A team of the Rapid Action Force patrols the bridge before the inauguration. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Milan More (Siliguri), Dec. 1: Two state ministers, both from the CPM, today formally opened a bridge that had the same colours as the flag of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, thanks to the restraint on the part of administration and increasing support of the hill party in this area.

Tension was brewing here this afternoon when around 150 Morcha supporters walked to the bridge and removed a coat of lime — that had been applied to cover the green, yellow and white stripes like the party flag — with wet gunny bags.

The bridge, 9km from Siliguri town, has been built by the state backward classes welfare department in association with the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad.

“We have no objection if the ministers formally inaugurate the bridge. We have deleted the slogans and removed our flags. But we will oppose any attempt by the administration to change the colour of the bridge,” said Madhusudan Thapa, the president of the Siliguri sub-division committee of the Morcha.

The Morcha supporters also raised a pandal beside the road leading to the site where the inaugural ceremony would be held.

Protesters from different age groups, mostly in traditional attires, sang songs and shouted slogans demanding Gorkhaland till 3pm as the 100-odd policemen watched. Trouble started when a few Morcha supporters spotted four painters working on the bridge.

Immediately, hordes of protesters rallied to the bridge — built over the Mahishmari to connect Milan More with Mohorgong-Gulma Tea Estate — and wiped off the paint with wet gunny bags. The policemen stood at a distance.

Ten minutes later, around 300 CPM supporters arrived in buses and trucks, shouting anti-Morcha slogans.

The Morcha supporters, however, did not react as the administration made no further attempts to re-paint the bridge – in that case it would have been the third time. Instead, they made their way to chairs kept in front of the stage, in ones and twos and listened to the ministers speak.

State ministers Asok Bhattacharya and Jogesh Burman, scheduled to inaugurate the bridge fitted with solar lights reached the venue at 4.30pm, more than one-and-a-half hours after the scheduled time.

Accompanied by policemen, CPM leaders and administrative officials, Bhattacharya and Burman walked across the 150m long bridge to the Milan More end, unveiled the marble plate and cut the red ribbon. Flags of the CPM that had been put up between the Morcha stripes fluttered in the air.

“We believe in development and have undertaken a host of schemes in this area that comes under the Champasari village panchayat,” said Bhattacharya, the state urban development minister. “However, we cannot cope with the problem of elephants that often enters villages and tea estates, causing loss of lives and property.”

“Some political parties (read Morcha) have mushroomed here and they are like the elephants, trying to damage everything although they know that the people are in favour of development,” he added.

During his speech, the minister spoke of the projects that have been stalled in Darjeeling. “Works of all departments have halted and people are being deprived of facilities. We, in Siliguri, are determined to walk ahead and would foil any attempt to make this place a chan (burial ground in Nepali) like Darjeeling,” Bhattacharya said.

Burman spoke in detail about the schemes available for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. After the inaugural ceremony that lasted for half an hour, the crowd dispersed and the tension fizzled out.