Mamata’s three bridges and a poll plea - to “compensate” her party’s drubbing at the Lok Sabha polls

She urged north Bengal voters to “compensate” her party’s drubbing at the LS polls while underlining her government’s work in the region

Mamata inaugurated three major bridges in north Bengal along with youth hostels, power substations and a fire station.: File picture

Bireswar Banerjee, Avijit Sinha   |   TT   |   Siliguri   |    02.02.21 : Mamata Banerjee on Monday urged north Bengal voters to “compensate” her party’s drubbing at the Lok Sabha polls while underlining her government’s work in the region.

“Ami Lok Sabhay gohara herechi...ebar pushiye deben to… (I lost Lok Sabha polls hands down...will you compensate the loss this time)?” she appealed to people at the Uttarbanga Utsav launch in Siliguri.

Mamata inaugurated three major bridges in north Bengal along with youth hostels, power substations and a fire station. “We are dedicating the bridges to people. Our government has taken up a slew of projects for north Bengal...we don’t make hollow promises,” said Mamata. Scoffing at the Union budget allocation of Rs 25,000 crore for Bengal’s road infrastructure, she said the money should go to farmers.  

The bridges include a 3km Joyee bridge over the Teesta to link Haldibari with Mekhliganj in Cooch Behar, Devi Kamteshwari Bridge over Mansai river to link Dinhata and Sitai also in Cooch Behar and a flyover to cut short the distance between Siliguri and the Bhorer Alo tourism hub at Gajoldoba in Jalpaiguri.

On the Centre’s package of Rs 25,000 crore for road infrastructure between Calcutta and Siliguri, Mamata said work on expansion of the existing road that connects these regions was already on.

“They are speaking of new road infrastructure now... work is already in progress in the state and we have cleared all possible hurdles...Also, construction of a second parallel road from Panskura via Rampurhat to connect north Bengal is in progress… we don’t know what new project they are talking about,” said Mamata.

She also asked the Centre to spend the funds for farmers protesting near Delhi. “The Centre is telling us that it will build rural roads in Bengal…we ourselves will make it. You better pay the money to the farmers who are protesting for days now,” she said.

She announced a fresh private investment for the region to counter a charge levelled by the BJP that the Trinamul government had failed to bring major industrial investments. “Star Cement has come up with a plant at Mohitnagar in Jalpaiguri district and invested to the tune of Rs 450 crore. The plant will create jobs for around 7,000 people.” she said.

Speaking on air connectivity, she alleged the Centre’s bias against Bengal.

“If they can run flights from Dhubri in Assam (a BJP-ruled state), why can’t they run it from Cooch Behar? We have readied infrastructure at the airports in Cooch Behar, Balurghat and Malda and yet no initiative was taken. Let me be clear that if required, we will start running flights from these places,” she said.

In 2019, Trinamul drew a blank in all eight parliamentary seats, seven going to the saffron camp and one to Congress.