September 28, 2010
Mamata opens up new vistas for the Hills
At a public function organized by Northeast Frontier Railway at Darjeeling station and cheered on by a capacity crowd, Trinamool chief Ms. Mamata offered to bring the Prime Minister to Darjeeling with a development package. She also outlined her plans for the Hills if she became chief minister. “If I become the chief minister, there will be a seat of the state secretariat in Darjeeling,” she promised, and went on to add: “After I go back, I will give my recommendations to the Prime Minister. I’ll tell him, please come here with a special package. There is need for it in Darjeeling.” She promised to recommend to the Union finance minister a tax holiday for setting up industries in Darjeeling, like in other hill areas. She also promised to set up a campus of the Railway Recruitment Board in Darjeeling and an examination centre with facility for writing the papers in Nepali, expressing hope that this would open up job prospects for the youth. Her next announcement was to set up a diesel engine filter plant unit and a composite unit for the manufacture of brake block of coaches at Tindharia loco shed. An old unit there would be modernized and two new units would be set up, she said. At Kurseong, the railway printing press will be modernized and a nursing unit and a skill training facility set up. The Tindharia railway hospital would be upgraded at a cost of 10 crore, she said. Mamata also hunoured the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) by accepting some of the demands made by its leaders when they met her on Sunday. She said a broad-gauge line would be set up from Siliguri to Sukna along the Rangpo line in Sikkim. Four stations catering to the needs of Darjeeling and Kalimpong will also be built. Mamata also promised to take up with the Centre the setting up of a medical college and a central university in the Hills, points that the GJM had raised in the tripartite talks.
Image Courtesy: The Times of India
