The scuffle among traders on the western bank of Laldighi. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

Cooch Behar, July 10: Traders belonging to opposing factions came to blows on the edge of Laldighi this morning when district officials went there to measure encroachments on the western bank of the pool in preparation for a beautification drive.

However, the administration was prepared and had deployed a large police force, which dispersed the warring groups.

Cooch Behar district magistrate Rajesh Kumar Sinha said the measurements were completed without any hitch.

“We will now hold an all-party meeting where we will also call the traders’ bodies before proceeding with the beautification drive.”

A source in the district administration said at a meeting held on January 12, it was decided that a slum that had come up on the southern side of the pool — dug when kings ruled Cooch Behar — would be removed and the residents given land elsewhere. It was also decided that owners of shops on the western side of Laldighi would be given lease of the land they were occupying, added the source.

However, a faction of the shopkeepers owing allegiance to Trinamul Congress leader and secretary of the district traders’ association Bimal Saha claimed that the Congress-run civic body was not acting impartially in granting the lease. So the district magistrate directed the land and land revenue department to take measurements of the shops and resolve the dispute.

Saha alleged that today, when the land officials came to measure the shops, some traders owing allegiance to the Congress chairman of the municipality, Biren Kundu, attacked him and his followers.

“They brought with them local toughs, who attacked us,” Saha said.

The Trinamul leader said his association filed a police complaint following the incident. “If the culprits are not booked, we will call a trade bandh in town,” said Saha.

The Kundu faction has denied that it had anything to do with the attack. “It was they (Saha and his followers) who attacked us once their allegations about the civic body’s partiality were proved to be false,” said Madan Rajak, the secretary of the rival traders’ body.

The municipality chairman, on the other hand, flatly denied that any violence had taken place near Laldighi. “I was present at the spot and there was no fighting. And if there was, then none of my supporters was involved in it,” Kundu said.

The district secretary of Trinamul, Rabindranath Ghosh, alleged that the municipality had illegally occupied a 28ft-long stretch on the northern side of Laldighi.

“We also want the administration to demolish seven illegal shops and a toilet constructed by the municipality on the western side of the pool,” Ghosh said.