Green signal for formation of Alipurduwar district

EOI, Siliguri, 2 June 2014: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today gave her go ahead to form a separate district of Alipurduwar during an administrative meeting with officials of three districts at the mini-secretariat ‘Uttarkanya’.

Briefing the media afterwards, Banerjee said, “We support the formation of a separate district of Alipurduwar as this demand has been pending since the days of the Left Front government. There are some judiciary procedures and other formalities and we are hopeful they will be completed soon.”

The chief minister also announced several projects for North Bengal including Rs 1,400 crore for building roads along the Bengal-Bhutan-Nepal borders. A new medical college is to be established in Cooch Behar, the tea and tourism industries are to taken care of with more seriousness, while the problems of the Chitmahals in the Indo-Bangladesh border will be sorted out, she said.

Banerjee interacted with the BDOs of the three districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar and was updated in detail on the 100 days work. She instructed the officials to carry on with the work as smoothly as possible as she has received several complaints about payments not reaching the workers in time.

When asked about her party’s loss from the Siliguri, Matigara and Phansidewa divisions in the general election, Banerjee replied, “I am grateful towards the people of the North Bengal; I salute them and in the near future I will do a lot more for the development of the region. I cannot say anything on the people’s mandate as it is their democratic right to vote the candidate(s) of their own choice.”

She also noted that 91,000 voters from the Darjeeling hills have voted for the Trinamool Congress and that she is grateful for this noteworthy turnout.

Banerjee urged the people of North Bengal including the hills to support her party for the all-round development of the state. She said she has no issues with anyone and only wants peace to prevail in Bengal.