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| The protest meet at the Balurghat railway station. Picture by Abhijit Chakrabarty |
Balurghat, Dec. 21: Thousands of residents, including schoolchildren, gathered at the Balurghat station this afternoon to protest against the cancellation of the extension of Gour Express till here.
Chairperson of Balurghat Municipality Sucheta Biswas, who is also the leader of the Eklakhi-Balurghat Rail Unnayan Committee, said they also staged a token rail-roko at the station for 15 minutes. The district Congress will observe a 12-hour bandh in South Dinajpur tomorrow.
Gour Express, which has been plying between Sealdah and Malda since 1984, was supposed to terminate at the South Dinajpur headquarters from December 26. The plan was however, cancelled after Union minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi wrote to rail minister Lalu Prasad, urging him not to alter the Gour Express’s route.
Blaming Das Munshi for the cancellation, Congress leader of the town Biblab Khan said: “Those who persuaded the railway board to cancel the new route of Gour Express, claiming that it would hurt Barkatda’s (A.B.A. Khan Chowdhury) sentiment, have actually belittled him in front of the people of this district. Barkatda was never parochial.”
State jails and social welfare minister and Balurghat MLA Biswanath Chowdhury today sent a protest fax to Lalu Prasad. “I will meet the rail minister soon. The train has to run from Balurghat,” Chowdhury told The Telegraph.
RSP MP Ranen Barman also said he would seek intervention of the rail minister. Alleging that Das Munshi had “misused” his power “to influence” the railway board, Barman said: “I shall level the breach-of-parliamentary-norms charge against Das Munshi.”