Chaos broke out at the Trinamool Congress-run Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) during the monthly meeting of the board on Friday over the recent approval of a road overbridge (ROB) in the city.

BJP councillors resorted to protests, alleging that Trinamool and the Left were not acknowledging the Centre’s role in the project and staged a walkout.

Amit Jain, leader of the Opposition in the civic body and a BJP councillor, said the Centre had recently approved construction of the ROB at the unmanned railway crossing in Bagrakote, near the Siliguri Town station.

He claimed that despite the approval, Trinamool and Left councillors attempted to take credit for the project without acknowledging the central government’s role and that of chief minister Suvendu Adhikari.

Speaking after the walkout, Jain said that even though Trinamool was in power for 15 years in Bengal and the CPM ruled both the state and the civic board for years, they failed to address the inconvenience faced by people at the unmanned level crossing in Bagrakote.

“After the BJP formed the government in the state, the issue has finally been resolved with support from the Centre. The Centre has approved the ROB for the convenience of thousands of commuters. But during the motion discussion at the meeting today, Trinamool and Left councillors discussed the matter without acknowledging the central government and Suvendu Adhikari. We consider it a clear reflection of a tacit understanding between the two parties, and as a mark of protest, we walked out of the meeting,” Jain said.

The situation turned tense when CPM councillor Saradindu Chakraborty thanked the Trinamool-run civic board for pursuing the long-standing demand for the ROB.

While praising the efforts initiated during the Left Front regime and stating that the proposal finally received approval during the Trinamool tenure, Chakraborty’s remarks drew strong objections from the BJP councillors.

Jain criticised Chakraborty’s statement, calling it a “set-up” between the Left and Trinamool before leading the BJP councillors out of the conference hall.

Following the walkout, Chakraborty and Trinamool councillor Ranjan Silsharma demanded that Sanjay Sharma, the chairman-in-council overseeing the meeting, expunge the remarks of the BJP councillors from the official proceedings.

Mayor Gautam Deb said: “The BJP councillors had overreacted to the issue. Efforts for the construction of either an underpass or an ROB at the site have been ongoing for years. Many communications were made with the Centre regarding the matter, and recently, Siliguri MLA Shankar Ghosh also took up the issue with the central government.”

Motion on Tenzing

The Trinamool-run civic board in the SMC passed a resolution at the monthly board meeting on Friday to raise a demand before the central and state governments to honour Everester Tenzing Norgay Sherpa by conferring “Bharat Ratna Award” on him posthumously.

The legendary climber scaled Mount Everest for the first time with New Zealand’s Sir Edmund Hillary on May 29, 1953.