The promise of an “
adarsh gram (model village)” continues to elude Sebdullajote in Naxalbari.
Located around 25km from Siliguri, this nondescript hamlet nestled in the Terai in Darjeeling district is the cradle of the peasants’ uprising in 1967 that culminated in the Naxalbari Movement.
Back in 2014, S.S. Ahluwalia, the then BJP MP of Darjeeling, had come to Sebdullajote, the home of firebrand Naxalite leader Kanu Sanyal, and promised to develop it and some adjoining hamlets under the Hatighisha panchayat into model villages under the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY), a scheme announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the ramparts of the Red Fort.