Elusive bridge causes great rift

Cooch Behar: Mamata Banerjee before the last Parliamentary elections had revived a promise that the Left Front government could not fulfil, that of bridging a great divide in Cooch Behar's Haldibari. In August, the chief minister even laid the foundation but that was all that happened to the elusive bridge connecting Mekhliganj with Haldibari.

Mekhliganj subdivision in Cooch Behar is located along the Indo-Bangla border, barely 25km from Jalpaiguri. But the Teesta, which meanders through the region splits, Mekhliganj subdivision into two halves: Mekhliganj on the east and Haldibari on the west. To commute between Mekhliganj and Hadibari, people have to take an 85-km detour through Jalpaiguri, Maynaguri and Changrabanda, spending at least two hours on the road. A bridge across the Teesta at Beltali can reduce the travel time to barely 15 minutes and this is what Mamata tried to cash in on. Besides promising easy commute between the two places if she is voted to power, she even christened the 5.8-km proposed bridge 'Jayi'. Of the total population of 3.74 lakh in the subdivision, nearly half live in Haldibari and have to make the detour to Mekhliganj for administrative work. A bridge would make a world of a difference to them.

"Haldibari is the only block in Cooch Behar, which is on the right bank of the Teesta. People here have been enduring this problem for years. When the CM promised the bridge and went on to lay the foundation, we thought our trouble would finally end. But nothing happened. We feel it was only an empty promise," said Haldibari resident Ashis Chakraborty.

For Trinamool, the promised bridge has turned into a headache they could do without, given the intra-party feud that threatens to blow the party's chances in the area. The party has fielded Arghya Roy Pradhan, Tufanganj MLA, from there. But Pradhan is not in the best of position. He was even roughed up by supporters of another leader Laxmi Kanta Sarkar, whom residents apparently wanted as the Mekhliganj candidate. Pradhan is up against Paresh Chandra Adhikary, the sitting Forward Bloc MLA, former food minister.