BJP, Trinamool locked in 'dam and logo fight'

The ruling BJP in Jharkhand and Trinamool Congress in West Bengal are having a showdown over the colour to be used for painting Jharkhand's Massanjore dam and the 'Biswa Bangla' logo on an adjacent welcome gate.

Located in Jharkhand's Dumka district, the dam is maintained by West Bengal's irrigation department.

The problem surfaced after some Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) activists prevented West Bengal government workers from painting the 1950s' structure in blue and white, the "favourite shades" of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

BJP leader and Jharkhand Minorities Welfare Minister Louis Marandi threatened to "gouge out the eyes" of those who dared to look at the barrage on Sunday.

BJP activists later pasted the logo of Jharkhand on top of the 'Biswa Bangla' logo on a welcome gate adjacent to the dam. The BJP logo carried a message: West Bengal government's signs would not be allowed inside the Jharkhand territory.

"Some supporters and elected leaders of the BJP from Jharkhand are disrupting the maintenance work at Massanjore. We are maintaining this dam since its inception in 1955. If there was any ambiguity about the ongoing repair work, they could have talked to our chief minister," said West Bengal Irrigation Minister Soumen Mahapatra.

"In West Bengal, there are offices of different states which are designed and painted according to a state's identity. Is the BJP trying to bring back the feudal system in India by dividing states like this?" he questioned.

BJP leaders from Jharkhand have earlier accused the Bengal government of imposing its colour scheme on the dam by painting it in blue and white and warned that they will not allow "any antics" of the Trinamool Congress supremo Banerjee and her party in Jharkhand.

"The reality is they are scared of Mamata Banerjee's attempt to create an anti-BJP federal front in the country," he said, adding the repair work at the dam is temporarily stalled.

--IANS

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