Trinamool leaders have no time for Tagore,Ray plans

Despite being part of the coalition at the Centre,the Trinamool Congress has never been apologetic of the fact that...

Despite being part of the coalition at the Centre,the Trinamool Congress has never been apologetic of the fact that all its energies have been concentrated on West Bengal only. Even the ministers belonging to the party,led by party chief Mamata Banerjee,spend most of their time in the home state,ignoring all criticism from the Opposition.

Given this background,it was perhaps only logical to assume that Trinamool MPs and ministers would participate wholeheartedly in initiatives that had a mass appeal in West Bengal.

But the party that claims to represent the popular view in West Bengal apparently has no time,or the inclination,to attend to matters relating to some of the biggest icons of Bengali culture,including Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray.

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For more than two months now,a proposal from the West Bengal government to develop the sites where Satyajit Ray shot his famous films,including Pather Panchali,as tourist destinations has been awaiting the comments and approval of Minister of State for Tourism Sultan Ahmed. Rays masterpiece,Pather Panchali,was partly shot at Boral,which,in the 1950s,was 5 km south of Kolkata. The site has now vanished owing to urbanisation and construction in that area. Many of Rays other films were shot in the red soil terrain of Birbhum district and some at locations around Shantiniketan.

Sources have told The Indian Express that it was Ahmeds party colleague and MP Kabir Suman who had first floated the idea of rediscovering these sites and developing a tourism circuit around them. The CPM-led West Bengal government liked the idea,prepared a detailed project report,and approached the Tourism Ministry in New Delhi for grants to develop these areas as part of a mega-tourist destination.

Union Tourism Minister Kumari Selja supported the proposal and agreed to grant Rs 50 crore that a mega-tourist destination is entitled to get. But since the issue pertained to West Bengal,Selja thought it fit to consult her junior minister,Ahmed. That is where the progress on the project hit the roadblock. The file was sent to Ahmed in March,but he is yet to find time to attend to it. As a result,the project is still to take off.

Ahmed,however,is not the only Trinamool minister ignoring popular Bengali sentiment. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has stayed away from meetings to decide on the programmes and celebrations planned to commemorate the 150th anniversaries of Tagore and Swami Vivekananda.

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The Centre has set up two separate committees for this purpose,both headed by the Prime Minister,and Mamata has been included in both of them.

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