Kalimpong,5th Dec

Just a week after Calcutta High Court gave a clearance for Kalimpong to be made a district state chief secretary Mr Basudev Banerjee held a high power administrative meeting for the same at Delo here today.

Mr Banerjee arrived in Kalimpong on Saturday and is staying at Delo tourist lodge.This morning he visited different places in Kalimpong after which he interacted with Jan Andolan Party (JAP) leaderships and later MLA Kalimpong along with Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) representatives and Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) leaders.

Late afternoon,Mr Banerjee conducted an administrative meeting that was attended by state PWD secretary, Power department secretary, Divisional Commissioner Jalpaiguri range, DIG Jalpaiguri range Mr Rajesh Yadav, DM Darjeeling Mr Anurag Srivastav,SP Darjeeling Amit P Javalgi along with other departmental officials.

Speaking with media persons, Darjeeling DM Mr Srivastav briefed about the meeting which lasted for about an hour.

“We had a meeting regarding the creation of Kalimpong district and to access the preparation both in term of man power creation in every department and infrastructure buildings,” he said. He further informed ,

“We visited different vacant lands this morning and discussed about the probable lands in the meeting today”,he said. Meanwhile, when asked to DM about the demand of a section of Kurseong and Jalpaiguri to be included in Kalimpong district, DM said,“There are some areas which should logically come in Kalimpong and vice versa but while creating a new district there are technical difficulties. If we include any areas of another constituency we need permission and concurrence of Election Commission of India (ECI) that makes the process more complicated. Sadar Subdivison along with existing blocks will start functioning as a district.”

“Chief secretary stated that a logical approach will be made with regard to this demand.“For now,we will go with whatever is the existing assembly constituency of Kalimpong,” he informed.

Replying to a question, DM said that it is very likely that the new district will be functional by April 2017. “SC has instructed in the meeting to start necessary process immediately. We are prepared and will start the deposition in due time. We will be ready in a month’s time,” he informed.