Siliguri, 24th December: On Sunday, the members of the Darjeeling District Committee CPI staged a protest under Mahatma Gandhi’s statue, against the removal of 10 statues from Surya Sen Park in Siliguri.
Reportedly, in the year 2020, statues of 10 leaders including Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Thakur Panchanan Barma, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, and Rishi Aurobindo Ghosh were placed in Surya Sen Park Siliguri and were inaugurated by former Mayor of Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) Ashok Bhattacharya. However, the statues have been allegedly removed by the current SMC Board which prompted the CPI members to stage a protest.
Speaking in this regard, leader of Darjeeling district Committee CPI Partha Maitra stated the action to be highly condemnable and demanded reinstallation. Furthermore, he demanded the installation of the statue of Bagha Jatin at the Baghajatin Park in Siliguri.
Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor Ranjan Sarkar stated that the statues were left in a state of negligence for which it was removed. He added that the said statues will be reinstalled in an honorable manner in other areas of the city.