Rukus in Plains, Hills on boil

TOI, DARJEELING/JALPAIGURI: After a lull, Darjeeling is again on fire — with all the signs of a major crisis in the making. It started with the district magistrate and several top officials being locked up in their offices in Darjeeling, but took an ugly turn when GJM Vidyarthi Morcha cadres were lathicharged in Siliguri on Thursday evening.  The assault on students triggered a surge of emotion in the Hills, with hundreds rushing out of home in response to a Morcha ‘mobilisation call’ at 9 pm. Huge crowds laid siege to police stations in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong.  In near-coordinated attacks, a police jeep was burnt at Chowk Bazar, next to Sadar police station in the heart of Darjeeling, and a government bus was torched in Siliguri. GJM seems in no mood to free district magistrate Surindra Gupta and the subdivisional officers of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalim-pong, who have been confined since 3 pm because they refused to give permission for Vidyarthi Morcha meetings at Dagapur near Siliguri and Birpara in the Dooars (Jalpaiguri district). GJM chief Bimal Gurung was supposed to address these rallies.  When TOI finally got through to Gupta, he said: “We denied permission because a report from the additional SP in Siliguri said there could be a breach of peace and tranquillity.” Another official said: “We feared law and order problems.”  GJM, which had recently shown signs of a softening of stance, seized on this ‘affront’ to whip up emotions. Along with the gherao of officials in the Hills, GJVM activists began an indefinite hunger strike at Darjeeling More in Siliguri. This group was lathicharged around 7 pm and around 100 taken into custody.  IG (North Bengal) K L Tamta defended the lathicharge, saying police wanted to prevent a “head-on collision between pro-and anti-Gorkhaland forces”. “We did not say anything when GJM organised hunger strikes in Darjeeling, Kurse-ong, Kalimpong, Mirik and even Pintail (near Siliguri). But we had to take action at Darjeeling More because Aamra Bangali and Bangla O Bangla Bhasa Bachao Committee are also active in that area,” he said.  Bengali outfits have called band-hs coinciding with the two meetings and threatened to march towards Dagapur to take on GJVM.  Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad had also warned of serious consequences if the government let GJVM hold meetings at Birpara. The tribal outfit, which opposes GJM’s demand for inclusion of the Dooars and the Terai in its proposed ‘Gorkhaland’, had threatened to bring the two areas to a standstill.  Last year, the Dooars had witnessed a number of clashes between ABAVP and GJM supporters. Reason enough for the administration to be jittery. Month full of protests and sit-ins Morcha supporters on hunger strike at Darjeeling More in Siliguri on Thursday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo TT, Jaigaon/Siliguri, Feb. 4: February is set to be a month of statehood agitation. Besides the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, at least three other outfits have lined up programmes throughout the month to demand separate states. The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad, which is opposed to the Gorkhaland demand of the Morcha, has decided to meet Union ministers Pranab Mukherjee and P. Chidambaram in Delhi along with central government officials demanding Sixth Schedule status for the Terai and the Dooars. The Kamtapur Progressive Party led by Atul Roy will organise demonstrations in front of the residences of all MLAs and MPs from north Bengal on February 8, demanding that they show solidarity with the party’s demand for a separate state. The Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party on the other hand, has decided to engage its affiliates — the students’ front and women’s wing — for its agitation programmes at the district magistrate’s office in Cooch Behar. However, no date has been fixed yet. “A six-member delegation led by me and comprising leaders from the Terai and the Dooars will go to Delhi on February 9,” said Birsa Tirkey, the state president of the Parishad. “We will meet the Union finance minister, the Union home minister, deputy Speaker of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and the chairman of the SC and ST commission.” “We will submit memorandums to them, demanding conferment of Sixth Schedule status on the Terai and Dooars region. Further, we will reassert that not an inch of land from this area should be included in Gorkhaland as has been demanded by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha,” Tirkey added. Outlining the plans of his party, Atul Roy, who had sent a delegation to Calcutta last month for a meeting with the state home secretary, said: “On February 8, we will resort to daylong demonstrations. We will demand the full-fledged support of MLAs and MPs for the separate Kamtapur state.” The organisation has also threatened to shut down on all primary schools across the region on February 22. On the same day, the outfit members will demonstrate in front of the regional office of the state secondary education board at Shivmandir (on the outskirts of Siliguri) to demand that Rajbangshi be made the medium of instruction at the primary level and history of north Bengal be taught at the secondary level from the coming academic year. The Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party, which is one of the constituents of the Separate State Demand Committee, has similar demands like the Kamtapur Progressive Party. “We want Rajbangshi language in schools and the history of the region in the school syllabus,” said Asutosh Burma, the party general secretary. “Representatives of the SSDC will soon sit to decide on the next course of action on the demand for a separate state.” Eight suspended for campus clash

The police posted on the institute’s campus at Majitar. Picture by Prabin Khaling TT, Gangtok, Feb. 4: The Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology today suspended eight students, including four local boys, for their alleged involvement in a campus clash on Sunday. Those who have been suspended are first year engineering students and the action was based on a report submitted by a disciplinary committee formed following the violence. The panel was constituted on February 1. According to sources, a first year student from Assam had an altercation with a hostel mate, who is a local boy, on Sunday, triggering the clash. The engineering college affiliated to the Sikkim Manipal University (SMU) has around 4,400 students. The suspended students are Pranil Rai, Kesav Mangar, Kenzongpa Bhutia, Baskar Upreti, Rikshal Gumpo Bukki, David Das, Bikash Narayan and Farashat Ahmed Kambha. The suspension ranges from one to three months. The college is situated at Majitar, 35km from here. Tension was palpable at the college today as students expressed their dissatisfaction over the action taken by the authorities. First year non- Sikkimese students demanded that the suspension of outsiders be revoked. A team of district officials and Sikkim police officers, including inspector-general (law and order) S.D. Negi, superintendent of police (East) Mandeep Singh Tuli and additional district collector S. Gyatso were present at the institute to placate the agitating students. The suspended students placed their grievances before the officials and left the campus. The institute has assured to constitute another committee for the suspended students to air their grievances. In a press statement, the college said: “The situation in the campus is presently normal and all classes and other activities are being held as scheduled.” The statement added that the chief warden and other hostel staff had immediately intervened and dispersed the students when the fight had broken out.