Sailen takes up border farmers' issues

Statesman NewsService

BULBULCHANDI (MALDA), April 9: “Give me votes, elect me as MP, and I will solve the problems of farmers living along the Indo-Bangladesh border,” declared the CPI-M candidate for North Malda parliamentary seat, Mr Sailen Sarkar.

Addressing the Left Front ‘workers’ meeting’ on Wednesday evening - at Bulbulchandi in Habibpur, a bordering block in Malda - Mr Sailen Sarker, LS candidate and state parliamentary affairs and environment minister, said: “People living in the bordering villages are facing a perennial problem regarding cultivating their lands and harvesting standing crops. They regularly face atrocities committed by the Border Security Force. Please elect me as MP, so that I can raise the issue in Delhi.”

Mr Sarkar is angling to secure a good leading margin to trump the Congress candidate Miss Mausam Noor from Habibpur Assembly segment - a tribal and backward class-dominated red bastion where the BJP also has a strong base. In his bid to win voters, Mr Sarkar promised to initiate projects focusing on drinking water and irrigation of the rivers Tangan and Punarbhaba. He also pledged to initiate a project with a target of ensuring the uninterrupted supply of electricity to all villages by 2011.

Mr Sarkar criticised both the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, saying: “If the BJP does not sell its votes to the Congress here, the CPI-M will fight its nearest BJP candidate. In the last rural polls the Congress bought votes from BJP's bank here to secure the panchayat board.”

Addressing the meeting, the LF district leaders were adamant in their countering of Miss Noor, niece of ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury, and did not hesitate to point out family problems between Miss Noor and her maternal uncle Dr AN Khan Choudhury, who had been rivals over their nomination for the ticket.

"To generate media hype, the Ghani Khan family stirred up a ‘drama’ based on the nomination of the candidate for North Malda, between the maternal uncle and his niece. Everything was planned to secure two tickets for two LS seat in Malda for their family members,” said Mr Sarbananda Pandey, the RSP district committee member.

Mr Milan Das, district leader of the Socialist Party, criticised Miss Noor for her decision to contest in North Malda, calling her a ‘betrayer'.

“After the demise of her mother Rubi Noor, the newly elected MLA from Sujapur has betrayed the people of Sujapur. She had promised to finish incomplete works initiated by her mother and maternal uncles in Sujapur. Now she is begging votes here, making false promises,” said Mr Milan Das.

Mr Shyamal Chakraborty, state CPI-M leader, took a shot at Miss Noor: “What ‘incomplete’ work? Where there are no initiatives, there is no question of finishing incomplete work. She should say: 'I must sleep, following my maternal uncles - don't give me a wake up call.”