Deb blasts Delhi over passport centre

The Passport Seva Laghu Kendra in Siliguri

TT, Siliguri: State tourism minister Gautam Deb alleged on Wednesday that the Centre was playing politics and unnecessarily delaying the inauguration of the Passport Seva Laghu Kendra (PSLK) at Himanchal Bihar here.

The minister, who went to the area to attend an official programme at the Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy Government College, said as people here were no longer with the BJP, the central government was intentionally deferring the opening of the PSLK.

"The delay in opening the PSLK is an act of sheer discrimination by the central government, as people here are no longer supporting the BJP. It was decided that the centre would be inaugurated in April but due to civic polls in hills, the inauguration was delayed. It is disappointing that even though six months have passed since the elections, the Union ministry of external affairs has not made any move to open the centre," said Deb.

Reacting to Deb's allegation, a senior officer in the MEA, Delhi, told this newspaper that the delay in the inauguration was because of the violence in the Darjeeling hills.

"We wanted things to stabilise in and around Darjeeling. Otherwise, there is no reason for delay. The set up is completely ready for functioning," he said.

The PSLK has been set up at a commercial building owned by the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority.

An area measuring around 4,327sqft has been rented out to the MEA. All works at the centre are complete and even officials have carried out trial runs and other checks to ensure that it becomes operational from the date of inauguration.

The minister also said he had taken up the matter with chief minister Mamata Banerjee at a recent meeting in Calcutta. "The chief minister has asked the chief secretary to take up the matter with MEA. I will go to Calcutta soon and speak to the chief secretary to know what the Centre is saying on the issue," said Deb.

A few days back, the minister had criticised the delay in commissioning the Instrumental Landing System (ILS) at Bagdogra airport.