Bijanbari event scrapped - Morcha boycott call spurs cancellation of foundation laying

Darjeeling, April 29: The foundation laying of a column in memory of Bijanbari bridge collapse victims by Gautam Deb was cancelled today because of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s call to boycott all government programmes. The development is being seen as a move by the government to avoid a direct confrontation with the Morcha and to pre-empt any sort of embarrassment to the north Bengal development minister. The Morcha had announced the boycott to protest the denial of permission to the party to hold a meeting in the Dooars on April 22. Thirty-three people had died when a suspension bridge collapsed during a Morcha programme at Bijanbari, about 35km from Darjeeling, on October 22 last year. The minister said the cancellation of the ceremony in which the foundation of the memorial column was supposed to be laid had nothing to do with the Morcha’s boycott call. “The programme was cancelled as the construction of the bridge started a fortnight back. We thought that it would be better if the bridge is dedicated to the 33 victims during its inauguration,” Deb said over the phone from Siliguri. The Morcha leaders had boycotted a meeting of the Rogi Kalyan Samity chaired by Deb at the Darjeeling district hospital here on April 25. The Darjeeling MLA, Trilok Dewan, and the chairman of the Darjeeling municipality, Amar Singh Rai, who are members of the committee, had stayed away from the meeting. The Morcha had plastered posters in Bijanbari, asking “Gorkhaland loving people” to boycott Deb’s function today to protest the government’s refusal to grant permission to the party to hold the public meeting at Nagrakata. Although the bridge crash was an emotive issue for the people of Bijanbari, few would have attended the event even if it were held as scheduled, with the Morcha calling for a boycott. If Deb had laid the foundation without a single local resident attending the ceremony, it would have come as a major embarrassment for him. There were also fears that Morcha supporters would wave black flags at the minister if he had attended the ceremony. Morcha president Bimal Gurung had distributed more than Rs 30 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased and those who had suffered injuries in the bridge collapse. The party had donated Rs 50,000 to the families of each deceased person.While the Darjeeling Tea Association had contributed Rs 20 lakh as compensation to the Bijanbari victims, Rs 4 lakh was given by the Indian Tea Association and Rs 7 lakh by the Darjeeling Gorkha Hotel Owner’s Association. These amounts were handed over to the Morcha president. The state government, too, provided a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for each deceased person’s family. Even though Deb claimed that the decision to cancel the Bijanbari programme had nothing to do with the Morcha’s boycott call, sources in the PWD spoke on the contrary. “The programme was cancelled yesterday. We were in a dilemma because of the boycott call. We communicated our worry to higher officials who informed us that the minister himself had sought the cancellation of the event. We are relieved now as any ugly incident would have caused major embarrassment to all,” said a PWD official on condition of anonymity. Morcha sources said the boycott announced by Bimal Gurung would continue till he thought otherwise. PWD officials said the bailey bridge over the Little Rangit river connecting Chungthung Tar and Bijanbari town would cost the state exchequer around Rs 3.5 crore. “The bridge will be at a height of 10 metres from the river and will be 200 metre long and 14 feet wide,” said an official.