Protest meet at Lal Kothi
Posted by barunroy on June 6, 2008
Darjeeling, June 5: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has decided to stage a dharna in front of Lal Kothi, the administrative headquarters of the DGHC, where Bengal home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti is scheduled to hold a departmental meeting tomorrow.
“The dharna will be held to demand permission for a public meeting at Naxalbari and the creation of a separate state of Gorkhaland,” said Binay Tamang, the media and publicity secretary of the Morcha. Earlier the party had twice sought approval for the meeting, but was denied.
The Janmukti Asthai Karmachari Sangathan, a frontal organisation of the Morcha, too, is scheduled to start its relay hunger strike in front of Lal Khoti from Saturday to demand the regularisation of the 8,000 contract workers currently working with the DGHC.
Anil Pradhan, the media and publicity secretary of the Janmukti Asthahi Secondary Teachers’ Organisation, said the newly re-organised committee of contractual teachers would take part in all agitation programmes convened by the Karmachari Sangathan, which has lined up a rally in Kalimpong tomorrow.
Not to be left behind, the CPRM, another anti-Subash Ghisingh party in the hills, has decided to take 500 of its supporters to Calcutta on June 11 as part of its agitation.
“We will also go to Writers’ Buildings and plan to submit memorandums to the chief minister, chief secretary, home secretary and the human rights commission,” said D.S. Bomzom, the spokesperson for the CPRM.
In the list of CPRM demands are a separate state, the speedy trial of Chattrey Subba and adequate compensation for “martyrs” who were killed during the 1986 Gorkhaland agitation. Subba is the prime accused in the assassination attempt on Ghisingh on February 10, 2001. [The Telegraph]
