By PTI
KOLKATA: A BJP MLA from Kurseong in Darjeeling hills on Wednesday demanded the creation of a new state by separating the North Bengal region from West Bengal.
BJP MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma, while speaking during the discussion on the Home and Hills Affairs department’s budget, claimed that there has been no development in North Bengal and creation of a new state is the only way to resolve the woes of the people.
“The hills have been deprived for a very long time. Various communities of North Bengal such as Gorkhas, Rajbanshis, Adivasis have been deprived. The BJP MLAs are being terrorised. We want North Bengal to be a separate state so that our problems are addressed,” he said.
Later, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP also claimed that the people of the hills and North Bengal have been deprived for a long time.
The comments drew sharp reactions from the ruling Trinamool Congress, which ruled out a division of the state and described the demand as an “insane and unreal” proposition.
“The BJP has been trying to fan separatism and plotting to bifurcate Bengal for political reasons. But we will never allow that to happen,” senior TMC leader and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee told reporters.
Last year, Sharma had written to BJP national president J P Nadda seeking separation of Darjeeling hills from West Bengal and urged the party leadership to honour its promise of a permanent political solution of the hills which was plagued by protests demanding a separate Gorkhaland state.
He had sent the letter to Nadda months after a similar demand was made last year by the saffron camp’s Alipurduar MP John Barla that had stirred a hornet’s nest in the state.
Barla had demanded a union territory comprising North Bengal districts, sparking a debate in the state.
The ruling TMC had then accused the saffron camp of fanning separatism.
Meanwhile, state minister Firhad Hakim on Thursday accused the BJP of unleashing a culture of murder and mayhem in the Barrackpore industrial belt and asserted this game-plan will be foiled by the people.
Hakim, who visited family members of the dead Trinamool Congress councilor of Panihati Municipalty Anupam Dutta at his residence in Agarpara area, however said before the investigations were completed it was not possible to pinpoint the key conspirators.
“However, one of the three arrested was known to be close to several BJP leaders and went around with them. There was pressure on Anupam to join BJP after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls but as a loyal TMC man, he had refused. We know there had been attacks on him in past. These things cannot be seen in isolation. I will only hope the investigations would be completed on time ,” the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Mayor said.
He alleged “having lost all support base in the Barrackpore industrial belt, the BJP is now desperate and unleashing a gun culture” in the area.
“We had not previously heard about contract killers in Bengal. Who has introduced that culture? Not TMC,” Hakim queried rhetorically.
BJP Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh had earlier claimed Dutta was a victim of factional feud within the ruling Trinamool.
“TMC groups are fighting among themselves for spoils over pond filling, real estate, sale of closed industrial plant lands in Panihati. Like other parts of state. Anupam was a victim of that. BJP has nothing to do in this,” BJP national Vice-president Dilip Ghosh said on Wednesday.
