COOCH BEHAR, Aug. 10: General meeting of UTUC affiliated Uttar Banga PHE Mechanical Workers’ Union was held at Alipurduar today. Leaders and members form all the six districts of North Bengal attended the meeting. Alipurduar MLA Mr Nirmal Das presided over the meeting while leaders like Mr Suresh Talukdar, Mr Asit Majumder, Mr Subrata Gupta, Mr Manas Roy and Mr Gopal Prasad spoke on the occasion. 

In the meeting the union leaders and members demanded recognition of PHE workers as state government employees. They argued that till the recognition comes into effect the Zilla Parishads should shoulder the responsibility of paying the workers. They also demanded abolition of the contractor system in PHE works. [] 

August Revolution Day observed 

COOCH BEHAR, Aug. 10: August Revolution Day was observed with due respect in different parts of Alipurduar yesterday. 

In a programme organised by the RSP and its frontal organisations at Alipurduar, the Alipurduar MLA Mr Nirmal Das recalled the history and perspective of the August Revolution. He mentioned the influence of the revolution on the struggle for Independence. Mr Das said that the dream of the great revolutionaries is yet to be materialised. Calling for an end of the era of compromise the people should organise themselves against imperialism, he advised. Mr Pulak Bhattacharya and Mr Buya Das also spoke on the occasion. Mr Sisir Bhattacharya presided over the programme. 

Another programme was held at Tapsikhata yesterday. Here Jalpaiguri district RSP secretary Mr Rana Sen and Mr Nirmal Das were the main speakers. [] 

Workshop on right to food and work 

COOCH BEHAR, Aug. 10: Thirty non-government organisations from all over West Bengal met in a two-day workshop on right to food and right to work at Dinhata in Cooch Behar district recently. The basic point of the workshop was a demand to include the issue in the Constitution as a fundamental right of the people. 

The workshop was also held with an aim to build a common understanding among the NGOs of the state regarding right to food and right to work and make an action plan to initiate the process through out West Bengal. The workshop was organized by G-NESEP and sponsored by Action Aid. 

According to the participant NGOs the Indian constitution recognises right to live as directive principal only, not as a fundamental right of the people. As a result poor and marginalized people are being sufferers. Many of them are jobless and foodless and even living their life on starvation in many cases. Opinions came out from the workshop that negligence, corruption and politicisation on the part of state government had made the situation worse in West Bengal. 

Mr Partha Patim Sarkar of G-NESEP said that a few months ago Mochhir Mian died in starvation in Cooch Behar district. Hundreds of people like Mochhir Mian are standing in the queue to join in the rally of dead men. He said that G-NESEP made a survey on the situation of the distressed people and enlisted name of 121 deprived people in Dinhata-I and Dinhata-II blocks. The survey revealed the critical condition of them. A 90-year-old lady of Tiyadaha village in Dinhata-II block could not remember the day she got her last meal. She has no BPL card nor she got any assistance from the concerned panchayat body. Now she is living in starvation. 

An action plan have been chalked out for awareness generating drive among common people through out the state that is to be started shortly to ensure right to food and right to work, said Mr Santu Bannerjee of Sevabrota a renowned NGO of Purulia. 

Among the resource persons who attended the workshop there were Dr PK Samajdar, Ms Durga Biswas of Action Aid India, Dr Amaresh Kanti Sarkar and Mr Gobinda Das. []