Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar today said that in spite of being having great potential and being beautiful, north Bengal has some long-term issues, which he said will be solved “constitutionally with a futuristic point of view.”
Mr Dhankhar was speaking at the Malda Town railway station on his way to New Jalpaiguri this afternoon. He also termed his travel as “constitutional pilgrimage” as Darjeeling had the second Raj Bhavan in the state, and according to him, he was “moving from one office to the other.”
He also urged government officials to be “public servants” and not be “political servants.”
However, no state government official was present at the station, while north Malda MP Khagen Murmu and Divisional Railway Manager, Malda Division, along with other railway officials, visited him there.
Asked about the Hill political development and the demand for Gorkhaland, the Governor said, “Two major issues of the country, abrogation of Article 370 and construction of the Ram Temple, have been settled, something which people thought would never happen. Indian constitution allows a solution to every problem. Works are divided and an FIR can be filed at a police station and not income tax assessment. Similarly, one cannot file an FIR in an Income Tax office and everyone knows this. I will try earnestly to understand the problem with head, heart, emotion and with cultural depth and try to broaden the way for solutions.”
According to him, north Bengal had huge prospects in the tourism sector and that he would meet people, tea garden workers and other stakeholders to enhance connectivity and develop tourism, trade etc.
On the other hand, on the state government’s top officials, Mr Dhankhar said, “I request the top officials of the state to be public servants and not political servants, because if you be the latter, you are hitting at the fundamental democratic structure of the country. Some of them have understood, but the others are going in the wrong direction, but they don’t know that the long arms of the law will catch them up.”
He also expressed concerns over the ongoing political situation in the state and said, “What’s going on here? Is there any week, which doesn’t see a man killed, while making bombs or being murdered for political reasons? We have to stop these things.”