move along the foothills will be asked to take turnaround routes so that more areas can be covered,” said Deb, who is also the chairman of the NBSTC.

He said officials of the transport department had been asked to hold talks with the owners of light private vehicles to resume the services. 

 Deb tours hill fringes

Siliguri, Aug. 13: Minister Gautam Deb today toured fringe areas of the hills where a few residents came out of their homes and told him about lack of food supplies and transport.

Deb said people had “braved” the janata curfew to speak to him.

Rohini, Garidhura, Marianbarie Tea Estate and Dudhia-Damfatar, the places Deb visited, are all in Kurseong subdivision and around 20-25 km from Siliguri.

Nothing moved in the hill towns today, but the hill areas that Deb toured are closer to the plains and away from the direct glare of the Morcha.

Deb toured the areas with Trinamul leaders from the hills. In some places, residents walked with them for a few metres.

“In all these places, I spoke to people who braved the so-called janata curfew, came out of their homes and narrated their plight,” Deb said after the tour.

Most of the areas that the north Bengal development minister toured have a strong Gorkha Janmukti Morcha presence. In Rohini, the GNLF also has a base.

Deb was accompanied by hill Trinamul leaders such as Rajen Mukhia and Binny Sharma.

The minister, who had announced on Sunday that he would visit the hills and urge people to defy the strike and raise their voices in support of the development, visited Panighata in Kurseong subdivision, 35km from here, yesterday.

Panighata has some Trinamul supporters.

“The strike started on August 3 and till date, not a single grain of food or a single piece of vegetable has been handed over to us by the Morcha leaders,” a resident of Dudhia told Deb.

“None of the shops are open. If one or two shops are opening in the evening for an hour or so, they are charging a lot for their goods,” said the woman.

Local Morcha leaders, who remained indoors in support of the janata curfew today, said the hill party was distributing foodgrain.

“Our party is delivering its responsibility by distributing food and vegetables to people across the hills during the strike. Those who have raised such allegations are GNLF workers who are against our movement,” said Durga Sharma, the secretary of the Sukna block committee of the Morcha.

Buses to hills

At least four NBSTC buses left for hills from Siliguri on Tuesday morning in the first move by the state to normalise the situation in the hills.

Minister Gautam Deb, who is the chairman of NBSTC, had said yesterday that the state would run government buses in the hills.

“Four buses have left for the hills. The first left for Darjeeling in the morning, carrying around 10 passengers. Among the other three, another bus left for Darjeeling in the afternoon and two more left for Kalimpong,” a senior official of NBSTC said on conditions of anonymity.

“We have been told by the administration that once the buses climb up the hills, police escort would be provided. All the four buses are supposed to return here (Siliguri) today.” 

Skip hills, says minister

Siliguri, Aug. 13: The state tourism minister today advised tourism stakeholders to promote the Dooars and other places, instead of Darjeeling, when other arms of the government are desperately trying to bring a semblance of normality to the hills.

Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury, who spoke from Malda over phone, said: “Unless there is an improvement in the situation in Darjeeling and the two other hill subdivisions, we cannot simply send tourists to the hills.”

The statement by Krishnendu, which is a wise caution to tourists, is contrary to efforts being made by other ministers, such as Gautam Deb and Jyotipriya Mullick to distribute foodgrain to people and sending buses from Siliguri to the hills.

“It is unfortunate that the tourism industry is suffering because of the indefinite strike (being enforced by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha) and there are apprehensions of huge losses during the coming Durga Puja season,” Chowdhury said.

“Taking into account the manner in which the Morcha forced tourists to walk out of their hotels and leave the hills (during the current stalemate), we cannot persuade visitors to go there now. If the tourists are inconvenienced by the Morcha, we will face criticism.”

Chowdhury said as the US and UK had warned their citizens against visiting the hills, the alternative destinations for the tourists were the Dooars and other places in north Bengal.

“Considering the present state of affairs, we are advising tour operators, hoteliers and other stakeholders to invite tourists to places like the Dooars, Cooch Behar, Murshidabad and Malda. We are advising people not to visit the hills as it is better to lose revenue for some period than to lose the image of the state. ”

 Source: The Telegraph