CM’s Jaigaon problem settlement bid a ‘political gimmick'

SNS, Siliguri, 13 February 2014: Anti-Trinamul political parties today claimed that chief minister, Miss Mamata Banerjee's decision to go for a long-term settlement for thousands of people at Jaigaon,an 'illegal' township close to the Indo-Bhutan border in Jalpaiguri district, is nothing but a political gimmick that came just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

After a Cabinet meeting at Uttarkanya on 11 February, Miss Banerjee announced that her government plans to solve the people’s problem in Jaigaon under the Alipurduar sub-division and formed a committee under north Bengal development minister, Mr Gautam Deb.

Mr Deb was asked to submit plans and proposals soon to resolve the crisis, which has been there since many years soon after the British era.

Sources said the Jaigaon Development Authority (JDA) had sent a proposal to the state government to legally settle the township so that it can function properly.

Sources also said that around 90 per cent of the area under the JDA's jurisdiction is illegal, where the 'lease land' is being sold per square foot at very high prices, but no one has the legal land deeds. Even the JDA office does not legally own the land it is built on.

Former state urban development minister, Mr Asok Bhattacharya, said Miss Banerjee formed a committee for the long-term settlement of the Jaigaon problem and the inhabitants of the ‘no-man’s land’ just to appease the people there as the Lok Sabha polls are approaching.

"The erstwhile Left government and former land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah took initiatives to settle."