The North Dinajpur district administration sealed the Trinamool Congress’s district office in Raiganj on Thursday evening as it was allegedly functioning out of a property leased out by the government.

Officials reached the office premises in the Super Market area, locked the gate and plastered a showcause notice at the entrance.

The notice, which has been issued by the West Bengal Small Industries Development Corporation (WBSIDC), says the space located at the Raiganj Commercial Estate had originally been leased out for 30 years to operate an
MSME unit.

However, no industrial or commercial activity was ever carried out there. Instead, the premises were allegedly sublet illegally and used as a political party’s office.

“It is a leased-out government property allotted for commercial use. How can it be used for political activities? Also, the person to whom the space was allotted has no right to sublet it to anyone else,” said a source in the
administration.

Till 2011, Trinamool’s district office operated out of a shop owned by senior party leader Tilak Chowdhury in Raiganj. Later, during the tenure of former Itahar MLA Amal Acharya as district president, the office was shifted to a building near the national highway on the outskirts of the town, and later to the premises in the Super Market building.

For the past 13 to 14 years, this site has functioned as the district headquarters of
the party.

Local people claimed that after the election results were announced on May 5, the office had largely remained
deserted.

Vivek Dutta, the businessman to whom the room had been leased, said: “We had taken the room on a 30-year lease with plans to open an office for a cell phone service provider. However, the project never materialised. Later, representatives of a political party requested us to let them use the space, and I agreed, though not on a rental basis.”

He added that administrative officials visited the premises on Thursday evening, sealed the room, and issued a notice asking him to appear in an office of the WBSIDC in Calcutta on May 29.

Although the office was sealed, a letter box bearing the party’s name and a giant banner hung from one of the walls showed that it had been used by Trinamool for years.

Kanaiyalal Agarwala, the district Trinamool president, however, said the office had been vacated shortly after the election results were declared.

“We have plans to rent a new space in Raiganj to open the district office. Until then, the district office will function from the personal office of Sadhan Barman, the former councillor of Ward 5 of the town,” Agarwala said.