DARJEELING HILLS: Bandh in hills: it is final

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

BY VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, July 12: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha will start an indefinite strike in the three hill subdivisions from tomorrow but will allow vehicles to ply for the day before stopping all traffic from Tuesday morning.

Even police cars will not be spared, although the district magistrate, the district superintendent of police and the subdivisional officers will be allowed to used their cars.

The Morcha has termed the strike the start of a “real agitation for Gorkhaland” with party president Bimal Gurung saying that the movement is to support what Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh is expected to do in the budget session: raise the statehood issue in the Lower House. BJP Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Pratap Rudy had already raised the statehood issue in the Upper House on July 3. Besides, a Morcha team is being sent to Delhi to lobby parliamentarians on the separate state demand.

“Things are moving in Parliament and this strike has been called to support these initiatives. After all, our main demand is Gorkhaland,” said Gurung, after a review of the Gorkhaland Personnel (GLP) at the Lebong race course here this morning. He, however, did not speak on the four demands that he had placed before the state government on Friday.

The Morcha had set a Monday-noon deadline for the arrest of GNLF leader Rajen Mukhia and the removal of three officers including the inspector-general of police, north Bengal, K.L. Tamta.

The government has met one of the demands with the arrest of Mukhia yesterday.

The police had lathicharged Morcha supporters at Panighata on Friday for attacking Mukhia’s house.

Earlier, too, the house had been attacked and three Morcha supporters had been arrested under non-bailable sections. The Morcha set the deadline after Friday’s attack.

“Trilok Dewan and C.R. Rai, our advisers, have already left for Delhi. Two other members will join them there and they will circulate a document, titled ‘Why Gorkhaland’, among all parliamentarians to apprise them of our demand,” said Gurung.

For the tea industry, the strike call has come too early. “Plucking the second flush would have been completed in the next 10 days. We are now in a fix, as the gardens will have to close. We can only wait and watch,” said a tea garden official.

The Morcha has put in place an elaborate plan to ensure that the strike is a success. “Members of the GLP will patrol the streets to ensure that there is no law and order problem,” said Gurung.

Alok Kant Mani Thulung, the president of the Yuva Morcha, said: “Youth wing members who will be carrying batons will set up pickets across the hills between 6am and 6pm. At night, the GLP will patrol the streets. This is the real agitation.”

Even though the Morcha has decided to stop the movement of police vehicles, it will not oppose the deployment of policemen on foot. “We will only allow the district magistrate, the police superintendent and the subdivisional officers to use their vehicles,” said Gurung.

Reacting to the Morcha’s announcement, Tamta said: “The police are an offshoot of the civil society. They are there to protect and react to all emergencies. If they (Morcha) feel they can do without the police, they are living in a fool’s paradise.”