The Darjeeling district committee of the CPM will organise a sit-in demonstration in front of the headquarters of the Trinamool-run Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) in protest against the “highhandedness” of criminals and drug abusers and the allegedly pathetic state of civic services.

“The law and order in and around Siliguri is in a shambles now. Criminals and drug abusers are dominating different localities with the indulgence of a section of Trinamool Congress leaders and harassing and assaulting common people and those who are raising voices against them,” Saman Pathak, the Darjeeling district CPM secretary, said here on Friday.

He referred to a recent incident at Thakurnagar, which is off the Eastern Bypass of the city, where a gang had beaten up a family for voicing protests.

Pathak, who is a member of the CPM’s central committee, said on July 4, CPM activists would march to the SMC headquarters and hold a demonstration.

“Our party will conduct a mass campaign in all 47 wards of the SMC against the poor law and order and the civic board’s failure to provide appropriate civic services to people,” the CPM leader added.

The announcement comes on a day when the Sara Bharat Krishak Sabha, the peasants’ wing of the CPM, organised a march and a protest in Siliguri. Left leaders and supporters marched to the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad (SMP) headquarters and launched a demonstration on different issues related to farmers and rural areas of the Siliguri subdivision.

Gautam Ghosh, the Darjeeling district secretary of the Citu, said the SMP board, where the TMC is in power, stopped development work in the rural areas.

“We protested against the poor functioning of the SMP board. It has miserably failed to expedite development in the rural areas in all four blocks of the subdivision. Land mafias are illegally occupying farmlands, and the police and the administration are not taking any steps,” said Ghosh.