Mayor to seek CM action

Asok Bhattacharya in Siliguri on Tuesday.
Picture by
Passang Yolmo

TT, Siliguri, Dec. 27: Siliguri mayor Asok Bhattacharya will write to chief minister Mamata Banerjee and seek her intervention on the alleged inaction of the administration while Trinamul workers were ransacking the ward office of an RSP councillor at Gurungbusty last week.

Bhattacharya said the Trinamul workers had vandalised the ward office in retaliation for the Siliguri Municipal Corporation's eviction of illegal cattle sheds from the bank of the Mahananda river.

"I will write to the chief minister and remind her that she has already said no illegal construction will be allowed and if anybody encroaches on riverbanks, strict action will be taken. Keeping that in view, we had also tried to evict encroachers from the bank of the Mahananda here on Friday. But in retaliation for that, a group of Trinamul workers ransacked the ward office of deputy mayor Rambhajan Mahato and heckled the civic employees," the mayor told journalists here today.

There were 30 illegal cattle sheds on the riverbank. When a 60-member team of the SMC went to remove the sheds, they were encircled and heckled by the local people. Despite the resistance, civic workers could remove nine sheds. Later, a group of alleged Trinamul supporters ransacked the ward office located nearby.

"After the incident, I spoke to police officers and requested them to take necessary steps against the Trinamul miscreants. Left Front councillors led by the deputy mayor will meet the commissioner of police tomorrow and request her to take necessary steps," said Bhattacharya.

The mayor said the SMC would engage members of self-help groups to campaign against the encroachment on the Mahananda and the pollution of the river. "The self-help group members will campaign on a regular basis in the localities near the river. The residents will be requested not to construct any unauthorised structure on the riverbanks," said the mayor.