Siliguri Mayor Gautam Deb has accused BJP lawmakers of taking no steps to carry out substantial development work and failing to utilise their local area development funds in the 14 wards under the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC). Mr Deb directly charged Dabgram-Fulbari MLA Sikha Chatterjee for her alleged non-committal role.

A two time MLA of the constituency and former minister, Mr Deb said Mrs Chatterjee was doing nothing but “sleeping.”

The mayor fired a salvo at her during the weekly phonein programme ‘Talk to the Mayor’ after a resident of ward 40 expressed resentment at the role of the civic body on the deplorable condition of the drains and roads.

The 14 SMC wards, four gram panchayats (DabgramI & II and Fulbari-I& II) come under the jurisdiction of the Assembly segment in Jalpaiguri district.

“She (Chatterjee) has been elected for almost two years now. I am wondering what she has done for the development there. How much work has she taken up during this period? The MP (of Jalpaiguri), who will complete four and half years in office, gets development funds of Rs 5 crore annually and the MLA gets Rs 60 lakh. Moreover, they are entitled to get other assistance from the Centre, but what is their performance?” Mr Deb said in response to the call while venting his ire.

Later, he said the MLA was doing nothing. “She is sleeping. The MP got Rs 20 crore. They can bring funds from the central government and work for development for the people, but they did nothing. Morning shows the day. They did not utilise the MLA local area development funds and MP local area development funds. There are 14 wards under her Assembly constituency, which is around 66 percent of the total constituency, and Dabgram-Fulbari is one of the seven constituencies under the Jalpaiguri parliamentary constituency. Does the MP have no commitment towards the electors? We would like to know how much work he has done with his MPLAD funds for the constituency,” Mr Deb went on to add.

Political commentators have observed that the Trinamul Congress will highlight those issues in the upcoming rural elections in those four gram panchayats under the Assembly constituency. He also held the previous Left Front government and the long tenure of the Left-run civic board responsible for the lack of development.

According to Mr Deb, despite the constraints of funds, the civic body and the board had now taken up a number of development works, focused on the basic civic services, including in those 14 added wards, in the past one year On the other hand, Mrs Chatterjee said she was ready to make public the detailed accounts of the funds she had received, and how she had spent, and also the “hindrances” in utilizing them.

“We have received Rs 30 lakh, but due to the Duare Sarkar camps, officials from the DM and BDO offices are unable to pay visits to review the works, and this has led to the non-utilisation of the funds. The money is lying in the DM office. When a minister, what development workd did he carry out in DabgramFulbari? They have made ruling party activists as land grabbers, collected extortions and are involved in illegal mining. I am ready to give them the list of development work, but can they face this? They did not work for the people,” she hit back.

A BJP turncoat, Mrs Chatterjee had defeated Mr Deb in the last Assembly elections in 2021. He had served in the ministries of North Bengal Development Department and tourism during his stint as an MLA. According to a Trinamul Congress leader, a significant number of development work had been undertaken during this time.

“The branch secretariat, Uttarkanya, Bengal Safari: North Bengal Wild Animals Park, two registration offices, two stations of the fire and emergency services have been set up in the area, while the infrastructure development works including an alternative Siliguri-Jalpaiguri road, widening of the 10 km of the Eastern Bypass, road over bridges, an electric crematorium came up then. But what after them?” he said.