Mamata stresses on Hill-plain amity

MANAS R. BANNERJEE, SNS, Jateshwar (Jalpaiguri), 23 July 2013: To assuage the fear lurking in the collective psyche of non-Gorkha people in the Dooars, principally the Adivasis and the Bengalis, over land from the region to be included into the GTA, the chief minister, Miss Mamata Banerjee today repeatedly stressed on the amity between the Hills and the plains. 

“My government would ensure by all possible means that the people of both the regions would live in peace and amity,” she said while campaigning for her party for the rural polls in the sensitive Alipurduar sub-division of Jalpaiguri district. 

At the beginning of her speech, she asked: “Are you afraid of division of Hills and plains? Don’t worry. I am always with you through thick and thin. My party is committed to maintaining peace and amity between the people of the Hills and the plains. Let the people of the Terai and the Dooars sleep peacefully. My government and my party would stand guard over them.” 

Addressing a public rally at Jateshwar High School ground, Miss Mamata Banerjee came down heavily on the state election commission for its alleged headstrong attitude regarding the schedule of the rural polls. 

“Had the commission agreed to conduct the polls in one or two phases the death toll would have been much less. As many as 22 Trinamul activists have died just in one month. Despite this, I have asked my party workers to abstain from violence,” she said. She also claimed that the rural polls had passed off peacefully up to the third phase. 

“Violence began to take toll when elections were held in Murshidabad and Malda. This is because the CPI-M and Congress hatched a conspiracy to fan violence and blame my party for it. I am sure that the strength of these two parties would be substantially reduced in these two districts as well as in North Dinajpur,” she said. 

She also stepped up heat on the Congress and the Centre for the deplorable conditions of the National Highways in Jalpaiguri and Dooars that connect Assam. 

“I am convinced that the Congress has intentionally kept things in a mess. If I were in the Centre, I would have completed the restoration work in a day,” she claimed.