The Bengal government on Wednesday cleared the decks for the expansion of Bagdogra airport as chief minister Mamata Banerjee handed over 104 acres of land to the Airports Authority of India for the project.
The demand for the expansion of the airport’s infrastructure was raised in several quarters in the past few years following a steep rise in the number of flights and passengers.
The rise in the passenger count had made the AAI draw up plans for the expansion of the terminal building and allied infrastructure.
But it took time for the state government to arrange for the land. The AAI, for the first time, paid Rs 25 crore to the state as compensation. It needed to be paid to a tea garden, from which the land had been acquired.
“We have handed over the land that was required for the airport. It will help in the expansion of the Bagdogra airport that has recorded an exponential growth in terms of the number of passengers in the past few years,” Mamata said at an administrative review meeting of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts on Wednesday.
The meeting was held at Uttarkanya, the branch secretariat of the state in Siliguri.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee at the review meeting in Siliguri on Wednesday. Picture by Passang Yolmo
Apart from providing land for the airport’s expansion, Mamata tried to reach out to the hill population and the Rajbanshi community.
She gave a grant of Rs 175 crore to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration and land documents of 64 forest villages in the GTA area, which have been converted into revenue villages.
Engagement letters for jobs of home guards were handed over to 161 former militants of the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation.
The chief minister provided the Rajbanshi Bhasha Academy with Rs 5 crore and the West Bengal Rajbanshi Development & Cultural Board with Rs 10 crore.
On Tuesday, Mamata had announced homes for tea estate residents in the Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts.
Political observers said she was playing the development card by trying to meet some long-pending demands.
“She has simultaneously come up with additional financial allocations for several bodies and agencies that are engaged in the development of various regions or communities. It is evident that the chief minister wants to reach out to people living in the hills and the plains,” according to one.
Mamata is keen on winning back the support of Rajbanshis, whose support can be the decisive factor in close to half of the 54 Assembly seats in north Bengal, the observer said. Mamata’s announcements have this clear, he said.
On Wednesday, Mamata said the medical college in Cooch Behar would be named after Maharaja Jitendra Narayan (one of the erstwhile kings of Cooch Behar) and the second campus of Cooch Behar Panchanan Burma University (that will come up in Mathabhanga) will be named after Pachanan Burma (a revered statesman from the Rajbanshi community). She handed over 50 acres for the second campus.
Mamata addressed another issue of the hills — the right of people who live in forest villages. For some time, there was a demand that the rights of such people be protected according to the forest rights act as it has been done in the neighbouring districts of Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri.
In the course of her review meeting, Mamata met another old demand of Jalpaiguri residents and laid the foundation stone of a medical college and hospital.
She inaugurated the second phase of work on a Rs 6 crore project to renovate Graham’s Chapel in Kalimpong.
The chief minister instructed Rajiva Sinha, the outgoing chief secretary, to look into the demand for constituting a separate block in Banarhat of Jalpaiguri.
Banarhat in the western Dooars is surrounded by tea gardens and is part of the Dhupguri block now.
Residents of Banarhat and adjoining areas joined in a celebration on Wednesday evening. Local Trinamul leaders held a rally in the presence of Mitali Roy, the Trinamul MLA from Dhupguri.
