Members of the Greater Cooch Behar People’s Association being stopped by the district officials from entering Jalpaiguri town. Picture by Biplab Basak

Siliguri, Nov. 14: Around 2,000 members of the Greater Cooch Behar People’s Association marched to Jalpaiguri, but were turned away from the outskirts of the town by the administration after half an hour of negotiation.

Police allowed only five Association members to meet Jalpaiguri divisional commissioner B.L. Meena and submit a memorandum to him. The Association has announced that it will form a cabinet for the Greater Cooch Behar state on November 26. The new state, the Association members said, would comprise the four districts of Assam — Goalpara, Dhubri, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon — and five north Bengal districts, excluding Malda.

“During talks, officials and ministers at the Centre had said they would mull over our proposal. We have been fighting for the state and have started working towards achieving it,” said Paresh Chandra Roy, the convener of the central committee of the Association.

“Last month, we had presented a citation to the divisional commissioner, appointed him the chief secretary of our state. Today, we came here to hold a rally and submit another memorandum to him, informing him that we will form the council of ministers or the cabinet of our state on the 26th of this month.”

When the Association members assembled near Jalpaiguri Palace around 11.30am, policemen formed a three-tier barricade to prevent them from entering the town, 40km from here. Senior administrative officials including the subdivisional officer of Jalpaiguri, Atanu Roy, tried to dissuade them.

The supporters started shouting slogans. The administration proposed that the rally be allowed to pass through the outskirts and that a five-member delegation with police escort could meet Meena to submit the memorandum.

After 30 minutes of persuasion, the Association leaders agreed to the proposal.

Five of them were taken to Meena’s office where they submitted the memorandum to another officer — Meena was not in his office — and returned.

“The state and Centre are rendering so much priority to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, although their demand is very recent and no such state as Gorkhaland had ever existed,” said Upendra Nath Roy, the Jalpaiguri district committee convener of the Association. “However, in our case, the government is infringing on our rights to organise democratic movement although the state we are demanding existed even a few decades ago.” The Association, however, did not divulge the names of the “Prime Minister” and other “ministers” of the new state.