DARJEELING HILLS: Political opponents attack four men arrested for violence in Darjeeling

FROM NEWS TRACK INDIA

Siliguri, Jan 3 (ANI): Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) activists reportedly assaulted four of the five persons of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), arrested in connection with the killing of a GJM leader at Kurseong in West Bengal.

The police vehicle taking the five to a court was intercepted by GNLF supporters.

“We were in the van with the police. Some people attacked the van. They drove the policemen away and beat us up,” said Bimal Diali, one of the injured.

Four of the men were allegedly assaulted by the GJM supporters and later rushed to a hospital.

The fifth man escaped the wrath of the mob and is in the custody of the police.

Roshan Giri, General Secretary of GJM denied the involvement of their faction in the attack.

“The general public has done this. But the killing of our activist is a matter of great grief. We don’t believe in violence,” said Giri.

PHOTO FEATURE: Lepcha Hunger strike reaches 564 days

564 DAYS AND COUNTING - HUNGER STRIKE BY AFFECTED CITIZENS OF TEESTA AT GANGTOK. Photo by Himalaya Darpan

PHOTO FEATURE: All India Gorkha League office ransacked while under the protection of Darjeeling Police

All India Gorkha League office after being ransacked. The office was still under the protection of Darjeeling Police when it was ransacked. Photo by Himalaya Darpan

PHOTO FEATURE: Rohini accused attacked by GJM supporters while in the custody of the Combat Police Force

Rohini accused were scooped off while still in the custody of Darjeeling Combat Force and beaten up by GJM supporters. The two accused in Subodh Pradhan murder case were being produced before the Court in Kurseong. Photo by Himalaya Darpan

RECIPES: Gorkhali Shrimp (Grilled Shrimp Sauteed in Chili Sauce)

Gorkhali Shrimp (Grilled Shrimp Sauteed in Chili Sauce)

Submitted by: Tulsi Regmi

Ingredients

1.5 lbs. Medium-size shrimps, peeled and deveined
Bamboo skewers (pre-soaked in cold water for at least 30 minutes)
3 dry whole red peppers
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ginger, finely grated
2 red chilies, julienned
1 cup onions, finely chopped
1 cup tomatoes, chopped
2 cups red bell pepper, cut in 1-in strips
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 cup green onion, cut in 1-in length
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons musturd oil
1 cup shrimp broth
1 cup yogurt
Marinade:
1 cup yogurt
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup onions, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon pepper corn
1 teaspoon timur (szechwan pepper)
2 fresh red chilies
2 tablespoons musturd oil
Salt

Instructions

In a blender, combine all the marinating ingredients to form smooth paste. Pour the marinating paste over the shrimp in a large bowl. Mix well, cover, and let marinate for at least four hours. Thread shrimps into the skewers. Grill the skewered shrimp on a charcoal grill, occasionally turning until cooked through, about five minutes.

BENGAL: Centre may appoint interlocutor

FROM INDIAN EXPRESS

Kolkata: The Centre has proposed to appoint an impartial interlocutor representing both the sides for the ongoing tripartite talks to resolve the Gorkhaland stalemate.

The proposal was mooted by Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta during the second round of tripartite talks between the Centre, state government and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in New Delhi on December 29, said Roshan Giri, Morcha secretary on Friday.

Giri said appointing an interlocutor would be decided during a meeting of the party’s central committee over the next few days. “We feel the talks were held in a cordial manner.”

Sources in the state Home Department said the second round of talks had proceeded along predictable lines, with the Morcha adamant on its demand for a Gorkhaland. The 17-member Morcha delegation, which included two former senior IAS officers from Darjeeling, returned from the talks on Friday.

Following the talks, the delegation stayed in New Delhi to meet Home Minister P Chidambaram on December 30. Giri said Chidambaram had promised to consider the Morcha’s demands and that the Centre was “very keen” to solve the issue at the earliest.

“In the meantime, he requested us to continue the ongoing talk process,” Giri said. The delegation also held a meeting with Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh over the non-functional tea gardens in the Hills.

While the state government delegation comprising the chief secretary, home secretary and other top officials did not issue any statement on the talks, sources told The Indian Express that the Centre has requested the Morcha to tone down its agitation till the general elections are completed.

