The BJP marched to the headquarters of the Trinamool Congress-run Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) on Tuesday, demanding the resignation of mayor Gautam Deb.
The BJP said the civic board led by Deb failed to address the drinking water crisis in the city and asserted that from January, the party would launch a month-long movement.
Shankar Ghosh and Sikha Chatterjee, the BJP MLAs of Siliguri and Dabgram-Fulbari, respectively, led the march from Baghajatin Park to the SMC headquarters.
Carrying empty buckets and containers, and placards and festoons, BJP workers shouted slogans against the civic board’s alleged apathy towards the residents.
Ghosh, the Siliguri MLA, said Deb had served as a state minister for two terms from 2011 to 2021. Later, he took charge as the chairman of the board of administrators of the SMC and assumed the mayor’s office in 2022.
“As the minister, the chairman of the BoA and the mayor, he did not take any initiative to improve the drinking water supply in the city. The supply is erratic. Also, the basic civic services are in a shambles. We want him to step down from his post,” said Ghosh.
Deb, the mayor, could not be contacted. Ranjan Sarkar, his deputy, slammed the BJP’s “cheap politics”.
“It is surprising that the MLAs and other BJP leaders do not have any information about the mega drinking water project that has been taken up. We have also got a new intake well at the treatment plant to improve the water supply. The BJP has become politically bankrupt now and thus making weird claims,”
said Sarkar.
Financial aid
Raju Bista, the BJP MP of Darjeeling, extended financial assistance to the affected traders of Bidhan Market, the largest retail marketplace in Siliguri. The shops of these traders were gutted in a blaze on September 29.
Shankar Ghosh, the Siliguri MLA, and Arun Mondal, the president of the Siliguri (organisational) district committee of BJP, handed over cheques for ₹50,000 to each of the nine affected traders on Tuesday.
After the mishap, chief minister Mamata Banerjee provided ex-gratia of ₹1 lakh to each of them and ₹50,000 each to 14 others whose shops got partially damaged.
