No end to Malda DPC deadlock

Statesman News Service

MALDA, May 29: The Malda district administration failed to submit schemes approved by the District Planning Committee (DPC) to the Jalpaiguri divisional commissioner and the member secretary of the Uttar Banga Unnayan Parishad (UBUP) on 24 May due to a political deadlock that has hampered the functioning of the committee here. The four other districts, however, submitted their schemes on 24 May and are now waiting for the UBUP’s approival. The Malda district magistrate, Mr CR Das, informed the situation of Malda DPC to the divisional commissioner and sought suggestion to resolve the problem. The DPC meeting, it may be recalled, had ended inconclusively following an altercation between Left and anti-Left members of the committee. The sabhadhipati of the Malda Zilla Parishad and chairperson of the DPC, Mr Goutam Chakraborty, staged a walkout from the DPC meeting. As a result, the district magistrate could not finalise the schemes for the UBUP’s approval. He, however, forwarded two lists of schemes following the divisional commissioner’s instruction.Sources said senior officials, including the divisional commissioner, chose suitable schemes from the two lists for the UBUP’s approval. It may be recalled that on 24 May, the LF members of the DPC had demanded that the chairman would have to accept schemes prepared and submitted by them because they enjoyed a majority in the committee. A total of 21 LF members and 19 non-Left members were present at the meeting. After Mr Goutam Chakraborty walked out of the meeting, the Left members allegedly heckled the district magistrate demanding his judgment as member secretary of the DPC. Speaking to The Statesman, the DM, Mr CR Das, said: “The district magistrate can only note down the proceedings and decisions of the meeting according to the WBDPC Act 1994. In this Act, there is no provision for a DM to select schemes if there is a difference between two political camps.”