Alipurduar Subdivision - Legislative Segments

Legislative Segments

As per order of the Delimitation Commission in respect of the delimitation of constituencies in the West Bengal, the area under Kumargram block and seven gram panchayats under Alipurduar–II block, viz. Bhatibari, Kohinoor, Parokata, Mahakalguri, Shamuktala, Turturi and Tatpara– I will constitute the Kumargram assembly constituency of West Bengal. The Majherdabri gram panchayat under Alipurduar– II block and the area under Kalchini block will constitute the Kalchini assembly constituency. The Alipurduar municipality, the Alipurduar Railway Junction census town, and the gram panchayats of Chaporer Par– I, Chaporer Par–II and Tatpara– II under Alipurduar–II block and ten gram panchayats of Alipurduar– I block, viz. Banchukamari, Parorpar, Shalkumar–I, Vivekananda– I, Chakowakheti, Patlakhawa, Shalkumar– II, Vivekananda–II, Mathura and Tapsikhata will form the Alipurduars assembly constituency. The other gram panchayat of Alipurduar–I block, viz. Purba Kanthalbari will be form the Falakata assembly constituency along with the area under Falakata block. Madarihat block will be part of Madarihat assembly constituency. Kumargram, Kalchini and Madarihat constituencies will be reserved for Scheduled tribes (ST) candidates. Falakata constituency will be reserved for Scheduled castes (SC) candidates. All these five assembly constituencies will be part of Alipurduars (Lok Sabha constituency), which will be reserved for ST candidates.

THE SUB-DIVISION OF ALIPURDUAR AN OVERVIEW

Alipurduar is considered to be the biggest Sub-Division having an area measuring 2,788 Sq. Kilometer with 13,30,797 (as per Census '01) population. This Sub-Division is situated at the farthest corner of the State of West Bengal bordering with Assam, Bhutan, Cooch-Behar and Sadar Sub-Division of Jalpaiguri District. Alipurduar is divided into six blocks namely Alipurduar – I, Alipurduar – II, Kalchini, Kumargram, Falakata, Madarihat-Birpara with total 66 (sixty-six) Gram Panchayats. There are eight Police Stations in this Sub-Division, namely Kumargram, Samuktala, Alipurduar, Kalchini, Jaigaon, Madarihat, Birpara, Falakata. Only one Municipality i.e. Alipurduar (having 20 Wards) is there.

HISTORY : The Western Duars area with four tehsils, namely Mainaguri, Alipur, Falakata and Bhalka annexed to British India after Sinchula Pact between Government of Bhutan and East India Company on 12 November 1864. In 1867-1868 a regular Sub-Division with its headquarters at Buxa had been created but the Sub-Divisional Officer worked at Alipurduar. After creation of separate District with headquarters at Jalpaiguri in January 1869, Sub-Divisional headquarters Buxa also shifted to Falakata. In 1874-1875 it was again shifted from Falakata to Buxa. On 6 July 1876 vide Order No. 1265-T of Government of Bengal, Sub-Divisional headquarter was permanently shifted to Alipurduar.

PHYSIOGRAPHY: Altitude of hilly area is ranging from 90 m. to 1750m. Average annual rainfall is about 350 cms. Temperature ranges from 6 degree C to 36 degree C. Monsoon generally starts from the middle of May and continues up to the end of September. The entire area is divided into four main watershed areas centered with Torsha, Kaljani, Rydak and Sankosh River. A large numbers of rivers and rivulets are originate from the hilly areas of adjacent Bhutan and carry the excess water of heavy downpour of monsoon of a big catchments area to the Bay of Bengal through the Brahmaputra. Heavy downpour occasionally causes flash-flood during monsoon that is unique in North Bengal.

A fairly large portion of this Sub-Division is under forest cover, managed by Cooch Behar Division and Buxa Tiger Reserve. These Moist Mixed Tropical Forests are constituted with 8 (eight) district types of forests with a rich diversity of Trees 352 species, climbers 108 species, Canes 6 (six) species, Shrubs 133 species, Bamboos 144 species including rare plants about 25 varieties. The forests are abode of a spectacular range of faunal variety with mammal 69 species, reptile's 41 species, bird's 249 species, amphibian 4 species, fishes 33 species and entomofauna 353 species.

CULTURE & LANGUAGE: In the later part of 1870's establishment of tea gardens reclaiming the forests and marshy swamps was initiated. Till date tea plantation is continuing converting the agricultural land. There are 62 tea gardens, which add, more green to the greeneries. A fairly large portion of population depends on these tea gardens for their livelihood directly or indirectly. Most of the plantation labourers were migrated from different parts of Chhotonagpur, Western Orisa, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. These plantation workers were from different ethno-cultural and linguistic groups. With the advent of time they created a different kind of culture than in the non-plantation area. They usually speak in their own tribal language within the tribe. 'Sadri' a language practiced by their ancestors in Chhotonagpur area is used as link-language among the different tribes. Now-a-days Hindi is also used for this purpose.

The area was originally inhabited by aboriginal tribes and castes like Ravas, Garos, Meches, totos, Dhimals, Koches and Rajbanchis etc. the exodus of Hindus from the erstwhile East Bengal at the time of partition in 1947 and their settlement in these areas reduced land-man ratio in a great extent. The culture of these migrated Hindu people, mingled with rich folk culture of the aboriginals, enriched over all culture life of these area. With the advent of time people had come and settle in this area from almost all corners of India. These people speak about 141 languages including some distinct dialect. However, Bengali is largely spoken language. Intermingling of heterogeneous ethno-cultural groups helped evolve a strong eco-friendly material culture in this area since prehistoric period. Admixture of traditional knowledge of different ethnic groups with advanced technology, easy avail-ability of indigenous materials and climatic condition of this area augmented this process to gain a different shape than other parts of Bengal.

