SILIGURI, Dec. 24 : The Forward Bloc and the CPI leadership have flayed the state government for not addressing the tribal development issue in the proper manner.
“The Left Front government's performance during its three decade tenure is not up to the expectations and an introspection is required as a prelude to effectively stemming the discontent tide in the tribal dominated region, including the region of north Bengal,” said the FB and the CPI leadership today.
It may be mentioned that the state PWD minister and a senior RSP leader, Mr Ksiti Goswami, said in Siliguri a few days ago that the Left Front government has miserably failed to address the tribal problems during its tenure.
According to the FB's national secretary, Mr Debabrata Biswas, the panchayat system ushered in the state to address the local development issues at the local levels has reduced itself to a localised version of centralised ruling. “The panchayat should have been instrumental in ameliorating the local economic grievances. It has failed in its mission fuelling discontent in the poverty stricken regions of the state,” he said.
Referring to the tribal unrest, the FB leader said that it could not have come to its present sorry pass had the panchayats taken care of the development requirements in the tribal dominated region.
Supporting the view the CPI state secretary Mr Manju Kumar Majumder said that the principal cause begetting the tribal unrest was the problem of red tapism coming in the way of providing the tribals with the much required Scheduled Tribe certificates. “We have recently asked the chief minister to ensure prompt issuance of these certificates at the local administrative and panchayat levels,” he said.
Taking a dig at the Left Front government on the matter, the CPI leader said that the legacy of Leftist struggle for the tribal rights to forest and in the tea plantations was waning. “The leaders are getting isolated from the suffering populace as they have tasted the loaves of office,” he said.
Denying the allegations the state backward and tribal welfare minister, Mr Jogesh Barman, said that massive development work had been undertaken over the years for the socio-economic and educational development of the state's tribal population. “New schemes are being envisaged to accelerate the development pace. But the problem of population explosion in the tribal community is adversely affecting the development programmes,” he said.