“They were told that since talks are on, the district administration should be allowed to function in a normal manner,” sources said.

Giri claimed that during the talks, the state government delegation admitted to the “failure” of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC). No elections have been held in the Council for years now.

HELP REQUESTED: INFORMATION NEEDED ON THE ATTACHED SCANNED COPY

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Darjeeling! One of our fellow Blogger Alex from Richmond, BC, Canada needs some help on the above scanned photographs. He writes:

“My grandmother was apparently friendly with the Nepalese Ambassador in London in the 1950’s. There are Christmas cards from signed by Kaiser Shumshere and “K.C. Devi” (1947), and an invitation to “meet T.R.H. Prince and Princess Himalaya” from the Ambassador and the RaniShanker, at the Nepalese Embassy, June, 11, 1953.

I think the attached photo of the group is taken at that event. I am fairly certain that is the Princess (and my grandmother). The other scan contains two photos of what I think is also the princess. The large one is signed on the front, and on the back, “with love, U.R. Lakmi, Ranee Nara, 15-2-50″. The small photo has a caption on the back “as I knew her”, written by my grandmother. The newspaper clipping appears to be the same woman in the other photos.Any help you can provide to help identify these photos would be greatly appreciated. Also any website you know of that can help me research the items I have from that time period would also be appreciated.”

Please feel free to comment to this post if you can help Alex with any information.
Regs
Barun

DARJEELING HILLS: Why? Girl asks Gurung

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Answer, please: Morcha chief Gurung

Siliguri, Jan. 2: A schoolgirl whose “entire family” supports the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha called up Bimal Gurung today and asked: “Why are you doing this?”

Prithika Pradhan’s voice trembled as she spoke to “Bimalji”, a man she had only seen from far or heard in speeches, but she went on. “My house was ransacked, the eatery my mother ran was burnt down in a senseless act of violence that we could not comprehend.

“Why should the Morcha target innocent people, burn their houses and their dreams, for the criminal acts of a few people?”

Over 100 Morcha supporters descended from Kurseong yesterday and ransacked homes in Rohini and set many of them ablaze.

Prithika lay awake last night, unable to understand the “madness”, the “frenzied screams of the mob as it went around setting fire to the homes”, especially because her family supported Gurung and his call for Gorkhaland.

This morning, Prithika told The Telegraph: “I had to have an answer to the mindless violence indulged in by a party that claims to believe in the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. They were the people we supported, so I was sure they would provide us with some answers.”

End of the day, she wasn’t sure if she had got the answers. But both Morcha president Gurung and secretary Roshan Giri “listened to me patiently”.

KURSEONG: Mayhem continues in Kurseong

FROM THE STATESMAN

KURSEONG, Jan. 2: Supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) today attacked and gravely injured four of five persons accused of involvement in the Subodh Pradhan murder case at Rohini on 31 December night. The incident happened near the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court at about 1:30 p.m.

The fifth accused, Rajen Cintury apparently managed to escape in the melee, and is now missing.

Despite their injuries, the other four accused were produced in the court and charged under sections 302, 34, 326 and 307 of the Indian Penal Code and the court sent them to jail custody.

They were later shifted to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri for treatment. According to doctors at the NBMCH, the condition of two of the injured, Bimal Diyali and Bikash Diyali, was critical. They sustained serious head and other injuries in the attack.

Hundreds of GJM supporters had assembled at the Kurseong Motor Stand today, and learning that the accused had been brought to Kurseong for trial, they marched to the court. The mob attacked the police vehicle, which arrived at the court at about 1 p.m. carrying the accused and demanded that the arrested be handed over to the public. The mob finally managed to open the vehicle door and pounced on the accused.

DARJEELING HILLS: Five houses gutted in Darjeeling

FROM THE HINDU

Siliguri (WB): Five houses were gutted in a major fire at Kurseong in Darjeeling district rendering 15 families homeless, Kurseong sub-divisional officer Dibyendu Das said on Friday.

The fire broke out at around 10 p.m. on Thursday night and six fire tenders fought till 3.30 am on Friday to extinguish the blaze near Hospital More, Mr. Das said. The burnt houses also had seven shops which were also reduced to ashes. However, there was no casualty or major injury, he said. The extent of loss and cause behind the fire were not not immediately known. The administration was now arranging for shelter to the 15 families.

