Ranjit Kundu: Beginning with an acid test!

                                                                                         

Nothing has been announced officially till now but it is almost confirmed that Ranjit Kundu, the MLA from Naihati of North 24 Parganas is going to step in to the shoes of Subhas Chakraborty, whose sad demise created an irrepairable damage to the CPI-M. As per news from various sources, Kundu is going to take the charge of the transport department of West Bengal government, which Subhas was in charge of. A tough challenge for Kundu certainly, specially because it is his debut in the ministry. Besides, he is taking the charge of the transport department when it is going through the most crucial phase. Calcutta High Court’s order to phase out all vehicles that are more than 15-year old has put the transport department in a very uncomfortable situation. The city has already witnessed a transport strike that has been called by different bus taxi and auto syndicates in protest of this order and till today the citizens are facing tremendous transportation problems as the number of private buses and autos have gone down drastically.

It’s true that state government’s hands are tied now. It cannot disobey the order of the Calcutta High Court but the reason people are blaming it didn’t take any step earlier. It was quite obvious that the High Court will give such an order. Then why didn’t the state government start the process of phasing out little earlier? There’s no answer. All of a sudden, the government passed an order to get all auto rickshaws converted into LPG from diesel but it didn’t without creating the required infrastructure. The number of LPG refueling stations is quite few compared to the total number of auto rickshaws traveling on road. So where will the auto drivers take their vehicles to refuel when their tanks get empty. There’s no answer once again.

The protesting bodies are awaiting Supreme Court’s verdict on the issue, which till now hasn’t put a stay order on High Court’s judgment. It is quite unlikely that the apex court will go against the Calcutta High Court and when it announces its order, handling situation will become even more difficult for the state government, and specially for Kundu, the new face in the state cabinet. Subhas Chakraborty wad a veteran politician who was in charge of the transport department for quite some time and had the experience of handling critical situations. But even he didn’t face something which Ranjit Kundu is likely to face very shortly. It is like a short-pitched delivery to a tail-ender and a hard acid test for a politician who doesn’t have much experience of handling the ‘public’. How Kundu plays the delivery is yet to be seen but if succeeds it will be a huge confidence building measure for him to run the department in future.

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