Road & rail traffic hit after violence

Police patrol a market in Islampur on Tuesday. Picture by Mehedi Hedaytullah

TT, Oct. 7: Traffic on NH31 and train service between north Bengal and the Northeast on one side and southern part of the state on the other were affected for over six hours from around 9am today following violence in Bihar’s Kishenganj.

Most buses to and from Raiganj, Malda and other areas in the southern parts of the state and those heading to Siliguri had to halt either in Islampur or Raiganj. A number of trains halted at Aluabari Road and other stations.

“We operate around 25 buses between Raiganj and Siliguri everyday and the total transaction is of around Rs 10 lakh. Today we had to stop the bus services,” Plabon Pramanik, the president of Raiganj Bus and Minibus Owners’ Association, said.

“Later in the afternoon, some buses went through NH34 but there was hardly any passenger. We have asked some of our buses to halt in Siliguri. We hope that the situation will improve tomorrow.”

Northeast Frontier Railway sources said train movement started late in the afternoon. “Some trains had halted but our officials have arranged for extra vigilance by the RPF to ensure that trains keep moving without any disruption,” said a source.

North Dinajpur police have issued an alert. “We are keeping a close watch and are in touch with the district administration of Kishenganj,” S.W. Raza, the superintendent of police of North Dinajpur, said.

“Additional forces have been deployed across the district and an alert message has been passed to all police stations. We have intensified patrolling on the Bengal-to-Bengal road so that vehicles that intend to avoid the highway can move.”

In Kishenganj, prohibitory orders have been in force for the next 48 hours.

“After the Durga Puja and other holidays, tomorrow is the first working day. We have collected orders from medicine shops in Islampur and the suburbs of Kishenganj and we were supposed to supply them and get payments tomorrow ,” Prasanta Das, a whole-seller from Raiganj said.

“We doubt if any car driver will agree to go to the rural areas.”

Shankar Kundu, the general secretary of North Dinajpur Merchant Chamber of Commerce, said: “Commodities worth several crores of rupees move between Bengal and Bihar, and Islampur and Raiganj everyday Today, the business was affected.”