Makeshift camps, food a hit with district supporters

KOLKATA: Trainloads of

Trinamool Congress supporters

who reached the city on Thursday from various districts have taken shelter at two major makeshift centres. The tents at

Milan Mela

ground, off the EM Bypass, reminded one of Gangasagar. Trinamool leaders Subrata Bakshi, Swarnakamal Saha and Abhishek Banerjee visited these tents on Thursday afternoon to supervise the facilities offered by the local partymen.

At least 10 tents here are capable of accommodating 80,000 Trinamool workers who reached the mela ground on Thursday and would leave the city after attending the mega rally on Friday. Md

Yakub

, a youth from Mathabhanga in Cooch Behar was seen relaxing in one of the makeshift tents. Yakub, is a regular to the July 21 rally, expressed happiness over the arrangements. "Food here is really good. I found the ground to be much cleaner compared to last year. Only problem is dearth of toilets," he said. Kalpana Sarkar, who had come from

Haldibari

, is happy this year the tents look more comfortable.

Purabi Roy Pradhan

, who accompanied Kalpana and 19 others from Haldibari, could not hide her excitement as she was seen chatting with her team about the rally. The Trinamool leadership got a popular caterer to serve them rice, dal, bhaji and egg curry.

Similar scenes were witnessed at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra on Thursday afternoon. Kamal Sakar from Jalpaiguri, who camped at the indoor stadium, was seen taking rest after having lunch. Sarkar, a trader, had rice, dal, fried potato, soya bean curry and egg curry.

"This is more than what I had expected from our party organizers in Kolkata. I have come here with 10 Trinamool workers from our town and we are impatiently waiting to see our CM making announcements for the development of north Bengal," Sarkar said. A Trinamool leader in charge of the camp said over 50,000 party workers would be served lunch here for three days.