Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung today said if his party
came to power in the Kalimpong municipality, the first task of the new
board would be to grant land rights to the residents.
Gurung only mentioned wards 1 and 11, but residents of many other
wards, too, do not have ownership of their lands. Many parts of the
wards 1 and 12 belong to the Darjeeling Improvement (DI) Fund, which is
administered by the state government.
"I am aware of the problem of the area (ward 1). I have to give them
parcha-patta (land rights). My first board meeting will pass a
resolution on this...The situation in ward 11 is very bad. I have seen
it for myself and feel very sad. I will solve the problem of all the
houses of that area which do not have parcha-patta. There is no need to
worry," said Gurung while addressing the last election meeting of the
party at the Mela Ground here.
Kalimpong municipality goes to the polls on Sunday.
Experts, however, wondered how the Morcha president was going to keep
his promise when the DI Fund is under the land and land reforms
department of the state government, and is yet to be transferred to the
GTA.
At the start of the Morcha meeting, the Trinamul Congress candidate
of ward 1, Pawan Sundas, joined the Morcha. He was welcomed to the party
by a smiling Gurung.
However, by the end of the meeting, the smile gave way to anger as
Gurung got annoyed at the blaring of the mikes of another election
meeting being held by rival Jana Andolan Party (JAP) a stone's throw
away at Tricone Park.
Even as he was coming to the end of his speech, Gurung got distracted
by the blaring mikes and thundered: "This is the failure of the state's
law and order machinery. This needs to be understood...It is not right
to dominate us in this manner at our own place. Let the Bengal
government be warned. Bimal Gurung will face any obstacles put on his
way."
Gurung then asked his supporters to take out an impromptu rally from
Mela Ground to the town. Excited Morcha supporters marched towards the
town shouting slogans, but were stopped by the police at the Main Road, a
few metres short of Tricone Park where the JAP supporters had gathered.
The Morcha president later told reporters that the administration
should not have allowed the JAP supporters to take out a rally near the
venue of the Morcha meeting.
"This appears to be a conspiracy of the state government to start a
fight between us and JAP supporters. This should also be understood by
JAP," he said.(TT)
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