 

NEPAL: Maoists replace Indian priests in Nepal

FROM SOUTH ASIAN MEDIA NET

KATHMANDU: Riot police have been deployed at Nepal’s holiest Hindu temple to stop protests after the Maoist government tried to throw out Indian priests who have officiated there for generations.

The threat to centuries of tradition at the Pashupati temple sparked demonstrations by Hindus appalled at changes pushed through by the secular Maoists, who also scrapped Nepal’s Hindu monarchy last year.

“We want this decision scrapped immediately,” said Hariharman Bhandari, one of the Nepalese priests upset by the move. “The Maoists have appointed their own people.” Dozens of riot police and Maoist volunteers escorted the temple’s new Nepalese priests on Thursday as they visited holy sites around the Pashupati complex, which dates from the third century BC.

Protesters shouted “Down with Maoists”, and “Scrap this decision” as the two priests performed religious ceremonies at the Unesco-listed world heritage site on the banks of the Bagmati river in Kathmandu.

Pramananda Shakya, who was recently appointed head of the Pashupati Development Trust by the Maoist Prime Minister Prachanda, said reforms to the running of the temple reflected the new Nepal.

“The former royals used to be the patrons of the temple trust and used to approve the selection of the priests. With the changed political situation this tradition has been broken,” said Shakya.

“The prime minister has replaced the king as the patron now.” Revered by Hindus worldwide and dedicated to the god Shiva, nearly one million pilgrims visit Pashupati annually, generating large amounts of cash in donations.

Shakya said that a shake-up was needed to clear up alleged problems over handling of the money.

NEPAL: Himalayan villagers on global warming frontline

FROM THANHNIEN NEWS

This picture taken on October 14, 2008, shows Nepalese lodge owner Rinjin Dorje Lama (C) talking to a tourist and guide at Kyangjin Gompa in the Lantang Valley. Standing in the Himalayan valley of Langtang, Rinjin Dorje Lama remembers where he used to play as a child in the 1960s.

“When I was a kid, it was a lot longer,” said Lama, pointing at the Lirung glacier surrounded by snowy peaks on Nepal’s northern border with Tibet.

“We used to play on the glacier, and it came right down to the monastery, but now it’s about two kilometers [1.2 miles] further back.”

Temperatures in the Himalayas are rising by around 0.06 degrees Celsius (0.108 Fahrenheit) annually, according to a long-term study by the Nepalese department of hydrology.

The rate is far above the global average given last year by the UN’s senior scientists, who said surface temperatures have risen by a total of 0.74 degrees Celsius over the past 100 years.

“I don’t really understand why the glacier has gone so far back, but I am told it’s due to global warming,” said Lama, whose weather-beaten face makes him look older than his 57 years.

Lama has witnessed other changes in the roadless valley, 60 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of Kathmandu, where sure-footed ponies remain the quickest form of transport.

“I feel that the sun is getting stronger, and in the past there used to be a lot more snow in winter. We used to get up to two meters in the winter, and it would stay for weeks. Last winter we only had two centimeters.”

On top of unpredictable weather, other dangers are increasing in Nepal’s mountains because of climate change.

As the meltwater flows off the glacier, lakes begin to form and grow.

When the pressure becomes too great, the lake walls burst and release millions of tons of water that can wash away people, villages and arable land.

Researchers at the Nepal-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) have said five major glacial lake floods have hit Nepal since 1970, as well as at least two in Tibet and one in Bhutan.

Ang Tsering Sherpa, who grew up in Nepal’s Everest region, has observed the growth of one glacial lake with growing concern.

NEPAL: Hindu monks are in revolt

The Nepalese government has put two Nepalese monks in charge of the temple of Pashupati. Hindu monks are in revolt against the interference in religious affairs by the Maoist government.

FROM SPERO NEWS

By Kalpit Parajuli

Friday, January 02, 2009 : The Hindu monks of the temple of Pashupati are in revolt (in the photo, a scene from the clashes). The violent protests that have led to the police intervention were unleashed after the decision of the government of Kathmandu to remove the Indian component of the monks responsible for the temple, and replace it with priests of Nepalese origin.

