A dispute over the legality of the tonga stand at Murshidabad railway station has brought Congress and the CPM together in defence of horse-drawn carriage operators whose livelihoods depend on passengers and tourists visiting the historic city.
The dispute began after Bengal’s Mass Education Extension and Library Services Minister Gouri Sankar Ghosh, who is also the BJP MLA from Murshidabad, visited the station on Sunday to inspect passenger facilities. During the visit, Ghosh objected to the tonga stand being located on railway premises and questioned station master Mukul Anand about its legal basis.
According to the report, Ghosh asked Anand to produce documentation proving that the stand had received government permission. The station master said the stand was authorised but could not show the order at the time. Ghosh subsequently described the tonga stand as illegal and said he would escalate the issue to the railway ministry.
The minister’s position triggered a political response four days later. Congress veteran Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury reached the station on Wednesday with several thousand party workers and members of the Murshidabad Tanga Union, which is affiliated with the CPM’s labour organisation Citu. CPM district secretary Jamir Mollah and other local leaders also joined the gathering.
In a symbolic show of support, Chowdhury drove a tonga from Murshidabad station to Hazarduari. Congress and CPM leaders then met representatives of the union, placing the dispute within a wider argument over the role of tongas in the city’s tourism economy and the effect of station-level decisions on local transport workers.
“The tonga of the historic city of Murshidabad has a special tradition,” Chowdhury said. He added that Murshidabad was a tourism-based city and that visitors should be allowed to choose between a tonga, a Toto or a car. He said the tradition should not be obstructed and warned that Congress and the CPM would jointly protest if the operators were evicted.
Chowdhury, a former junior railway minister, said he would request the Union railway minister to ensure that the tonga stand was not damaged. His intervention links the local dispute to the railway administration, which controls the station premises and would be responsible for determining whether the stand complies with applicable permissions.
Mollah said the railway department had built the tonga stand in 2014-15. He warned that the CPM and Congress would jointly protest if the stand was demolished or the operators’ livelihoods were affected.
Ghosh has maintained that his objection is to the stand’s location and the absence of documentary proof presented during his inspection. The immediate issue remains whether the railway administration can produce the permission cited by the station master and whether the existing arrangement will continue for the tonga operators.
