Asok apprehensive of mini-secretariat

SNS, Siliguri, 11 July 2013: The former state urban development minister and  senior CPI-M leader, Mr Asok Bhattacharya, raised questions over the necessity of setting up a mini-secretariat at Kamrangaguri near Siliguri, saying that it would not benefit the people. 

“The construction of the much-touted mini-secretariat has started. I have heard that there would be a helipad within the office premises. But I think it would hardly benefit the people. We have seen the North Bengal Development Department (NBDD) office and the Railway Recruitment Board office having been set up here. But people seldom go there. I fear the same fate would befall the mini-secretariat here. We wonder how many ministers will come here regularly to monitor development," said Mr Bhattacharya at a Press meet in Siliguri today. 

He slammed the north Bengal development minister Mr Gautam Deb for milking several projects launched during the Left Front regime to garner electoral gains. 

"In course of my recent campaigning in Islampur, Chopra and Fulbari, I have found a huge number of hoardings that flaunt several projects and the credit for them being given to the NBDD. But the real fact is that most of them were initiated by us when we were in power,” the Marxist leader said. 

Dwelling on the Indian Air Force having given its nod to the Bagdogra Airport Authority to facilitate night landing facility at the airport, he claimed that he had written to the former defence minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee, demanding the same years back. 

“However, now they are cornering the credit exclusively for them. During our tenure, the Eastern Bypass came up. By upgrading the roads a bit, Mr Deb is claiming credit. There are plenty of such instances of unjustly cornering credits," Mr Bhattacharya added. 

He said the state government should explain why the proposed axcel factory at NJP has not come up yet. “The people owe an explanation why the office of the divisional railway manager has not been set up here. They are skeptical as to whether the proposed Sevoke-Rangpo rail connectivity will become a reality. The state government had better answer these questions dogging the collective mind of the region rather than flaunt hoardings claiming credit for things we executed when in power,” Mr Bhattacharya said. 

Speaking of the bridges over river Mahananda, Mr Bhattacharya said that they had completed around 90 per cent of the work regarding the fourth Mahananda bridge. “But nothing seems to have happened to the fifth Mahananda bridge that we envisaged," he said. 

When asked on the charges levelled by the former state minister, Mr Deb said such bravado on the part of some discredited leaders would not cut ice with the people of north Bengal.