The Maoist government, headed by President Prachandra, has entrusted responsibility for the temple of Pashupati to the monks Bishnu Prasad Dahal and Saligram Dhakal. The two are replacing the Indian Mul Bhattas, removed from his post together with other non-Nepalese monks who, since 1904, had served at the place of worship dedicated to Shiva, “lord of the cattle,” and situated in Deopatan, three kilometers from the capital.

Following the decision, the monks removed from their position asked the government to reverse it, sending a petition to the supreme court against the government and the Pashupatinath Area Development Trust (PADT): their accusation was that the government was interfering in the private business of the monks, and violating a long-standing tradition.

According to Hindu ritual custom, in order to lead the ceremonies the monks must follow several months of preparation. The Nepalese monks appointed by the government have not gone through this period of formation.

Barricaded inside the structure, the monks have prevented the new religious authorities from entering the temple and leading the ceremonies. On January 1, security forces together with government supporters and members of the Young Communist League broke into the temple together with the two Nepalese monks. The blitz was followed by clashes, and it was only in the late afternoon that the Nepalese Bishnu Prasad Dahal and Saligram Dhakal, after waiting outside the temple for three hours, were able to officiate over the ceremonies, although only in partial form.

SILIGURI: Suci demands petrol price drop

FROM THE STATESMAN

SILIGURI, Jan. 2: The Darjeeling district unit of the Socialist Unity Centre of India staged a demonstration in the Siliguri Court complex today demanding initiatives from the Centre and the state government in bringing down the prices of the petroleum products and in reopening the locked-out tea plantations in the north Bengal region.

According to the Darjeeling district Suci secretary, Mr Goutam Bhattacharya, the Centre and the West Bengal government were doing nothing to lessen the economic burden on the common people. “The Centre can bring down the prices of the petroleum products substantially in view of the plummeting price in the international oil market. Similarly, the state government is gifting the fertiliser market on a platter to the blackmarketeers to squeeze the poor farmers. People must raise their voice against such dubious anti-people policies,” he said.

Addressing the gathering, the Siliguri unit Suci secretary Mr Tanmoy Dutta said that the Centre and the state government seemed to have joined hands in beguiling the labourers of the closed tea plantations. “The Centre is dangling ineffectual packages before the starving tea workers and the state government is amorously fawning on the Centre’s ‘generosity’,” he said. The speakers asked the state government to bring down the electricity tariff and take initiatives to resolve the PTTI tangle.

DARJEELING HILLS: GJM upbeat after Delhi talks

FROM THE STATESMAN

SILIGURI, Jan. 2: An ‘upbeat’ Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) delegation returned from New Delhi this afternoon amid spiralling violence in the Hills over the Wednesday’s killing of a GJM leader at Rohini in Kurseong.

The 17-member GJM delegation, led by party general secretary Mr Roshan Giri, was in Delhi to take part in the 29 December tripartite talks with the Centre and the West Bengal government over the GJM demand for a separate Gorkhaland state.

Talking to the Press here, Mr Giri termed the Delhi talks as “positive”. “During the talks we spoke only about the Gorkhaland demand and the Union home secretary assured us that the Centre was considering the Darjeeling issues very seriously,” Mr Giri said. “Union home minister Mr P Chidambaram, whom we met later, too said that the government was sympathetic with the Darjeeling grievances and assured us a suitable remedy,” the GJM general secretary said, adding that they were “upbeat” at the Delhi gestures. According to Mr Giri, the delegation also raised the demand for the removal of north Bengal IGP Mr KL Tamta for his alleged bias against the GJM and the Union representatives assured them of “looking into the matter”.

ROHINI: ‘Rohini incident a fall-out of the undemocratic movement in the Hills’

FROM THE STATESMAN

SILIGURI, Jan. 2: Several political parties termed the lynching and ransacking incident at Rohini near Kurseong yesterday a fall-out of the undemocratic statehood movement being spearheaded by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in the Darjeeling hills.

“The nature of the ongoing movement is culminating in growing incidences of bickering within the Hill community and these might increase in intensity soon,” said the leaders of the CPI-M, CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP. The Opposition Trinamul Congress called the incident “unfortunate”.

