24-hour Morcha bandh on Saturday

TT, Feb. 11: The Vidyarthi Morcha has called a 24-hour general strike in the area it wants as Gorkhaland on Saturday to press ahead its demand for permission to hold a rally in the plains. The announcement of the bandh comes a day before chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee arrives in Siliguri. The student wing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has, however, kept National Highway 31A that connects Sikkim outside the bandh’s ambit this time. Although the Gorkhaland that the Morcha has been demanding includes the entire Darjeeling district and seven blocks of neighbouring Jalpaiguri, the chief minister’s visit is unlikely to be affected because the strike is not expected to impact the plains, which are opposed to the division of Bengal. Besides, on Saturday morning, Bhattacharjee is expected to leave for Cooch Behar. “We had confined the district magistrate (to his office) in Darjeeling till 3am on February 4. In a talk with our president, the DM had sought seven days (to take a final decision on whether permission could be given for the meeting). Since the deadline is over, we have called a 24-hour general strike,” said Keshav Raj Pokhral, the general secretary of the Vidyarthi Morcha, at Dagapur this afternoon. He said the bandh was being called to condemn the biased attitude of the state government “which is not allowing us to hold a public meeting, citing law and order problems, but on the other hand, a VVIP like the chief minister is coming on a three-day visit”. Bhattacharjee, who is arriving here tomorrow, will address a public meeting at Baghajatin Park in Siliguri. Before Pokhral’s announcement, about 300 Vidyarthi Morcha supporters took out a procession from Dagapur on the outskirts of the town, heading for Darjeeling More located a kilometre away. The sloganeering mob was stopped midway by a 50-odd police force. “The police unnecessarily stopped us,” said Vidyarthi Morcha president Kismat Chhetri. “However, we could successfully manage to take out a procession and disseminate the message that it is the state government and the police machinery which are instigating violence.” Despite the police stopping the protesters, a group of about 50 separated and continued marching towards Darjeeling More, where they shouted slogans for five minutes or so before returning to where the cops had first stopped them. The leaders then instructed the supporters to retreat to Dagapur, defusing the tension that had built up. The Vidyarthi Morcha said if the administration granted it permission to hold the meeting at Dagapur (by tomorrow night), the outfit would do a rethink on the strike. “We resumed our agitation today. The ban on movement of government vehicles is in force across the hills,” Pokhral said. “Our organisation is also waiting to see what steps the police take against two officers who had led the lathicharge on February 4 at Darjeeling More. We are also in the process of readying the CDs and other evidence (regarding the lathicharge) that we will soon submit to the National Human Rights Commission.” On February 4, the police had chased away with batons a group of Morcha supporters from Darjeeling More to defuse tension after people in the plains opposed to the outfit had started converging on the same site. As a backlash, the Morcha burnt two buses and a police jeep in the hills. A constable was also beaten up brutally. A Morcha leader said: “We will abide by the Supreme Court ruling and keep NH31A that goes to Sikkim open. Also, essential services would be outside the purview of the strike.” Two years on, ties with Sikkim hit all-time low Morcha supporters break the police cordon at Dagapur and walk towards Darjeeling More on Thursday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo Vivek Chhetri, TT. Darjeeling, Feb. 11: In September 2007 when Prashant Tamang was crowned the third Indian Idol, supporters of Bimal Gurung, who had not yet floated the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha then, were seen shouting pro-Pawan Chamling slogans much to the chagrin of Subash Ghisingh, the uncrowned ruler of the hills accused of being indifferent to the euphoria. A little over two years and Gurung’s supporters are no longer eulogising the Sikkim chief minister, but accusing him of doing little to help achieve Gorkhaland. Gurung who is now the president of the Morcha — many believe the party was formed riding high on the Indian Idol victory wave — has been publicly criticising Chamling for remaining aloof to the statehood cry. The most recent spat centres around the arrest of Ajay Dahal, the chief of the United Gorkha Revolutionary Front, in Gangtok on Monday. “Dahal’s arrest is Chamling’s conspiracy. For long, Dahal was in Sikkim and Chamling was sheltering him. The arrest is probably because of pressure from P.S. Golay (a rebel MLA in Chamling’s party),” a Morcha insider quoted Gurung as saying in Kalimpong yesterday, refusing to elaborate much. This is not the first time Gurung has lashed out at Chamling. The Morcha leadership suspects Chamling to be behind the petition filed in the Supreme Court against the frequent blockades set up by the party on NH31A — the only road link to Sikkim. The Morcha had challenged the claim of O.P. Bhandari, a resident of Gangtok and the petitioner of the case, that he was not associated with any political party. “During the hearing (of the case) we used to visit the court. There were almost eight-nine high profile lawyers fighting for Bhandari. We all know that the fees of Supreme Court lawyers are very high and one does not need to guess