Politics is pushing Darjeeling’s ground level problems out of attention

SILIGURI: Politics is pushing Darjeeling’s ground level problems to back bench. If not managed well immediately, these problems can ruin the approaching festive season travel business of the tourism hotspot.

The political temperature in the hills is shooting up mainly due to the power tussle between Gorkha Janamukti Morcha(GJM) and TMC. GJM, the de-facto term dictator in hills on practically everything, is desperate to save its own existence by arresting departure of its leaders. On the other side, TMC, the ruling party in Bengal that does not have strong ground level suportbase in hills, is desperate to grab administrative power there by taking departing GJM leaders under own clutch.

But this political game has thrown many important issues out of attention of the policy makers.

“Our Government has made Darjeeling smile with overall development,” said TMC Supremo and state CM Mamata Banerjee. But the ground reality remained different.

Entire Darjeeling hills and foothills in West Bengal are highly dependent on tourism business worth around 350 crore per annum. “Festive season, that begins on 15th September, is too important to us. Usually it contributes around 30% to our annual business here,” said senior travel advisor Raj Basu.

But, both of the two main road links of the hill stations are closed. It is taking even 8-9 hours to reach Darjeeling through alternate routes from the nearest gateway town Siliguri. Those routes are also not very stable and often get cut off.

Water is another age old crisis of Darjeeling. Despite many upgradations, the water infrastructure created long back can hardly suffice the need of highly grown up populace. During the tourism season, the shortage increases manifold.

Sanitation and garbage management of Darjeeling also demands immediate attention before the festive season when the city becomes crowded with visitors.

If not taken care of immediately, these will make the visitors leave Darjeeling with negative opinion and that will ruin tourist arrival in next seasons.

But most importantly, any major turmoil like bandh or scuffle between political rivals now will initiate cancellation of bookings of the tourists. That will be difficult too for us to handle.

“Hope political leaders will keep all these in mind,” said tour operators.