The CPI-M state committee member Mr Jibesh Sarkar said that the Rohini incident had brought to the fore the common people’s growing resentment against the separatist Gorkhaland movement. “The trampling of democracy that has become an intrinsic part of the statehood agitation would inevitably bring in more such incidents,” he said. The CPI Darjeeling district secretary Mr Ujjwal Chowdhury said: “My party is apprehensive, as the tripartite talks on the tangle are now moving in the politically right direction,” he said.

Commenting on the incident, the RSP district secretary Mr Benoy Chakravarty said that the agitating GJM might be forced to shift the momentum of the movement to the Terai and the Dooars. “If such a thing happens it would be a matter of great concern for us all,” he said.

KURSEONG: Shops, houses gutted in Kurseong

FROM THE STATESMAN

KURSEONG, Jan. 2: A major fire broke out in Kurseong last night near the hospital in which six houses and six shops were gutted. Three more houses were partially damaged before the firefighters and the locals managed to put it out.

It took fire-tenders from Kurseong, Darjeeling, Siliguri and also the Air Force base at Bagora to douse the flames at 3.30 a.m. The Air Force fire brigade played a vital role in stopping the fire from spreading to more wooden structures in the vicinity. Fire-tenders of the Kurseong fire station are still working to put out the embers.

Panic prevailed in Kurseong throughout the night and thousands of people gathered at the conflagration site. Some fainted from the heat and tension. The Kurseong SDPO Mr Rakesh Singh, the Kurseong SDO Mr Dibyendu Das, BDO Mr Manish Verma and the Kurseong Municipality vice chairman Mr Balaram Chettri were present at the site and helped in putting out the fire.

 

ROHINI: Homeless & help-less too

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Siliguri, Jan. 2: Rohini wore a deserted look today as residents went about their daily chores silently, refusing to speak to strangers.

Many had fled the area, 25km from here, yesterday after Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters torched the DGHC rest house, where their leader was killed, and 20 houses. The few who had come back were seen going through piles of ashes to retrieve whatever could be salvaged. “So far, we have not received any help from any side,” muttered a youth, still fearing to be named. “Most of us are daily earners and have no clue as to how we would rebuild our houses.”

Policemen, including cadres of the district commando force, continue to patrol the area. Rohini with its plush greenery and picturesque setting is ideal for picnics. There were no picnickers around today. Only a few vehicles on way to Kurseong ran through Rohini. Passengers glanced curiously at the half-burnt DGHC rest house. The floor still had blood splattered on it.

Just on the opposite, there are some burnt remains of huts. Smoke continues to come out of the house of Bimal Diyali – a guard at the rest house and a prime accused in the murder. A truck owned by Bimal had been also set on fire. People of Rohini Gate – a cluster of houses located around 200 metres downhill from the rest house – which remained unharmed during yesterday’s attack are shocked as well. Most of them refused to talk to reporters and denied having witnessed the ransack.

DARJEELING HILLS: Ransack finger at Morcha

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

The ABGL office that was ransacked on Thursday night. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, Jan. 2: The ABGL office at Ladenla Road guarded by policemen round-the-clock was ransacked last night, allegedly by supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha that has been at loggerheads with the outfit for the past one year.

However, the attack, which took place around 8pm, is being seen as a backlash to the death of Subodh Pradhan, a Morcha leader at Rohini near Kurseong, on Thursday morning. Pradhan had been lynched by a local mob and the Morcha had yesterday blamed former GNLF supporters for the murder.

Madan Tamang, president, ABGL, has accused the Morcha of the attack. “Their leader gets killed by local people but the Morcha attacks us without any rhyme or reason,” said Tamang.

The ABGL president said there was more to the incident than meets the eye. “I have been maintaining that the state government is orchestrating the entire show. Since I have been telling the people that we will not accept any administrative arrangement within Bengal instead of Gorkhaland, such attacks are being directed at us,” said Tamang.

“These people (the state and Morcha) want to settle for some provision (within the state) to silence the people,” said Tamang adding that even the gas stove, cylinder and a computer had been stolen from the office.

“The policemen were drunk. It is obvious that the state government had temporarily removed them so that the attack could take place,” said Tamang. Rahul Srivastava, the superintendent of police of Darjeeling, has promised action against the on-duty policemen.