where the funds to pay these lawyers are coming from,” Roshan Giri, general secretary of the Morcha had alleged. However, this time, the Morcha has kept NH31A outside the purview of Saturday’s strike. The Morcha ban on the flow of “illegal liquor” from Sikkim was also a ploy to keep up pressure on Chamling. While the ban on the sale of liquor in the hills has been withdrawn by the Morcha in recent times, the one on the entry of “illegal Sikkim liquor” continues. In almost every public meeting that Gurung addressed in the last fortnight, he accused Chamling of not being tolerant to the cause of Gorkhaland. “During the 1986 (Gorkhaland) agitation, Nar Bahadur Bhandari (then chief minister of Sikkim) had given shelter to our people. Today, Chamling cannot even tolerate our movement,” Gurung had said in one such meeting. Chamling, however, has not answered any of Gurung’s barbs. Bhim Dahal, the spokesperson for Chamling’s party, the Sikkim Democratic Front, could not be contacted. The controversy has, however, stopped Chamling from visiting the hills. Ever since the Morcha was formed the Sikkim chief minister who was a regular in Darjeeling has not paid a single visit. Political ties between Sikkim and Darjeeling have undergone major changes since September 2007, when the Morcha was floated, observers said. Today, the Janmukti Asthahi Karmachari Sangatan decided to lift the embargo it had imposed on floating tenders at the DGHC offices. “We will allow tender process to carry on and have also decided to keep all government offices open. This is largely because the administrator of the DGHC has decided to pursue the issue of regularisation of our jobs with the chief minister when he visits Siliguri tomorrow. We also want to create a congenial atmosphere for the fifth tripartite talks,” said Machendra Subba, the president of the casual workers’ organisation. Road repair in hurry- Chief minister’s visit to Cooch Behar wakes up officials, scurry to complete pending works Repair of State Highway 12 being carried out. Picture by Anirban Choudhury TT, Alipurduar, Feb. 11: A visit by chief minister has achieved what year long protests could not: Repair of State Highway 12. The 24km-long highway from Dhupguri to Falakata had been in a wretched state and no repair was carried out despite protests from local people and drivers in the past one year. But the public works department is now racing against time to make the SH12 motorable ahead of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s visit to Cooch Behar on February 13, though people have expressed doubts over the quality of the work. Many organisations had spearheaded movements to mount pressure on the PWD to repair the road, but all forms of agitation yielded no result. “We organised blockades on the road many times and stopped plying buses, but nobody cared to carry out the repair. The PWD would shun their duty by saying that the National Highways Authority of India would carry out the repair or there was a funds crisis. Now, on the eve of the chief minister’s visit, the PWD is working round the clock for the asphaltation,” said Chandan Mitra, secretary of the Falakata Motor Karmi Sangha. “The quality of the work is so poor that the road will be in bad shape very soon,” he added. The chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, will use SH12 to reach Cooch Behar from Siliguri on February 13 and his return to Jalpaiguri the next day. He will spend two hours at Falakata also. In the past one year, 10 people died in accidents because of the poor condition of the road and there were several incidents of heavy vehicles tilting on the highway, causing traffic congestion. The highway plays an important role for traffic between the Northeast and Bengal. Vehicles plying between Cooch Behar and Siliguri, and Alipurduar and Siliguri cross SH12. Lorries carrying goods to Assam from different parts of the country also use the SH12. The PWD has barred loaded lorries from using the SH12 till the chief minister’s return. “We travel throughout the country but have never faced such a problem. Our trucks used to take the route whenever asphaltation works were carried out. But now we have to travel 40km more because of the chief minister’s programme,” said Hanif Mohammad, a lorry driver from Patna. Policemen were posted at the entry point of the highway in Falakata to check loaded lorries. The PWD minister, Kshiti Goswami, had said in the past that the road had been handed over to the NHAI for repair. Asked over the phone about the work by the PWD, Goswami said: “We had taken up the bad condition of the road with the NHAI several times but it did not care. Everybody knows why the work is being undertaken now. I cannot say more than this.” Trinmool Opposed to Gorkhaland IANS, 10 Feb:Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee Thursday said her party was opposed to the demand for a separate Gorkhaland and instead favoured economic and social development of the hill region in northern West Bengal. Banerjee said the Trinamool Congress would convey its opinion on addressing the problems of the hill region to the cabinet committee of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) central government if asked to do so. 'Trinamool Congress does not want division of Bengal. But we want the economic and sociological problems of the hill areas to be addressed. 'If the central government asks for our opinion regarding the problem of the hills we will definitely convey it to them,' Banerjee told media persons here after a closed door meeting with state Congress leaders on West Bengal's current political scenario.