Indefinite Strike in the Terai and Dooars

Call for boycott & bandh - Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to skip govt events till it gets rally permission 

TT.April 22: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today said it would boycott all government programmes and go ahead with its indefinite strike starting tomorrow in the Dooars and the Terai in a peak tourist season.

The Morcha also claimed that it had never said it would not allow the chief minister and her cabinet colleagues to enter the Darjeeling hills and that Bimal Gurung’s comments yesterday had been distorted by a section of the media.

Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said the boycott would continue till the party was allowed to hold public meetings in favour of the demand to include mouzas from the Terai and the Dooars in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA).

Led by the Ahkil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad, a forum of around 20 organisations today called a 12-hour bandh to protest a proposed Morcha meeting in Nagrakata. The meeting was cancelled after the Jalpaiguri administration refused to give the Morcha permission.

The bandh and call for counter bandhs come at a time when around 18,000-20,000 tourists are visiting the Dooars and the Terai and the Darjeeling hills daily. “At least six persons are directly or indirectly dependent on one tourist for their livelihood. At this time of the year, nearly 20,000 tourists are present in the region, which includes the hills, on an average a day,” said Raj Basu, the chairperson of the Eastern Himalaya Tour and Travel Operators’ Association.

“We are apprehensive about what this bandh will bring. There will probably be a spree of cancellations.” Tour operators said the summer peak season started in mid-March and ended two months later with the start of monsoon.

Giri, who had been camping with Morcha chief Gurung in Jalpaiguri’s Jaigaon since yesterday, said all government programmes, including those attended by chief minister Mamata Banerjee and north Bengal development minister Gautam Deb, would be boycotted.

“We had never said we would not allow the chief minister and her cabinet colleagues to enter the hills. What Bimal Gurung said at a meeting in Chamurchi yesterday has been distorted by a section of the media. We said we would boycott all government programmes in the hills and observe an indefinite strike in the plains till we receive permission to hold rallies in the Terai and the Dooars. Bimal Gurung will be camping in the Dooars during the strike. All three hill MLAs will join the boycott,” Giri said.

In the evening, the John Barla faction of the Parishad that has joined hands with the Morcha said their members were beaten up and their vehicles were pelted with stones in Malbazar and Binnaguri while they were campaigning for the bandh.

“When they broke the windshields of our vehicle, our men were injured. At Binnaguri they damaged our vehicle and beat up our men when they were appealing to the people to support our strike,” said Raju Lakra, an adivasi leader.

The Parishad has denied the charges.

Giri said the state government was acting in a partisan manner by allowing those opposed to the Morcha to hold rallies and meetings.

In Siliguri, Deb told reporters that he would go ahead with his programmes in the hills from April 25.

“We are always with the residents of the hills and the development of the region is on our mind. I will reach Darjeeling on April 24 and the next day we will sit with the patients’ welfare committee of the Darjeeling district hospital. The day after I have a programme in Kalimpong. On April 29, I will be in Bijanbari where a plaque to remember the 32 persons who died in the bridge collapse last year, will be unveiled. The Morcha MLA from Darjeeling Trilok Dewan will be present in Bijanbari,” Deb said.

“We have released Rs 31 crore for the hills and we are serious about improving health services, roads and tourism,” he said.