Mamata forms development board for Mangar community

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced the formation of a development board for the Mangar community, residing in <g data-gr-id="21">Kalimpongand</g> sanctioned funds for the Lepcha Board. 

The All-India Mangar Association has been demanding a separate board for quite some time. “The Hill communities are very close to my heart. Today, I have announced setting up of a Development Board for the Mangar community,” Banerjee said in a Facebook post.

The Chief Minister also handed over a cheque of Rs 10 crore for the construction of ‘Rong Lee’ houses for Lepcha families. She wrote: “About 2,000 such houses have already been built and work on 1,000 more is going on, which will be completed soon”. 

The Lepchas celebrated the 4th Foundation Day of their Development Board at Kalimpong on Wednesday.

As a part of the ‘Clean Darjeeling, Green Darjeeling’ mission, 22,500 toilets were sanctioned for various Hill communities. “We have decided to build two 100-seater Youth Hostels – one for Lepcha Board and another for Tamang Board for Rs 5 crore each. The hostels will be equipped with solar lighting, solar heating, rainwater harvesting and other modern eco-friendly amenities,” she said.

A forest bungalow and Eco-tourism Camping Facility at <g data-gr-id="22">Jainti</g>, Buxa Tiger Reserve were also launched by the CM at Kalimpong. Since its formation, the Lepcha Board has actively worked for the development of housing, education, livelihood, sanitation, tourism and preservation and propagation of heritage, arts and crafts and language of the community.

The state government has already sanctioned  funds for the construction of night schools, hostels for girls, <g data-gr-id="23">jhora</g> improvement schemes apart from several other projects in the area. The CM also announced that from now on, the Lepcha Board will be known as West Bengal <g data-gr-id="24">Mayal</g> <g data-gr-id="25">Lyang</g> Lepcha Development Board.