Banarhat: Morcha message for garden workers

April 25.TT: Prohibitory orders were from in five of the seven police station areas of Jalpaiguri after two days of violence in the Dooars, where bandh enforcers had announced a 36-hour relaxation from today.

Section 144, however, will be in force in Oodlabari and Banarhat, where shops and vehicles were set on fire in the past two days.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders today visited three tea gardens in the party-dominated Kalchini block of the Dooars and interacted with the workers, explaining to them the reason behind relaxing the bandh.

The Morcha leaders told the garden workers that the strike had been relaxed after an appeal from the chief minister.

“We also feel that the relaxation would give an opportunity to the administration to sit with us and discuss our demand to hold meetings in this region,” Morcha spokesperson and Kalimpong MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri told the workers.

“We also told them about today’s meeting with the SDO and our stand,” Chhetri told journalists.

Chhetri and Gurung, accompanied by other leaders, left the Rangamati forest bungalow around 1.15pm and visited the Central Dooars tea garden. After speaking to the assembled workers there, they visited Bhatpara tea garden followed by Rangamati tea garden, winding up the tour around 3.30pm.

In each garden, there were around 100 to 125 workers and schoolchildren, who had gathered near the shops located in the gardens. The workers, many of them women, stood encircling the Morcha leaders and listened to what they said. In all the three gardens, the labourers hardly asked the leaders any questions.

Khusimara Rai, a woman worker of the Central Dooars tea garden, said they were told this morning that the Morcha leaders would be visiting the the estate and would speak to us.

“We listened to them and they told us about the bandh and what they want to do in the future. We did not ask them any questions, we just listened,” Khusimara said.

The Morcha today rejected the administration’s plea not to renew the bandh after the expiry of the relief.

The administration said permission could be given to hold rallies in the Dooars only after a fortnight or so depending on the situation.

The Morcha-led Joint Action Co-ordination Committee which includes the John Barla-led breakaway faction of the adivasis, has turned down the offer and made it clear to the government that the 36-hour deadline stays and blamed the administration for the violence in the region in the past two days.

“The official asked us to withdraw the strike to restore peace in the region. We have made it clear that the administration was solely responsible for the violence in the Dooars. Had we been given permission to hold our public meeting, the violence could have been avoided,” Chhetri said.

The Morcha-led committee had called an indefinite strike in the Dooars and Terai from Monday after it was denied permission to hold a public meeting in Jalpaiguri’s Nagrakata.

The meeting was supposed to have been held to campaign in favour of the inclusion of the Dooars and Terai in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.

Chhetri did not comment on whether the strike would continue after the relief expired on Friday. But the Barla faction said the strike would resume. “If the administration does not give us permission to hold meetings, the indefinite strike will continue,” said Raju Bara, the spokesperson for the group.

The subdivisional officer of Alipurduar, Amal Kanti Roy, said he had held talks with the Morcha under “instructions from higher authorities”.Jalpaiguri district magistrate Smaraki Mahapatra said the prohibitory orders had been withdrawn from five police station areas in the Dooars.

“However, the orders are still in force in Banarhat and Oodlabari. As far as the arson in Banarhat is concerned, the administration will look into the matter of compensation only if a request is made in writing,” Mahapatra said.

The secretary of the Banarhat Byabsayee Samiti, Bijoy Barua, said the traders had downed shutters in the market today as a mark of solidarity with the 15 shopowners whose establishments were set on fire by the bandh supporters on Monday.

“We are holding meetings and we are going to meet the district magistrate and have sought an appointment. It was intelligence failure on the part of the police because of which violence and arson took place,” Barua alleged.