“At least one police officer and two constables had been kept aside for duty at the ABGL office. However, there seems to have been dereliction of duty. A departmental inquiry will be started and action taken against the people concerned.” It has been learnt that at the time of the attack an assistant sub-inspector and four constables were posted in front of the office.

NORTH EAST: Fortress varsity set for meet

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Shillong, Jan. 2: For the Northeast, some things in life are absolute, like a proven scientific theory – life has to go on despite the bombs and the bullets.

The 96th Indian Science Congress will get under way here tomorrow as scheduled, with the hosts – North Eastern Hill University (Nehu) – confirming today that “there are no security concerns” after the serial blasts in Assam on New Year’s Day that left five dead and nearly 60 injured.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, himself a Rajya Sabha MP from the Northeast, will inaugurate the science congress on the sprawling Nehu campus at Mawlai where a large pandal has been set up for the programme. The campus is around 20km from the heart of the city.

More than 3,500 delegates, both from India and abroad, will participate in the five-day congress, the biggest science congregation in the state till date.

But there could not have been a better place than Shillong – the erstwhile capital of undivided Assam – for the science conclave, bathed in mist and frost at this time of the year to provide a panoramic backdrop to the scientific minds to mix and discuss.

Nehu vice-chancellor and chairman of the organising committee Pramod Tandon told The Telegraph that yesterday’s serial explosions in Guwahati, around 85km away, “will have no effect on the participation of delegates from other parts of the country. There, is no problem as far as security is concerned”.

“We have made careful security arrangements to ensure that the conclave passes off peacefully,” Meghalaya chief secretary Ranjan Chatterjee said this afternoon.

The inaugural function, to be attended by the Prime Minister, is only meant for delegates and the media because of security reasons. However, other sessions are open for the students and the public.

The Special Protection Group (SPG) personnel, who started pouring in three days ago, have already made different layers of security rings at the venue of the conference.

SILIGURI: Chicken deaths trigger flu panic

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Siliguri, Jan. 2: The Siliguri subdivisional administration has formed teams to search for dead chickens after 50 poultry birds were reported dead in Matigara over the past one week.

However, it is yet to be confirmed if the poultry had died of bird flu, said Sarad Dwibedi, the subdivisional officer of Siliguri.

“We have received a report through the animal resource development department that 50 poultry birds died at Patiramjote in Matigara Gram Panchayat-II over the past one week. The ARD officials had been to the spot and collected the samples from there. We have sent the samples to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal two days ago to confirm if the birds died of avian flu,” said Dwibedi.

Patiramjote is located 8km away from Siliguri.

The SDO said 16 teams have been formed to check the farms in the subdivision from tomorrow. “We will set up a check-point at Murligach at Bidhannagar, 45km from here,” he added.

Dwibedi today held a meeting with the ARD department and the Siliguri Municipal Corporation officials to alert the departments concerned.

“We are expecting the report from the Bhopal laboratory any time,” the SDO said.

The SMC officials will keep a watch over the local poultry markets to check if there was any unnatural death in its area.

“We have not received any reports of abnormal death of poultry birds from the civic area. But after today’s meeting we will keep a vigil on the market to check it further,” said an official of the conservancy department of the SMC.

The Siliguri markets located at Bidhan Market, Champasari More, Subhashpally and Fuleswari remain largely unaffected by the Matigara incident so far.

DARJEELING HILLS: Giri and team back –

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

A commando inspects one of the rooms of the DGHC rest house in Rohini on Friday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, Jan. 2: Central leaders of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha who arrived from Delhi today after the tripartite talks said the next round of discussion should not be with bureaucrats.

“Although the Union home secretary gave a patient hearing to our demand for Gorkhaland and appeared sympathetic, from now on we want the talks to be held at the political level and not mere discussion with secretaries of different departments of the state and Centre,” Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said. About bipartite talks with the state, the hill leader ruled out the possibility. “Considering the oppression of the state government and its stand regarding our demand, we are not ready to sit across the table at the bipartite level with its representatives,” Giri said.

Asha Gurung, the wife of Morcha president Bimal Gurung, said the party is not sure about the rally planned by the Nari Morcha in Siliguri tomorrow. “We are yet to get the permission,” Asha Gurung said.