With an election fear keeping the Mamata Banerjee Government off the scene, the Greater Coochbehar People’s Association on Monday flexed its muscle to extend its Rail Roko agitation to Kokrajhar cutting off the entire North Eastern India from the remaining part of the country.
As many as four dozen trains were cancelled and many others had to be terminated at New Jalpaiguri. North East Frontier Railway CPRO P Sharma said that the Railways had been forced to cancel several trains.
Trains like Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express Saraighat Express, Udaipur-NJP Express, Brahmaputra Mail, Kanchanjangha Express, lohit Express, Kamrup Express, Teesta Torsha Express and Uttar Banga Express, Awadh-Assam Express, Garib Nawaz Express were either cancelled or being terminated at NJP and other stations NF Railway sources said.
The trains which had been diverted were the two Rajdhani Expresses, N-E Express and Yesvantpur Express-Kamakhya Air-conditioned Express, sources said adding a number of local trains had also been cancelled.
“We can understand the problem the people are facing for the past a few days but this inconvenience is very small in comparison to the problem we are facing for the past 65 years as the Government of India has failed to pay heed to the demand of the common people of Coochbehar which was a separate princely State and had never been a part of Bengal,” said GCPA chief Bangshi Badan Burman.
The GCPA wants the Government to implement the instrument of accession according to which the last King of Coochbehar and the Government of India had agreed to make the province a “Type C State,” Burman said and added “the people of Coochbehar have refused to be befooled anymore and we will continue this agitation until we get a solution.”
“Our men are camping on the tracks making their foods and living here in the night” he maintained even as the local Trinamool Congress leaders blamed the BJP leadership for inciting the locals to gain political mileage ahead of the polls.
“This issue has been raked up by Darjeeling MP SS Ahluwalia to gain political mileage before the elections” Coochbehar district Trinamool Congress president RB Ghosh said even as the BJP denied the allegations.