This story is from February 14, 2017

Carved out of Darjeeling, Kalimpong a district today

152 years may be a long time, even in history books. For Kalimpong, however, it is destiny.
Carved out of Darjeeling, Kalimpong a district today
Mamata Banerjee interacts with locals in Kalimpong on Monday
KALIMPONG: 152 years may be a long time, even in history books. For Kalimpong, however, it is destiny.
In December 6, 1864, when Kalimpong was annexed by the British rulers and made a part of India, it had spent 152 years under Bhutanese rule.
On Tuesday, another 152 years later, it will be reborn as Bengal's 21st district. It will finally emerge from the shadow of its “big sister“ Darjeeling, of which it was a sub-division all along.
Bengal's newest district is also expected to be its most sparsely populated with 49,403 people (according to the 2011 census) inhabiting 1,056 square kilometer area.
The same census pegs Darjeeling district's population at 9.37 lakhs (total area of the district being 3,149 square kilometer).
As chief minister Mamata Banerjee's motorcade winded its way into the soon-to-be district headquarters, it seemed she waded into festivities, which had already began.Such was the exuberance that the chief minister much to the anxiety of her security personnel had to step down no less than seven times.
Pradip Rai, a local resident, who stood by the road to wave to “Nana (Didi)“, said, “We are really thankful to the chief minister for giving shape to a long-pending demand.It was really painful and arduous to travel all the way to Darjeeling to get all official work done.“

The political underpinnings of the move, coming close on the heels of forming no less than 15 development boards by the Mamata Banerjee regime -including one for the Gurungs -however can't take away the fact that the dis trict formation on Tuesday will also bring relief to geographically-remote hamlets in the subdivision etched between Nepal and Bhutan. For example, to reach Kalimpong's remotest polling booth, Tangta Primary School one needs to travel 156kms by vehicle and then a further 10km by foot. The exuberance has its first immediate fallout. Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, which had not too long back staked co-ownership of Kalimpong's district demand, first chose to stay away from today's ceremony at Kalimpong Mela Grounds. On Monday evening, however, sources indicated that the three GJM MLAs Sarita Rai (Kalimpong), Rohit Sharma (Kurseong) and Amar Singh Rai (Darjeeling) might be part of the inaugural festivities.
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