AGRICULTURE: Now from culture to agriculture. In respect of texture and structure, there are mainly two types of soils, viz. "Rupit" i.e. low-lying land chiefly clay with a small admixture of sand and "Faringati" i.e. highland composed of sandy and clayey particles. Both these soils are very retentive of moisture and highly fertile. Heavy rainfall, temperate climate, down ward slope from the

North to South and fertile land at the Southern part of the N.H. – 31 C make Falakata and Alipurduar – I Development Block fully and the part of the rest Block as granary of the District. Traditional system of agriculture has been changing since the partition in 1947. The main crops are paddy, Jute, wheat, potato, pulses, different types of vegetables, betel nuts, rapeseed, corn etc.

MARKET & ECONOMY: There are twenty big hats in this Sub-division under Western Durars Market Fund managed by the Jalpaiguri Zilla Parishad and at least equal number of hats managed by Panchayat Samities and Gram Panchayats. Apart from these, there are a good number of daily markets. Alipurduar is the second largest business place in North Bengal and it has direct business relation with Bhutan and different states of North Eastern region including Assam. Alipurduar is well connected with this country and states by road and railway, which augments its business activities. Other main business places are Falakata, Birpara, Madarihat, Hasimara, Jaigaon, Hamiltonganj, Samuktala, Bhatibari, Shilbarihat, Kamakhyaguri, Barobisha and Kumargram. In this Sector there are two major impediments found so far.

URBANIZATION: Since the early 1990's the semi-urban areas are speedily changing their character. Now there is only one Municipality in Alipurduar Sub-Division. Urbanized characteristic of Falakata, Birpara, Madarihat, Hasimara, Jaigaon, Hamiltonganj-Kalchini, Kamakhyaguri and Barobisha require conversion into Municipality. A proposal for Jaigaon Municipality is in the offing.

Law and Order Scenario in Eastern Dooars :

In recent past areas under Alipurduar Sub-Division experience of insurgency activities and sectarian movement.

 KLO movement : During the first half of this decade some parts of this Sub-Division particularly the whole Kumargram block and parts of Alipurduar – II block were affected by Kamtapur Liberation Organization Movement. KLO was supported by some other organization of adjacent states. But that movement was broken (operation all clear) by consorted efforts of Para Military Force, Local Police and the people of this area. Now the KLO is not much active in this area but very recently this three bomb blasts are indicating that this insurgent organization is still active in this area.

 GJMM and Adivasi Vikash Parisad : In some blocks of this Sub-Division like Kalchini, Madarihat and parts of Kumargram, tea industry is the backbone of economy. Most of the labours in this industry belong to adivasi community and hill communities. When the Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha started movement for separate state and tried to spread the movement in eastern Dooars also, there occurred repeated clashes between the GJMM supporters and Adivasi Vikas Parisad. Repeated clashes occurred at Birpara where in one occasion one person died. Clashes occurred in Kalchini and Madarihat also. Tension still prevails among these two sections. Adivasi Vikash Parisad has called for vote boycott, which may cause some law and order problem in Madarihat, Kalchini and Kumargram block.

 Greater Cooch Behar Movement : One organization namely Greater Cooch Behar People Association is demanding a separate state comprising areas which were under Cooch Behar State before 1950. This movement is mostly confined in Cooch Behar and adjacent areas; but in recent times the activity of this organization has been increased substantially. This organization organized a number of open meetings in Barobisha, Samuktala, Bhatibari areas. They called for a number of strikes also in recent past. There were occasional road blockades also by this group. This movement is gaining strength particularly after they joined hand with GJMM movement.

 Infiltration : Infiltration from the boundary of Assam State as well as from the bordering country Bhutan is a major law and order problem. Though this Sub-Division has no boundary with neighboring country Bangladesh; but this area is also experiencing infiltration from Bangladesh crossing Cooch Behar District.

 Closed Tea Garden : The growing concern is the closure of number of Tea Gardens particularly in Kalchini and Madarihat Block. Some of them are declared as closed; but in a number of cases the Managements have left the gardens and the gardens are effectively closed. This economic phenomenon may not affect the Election process; but frequent law and order problems are occurring in those gardens.

SWOT analysis of Election Preparedness

Strength:

 Responsive Administration  Very good team work.  Unlike Panchayat Election no. of Sectors have been increased just to minimise the response time.  Vulnerability exercise has been done carefully and jointly by civil and Police Administration. More extensive analysis has been made this time compared to previous election.  All type of data have been collected and updated. This time we are working with extended and extensive data base.  Communication Plan has been prepared after repeated trial.

Weakness:

o Manpower shortage at every level of Administrative unit. o Vast area of the Sub-Division. o A substantial number of booths are in very remote area. o Tension between GJMM and Advasi Vikas Parisad. o Economically backward region. Closure of Tea Gardens has aggravated the condition. o Growing sectarian movements in this region.

Opportunities:

o No major political clash in recent past. o Political crime is minimum.

Threat:  Though dormant at present, but Law and Order situation may arise at any time due to some sectarian movements organised by some organisation.  Terrorist organisation like KLO may create some problem any time.