Cooch Behar - Aug, 18. - Mr. Nirmal Das,
Alipurduar MLA
and convener of the Dooars Rail Unnayan Sangram Committee,
appealed yet again to chief minister Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
to take an early initiative in restoring the rail link between
Gitaldaha in Cooch
Behar and Mogulhat in Bangladesh.
On Wednesday last week, he met Mr. Bhattacharjee
and urged him to take up the matter with the railway minister
to convince him to reintroduce the train communication through
this route. He had also appealed to the chief minister and
the transport minister on 29 July at the state Assembly.
During his visit, Mr. Das told Mr. Bhattacharjee
that not only the people of Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Dooars,
but also the neighbouring country of Bhutan would benefit
if the rail link was restored. It may further better relations
between India and Bangladesh, he said. If the rail link was
revived, commuters of North Bengal could reach Kolkata within
eight and a half hours from Alipurduar Junction in North Bengal,
he said. He told the chief minister that he himself had written
to the railway minister and the chairman of the railway board
to consider the proposal in the interests of better relations
among SARC countries. Mr. Das said that the chief minister
assured him about considering his proposal.
A large section of people from all walks
of life in Cooch Behar and Alipurduar welcomed the initiative
taken by Mr. Das to restore the Indo-Bangladesh rail link
through Gitaldaha in Cooch Behar. In Alipurduar, Prof. Banabihari
Dutta, secretary of Prabeen Nagarik sanstha, Mr. Uttam Basu
of Alipurduar Town Byabasayee Samity, Nirmal Kr. Bhattacharya,
an eminent poet, and Bimalendu Bishnu, a writer, congratulated
the move.
In Cooch Behar, Mr. Parthanath Sarkar, President
of G-NESEP, an NGO working in the North-east region, too,
made an appeal to the railway minister, calling for necessary
initiatives in restoring the link. He said, restoration of
train services on the Gitaldaha- Mogulhat route was important
for communications between India and Bangladesh, as well as
Lower Assam and West Bengal. The Alipurduar and Bamanhat section
of the NF Railway was extended to Golokganj of Lower Assam
before the country's independence, Mr. Sarkar reminded.
Welcoming the move, Mr. Rabindranath Gosh,
president of the Cooch Behar district Trinmul Congress, hoped
that the two neighbouring countries would enter into a treaty,
like the Tinbigha agreement, to restore the rail link.
Courtesy
The Statesman |
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