Battle lines drawn for Malda by-poll

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Aug. 7: Malda CPI-M district leadership has probed into a number of burning issues in the Malda by-poll campaign for contesting Mr AH Khan Choudhury, the brother of the late Congress stalwart, ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury. The by-poll issues cover a wide spectrum, from the welfare of the minority , erosion problem along the Ganges, rehabilitation of victims of erosion, to the recovery of eroded lands in Jharkhand and the dilemma of the farmers along the Indo-Bangladesh border area. It was reported that Mr Jiban Moitra, the CPI-M district secretary, published a 28 page-booklet on Left Front government’s continual effort for the development and welfare of the minority community. The booklet too, primarily deals with the topic of development and the welfare of the minority community. Taking advantage of the ministerial post held by Mr Sailen Sarkar, state parliamentary affairs minister, who is also likely to contest against Mr AH Khan Choudhury, Mr Moitra, reportedly has made a compilation of documents, procured from the Assembly along with published speeches of chief minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Mr Abdus Sattar, minister for minority development and welfare, dealing with the issue of minority development, delivered in the Assembly session of June 2006. The booklet especially highlights the proposed budget for 2006-07 the related debates, discussions and speeches delivered by Mr Abdus Sattar. The booklet contains documents of speeches on issues of minority development and welfare, development of madrasa education and allotment of its budget for the financial year 2006-07. The booklet further mentions that Mr Abdus Sattar had proposed a grant of Rs 13.11 crore for the welfare of the minority community. Mr Sattar’s speech in the booklet also claimed that the Left Front government was working towards its target “Vision 2020” for the same purpose. Mr Sattar said: “While the Centre has spent Rs 83.89 crore for the country, the state government is solely spending Rs 130 crore.” The booklet said that the West Bengal Minority Development and Financial Corporation has sanctioned Rs 2,944.43 lakh as loan to 12,524 beneficiaries in 2005-06 for setting up self employment units.#