GJM threatens to drive out DM, SP from Darjeeling; GJM sets deadline for tripartite talks

GJM threatens to drive out DM, SP from Darjeeling
Indian Express

After the Centre did not announce the date on political-level talks on Gorkhaland, which it was suppose to announce in the first week of February, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) on Sunday said that it would go for “home rule” by driving out the district magistrate and superintendent of police from the Hills if the Centre fails to respond positively to its demands.

The announcement was made by GJM president Bimal Gurung at a rally at Kalimpong. Four other rallies were organised at other places in the Darjeeling district where similar announcements were made by other leaders of the outfit.

“We received feelers that by February 9 or February 10, the Centre will inform us about the next date. I will expect that Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will be present in the meeting. And I will also be in that meeting where I will offer a formula which should be acceptable to all,” Gurung told the rally.

“But if no positive response comes, we will start home rule in the Hills and as a first step we will drive out both the DM and SP from here,” the Morcha chief added.

During the fourth round of tripartite talks — involving GJM, Centre and the state government — that took place in Darjeeling on December 21, the GJM had demanded that the next round of talks should be on political level. Union Home Secretary G K Pillai had told the GJM that the date on the next round of talks will be announced within 45 days. The deadline expired last week.

Pillai, however, told The Indian Express that the issue would be decided at the CCPA meeting, which would be held “very soon”.

Morcha spokesperson Roshan Giri said: “We hope the next date is announced soon otherwise our agitations will start again on a bigger scale.” The Morcha has planned to carry out relay hunger strikes in the Hills on Tuesday and Wednesday.

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Morcha turns up heat for 5th round result
- DM, SP to be chased out if talks fail: Gurung OUR CORRESPONDENT - The Telegraph

Kalimpong, Feb. 7: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung today said his party would chase out the top civil and the police officers from the hills and run the administration if nothing positive emerges in the fifth round of tripartite talks, the date for which is yet to be announced.

In Darjeeling, Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri revealed that the “secret” proposal sent (by Gurung) to the Centre also pertains to an interim arrangement for the area the party wants as Gorkhaland till the Assembly election in 2011. “Every point in our proposal will have to be accepted. However, there will be no compromise on Gorkhaland,” he said.

Addressing a rally at Deolo, 5km from here, Gurung said there were sufficient experienced persons in the hills to run the administration, and the district magistrate, the superintendent of police and the subdivisional officers would be driven out.

“We will chase out the DM, the SP, the DSP and the SDOs. We have already done a detailed study…. We know how much money is required to pay the salaries of the staff and also how to generate revenue,” he added.

The student wing of the party, the Vidyarthi Morcha, has already given the call to stall the movement of government and police vehicles in the hills after a lathicharge on Thursday on a group of Gorkhaland supporters on fast in Siliguri for permission to organise a rally in the plains. The same day party had confined the district magistrate in his office in Darjeeling for more than 11 hours. As a backlash to the lathicharge, two NBSTC buses were set on fire in Kalimpong and a constable was beaten up brutally.

Gurung declared that the date for the fifth round of talks would be announced by Delhi either on February 9 or 10. “Since the talks will be held at the political-level, I would expect Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (chief minister) and Union home minister P. Chidambaram and myself, as Morcha president, to take part in it,” he said.

He, however, warned that he would not accept someone like state urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya representing the state government at the talks. “I will not talk to those who have come through the barbed wire fence from Bangladesh,” he added.

The Morcha president also took potshots at Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling for a petition that a Sikkimese had filed in the Supreme Court against the closure of NH31A — the only road link to the Himalayan state — during statehood agitation. “Don’t try to break the age-old blood ties between the people of Darjeeling and Sikkim…,” he said, suggesting that Chamling had a hand in filing the petition.

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GJM sets deadline for tripartite talks
The Hindu

Demanding that a Gorkhaland State be carved out of the Darjeeling district and certain areas contiguous to it in north Bengal, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leadership on Sunday threatened to intensify its agitation unless the date of the fifth round of tripartite talks is announced by February 10.
 
Volunteers from the GJM’s youth organisations will also go on a 48-hour relay hunger strike in different towns in the Darjeeling district and the Dooars from Tuesday in protest against the Centre and State government’s silence over the holding of a fifth round ofdiscussions at a political level on the issue, GJM general-secretary Roshan Giri told The Hindu over telephone from Darjeeling.

“We have extended the deadline for a decision on the date of the tripartite talks till February 10 and shall intensify our agitation for Gorkhaland State if there is no announcement by then,” Mr. Giri added.

The GJM is also insisting that Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee attend the next round of discussions which should be held “at the political level.” It has threatened to boycott the talks if the two leaders fail to turn up.

The GJM had sought a fifth round within 45 days at the last round of talks that were held in Darjeeling on December 21, 2009. Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai had then said that the GJM’s request would be referred to the Centre and the State government. The GJM is yet to receive a response even though the 45-day period expired on Saturday.

Last month, GJM president Bimal Gurung sent a proposal to the Centre for an interim administrative arrangement in the Darjeeling hills till 2011 to pave the way for the creation of Gorkhaland state.

The political situation in the Darjeeling hills and the Dooars in the plains of north Bengal has been tense over the past few days.

Violence flared up in the hills on February 4, when GJM supporters went on a rampage, setting ablaze buses and a police vehicle and laid siege to the thanas in four hill towns protesting against the arrest of 22 members of its youth wing. Though things were brought under control, the administration refused to grant permission to hold rallies in Siliguri and the Dooars which the GJM leadership had planned for Sunday.

Rallies and processions were, however, taken out on the day in the three hill sub-divisional towns.

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Education strike called off
OUR CORRESPONDENT - The Telegraph

Siliguri, Feb. 7: The Gorkha Janmukti Vidyarthi Morcha has postponed its indefinite education strike in the district, which it had called on Friday to protest the police lathicharge on its supporters here a day earlier. However, the Morcha ban on movement of government vehicles in the hills will continue.

“Guardians and school authorities requested us to withdraw our strike… we decided to postpone (the strike),” Vidyarthi Morcha Keshavraj Pokhral told a news conference at Dagapur today.

“We have nothing against the residents of Siliguri, but the state government tried to foil our movement applying force… we will stick to our decision to not allow any police or government vehicle to ply in the hills unless we get permission to hold a meeting here,” Pokhral added.

The student outfit will also continue with its relay hunger strike in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong, Siliguri and the Dooars. Pokhral also came down heavily on Bengal urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya, who had said yesterday that the administration would look after all educational institutions up to Sukna should they decide to remain open during the strike.

“Being a minister why is he not bothered about the students of the hills,” Pokhral said. Most of the schools in the hills, however, are shut for winter and will open only at the end of this month.

In Kalimpong, Morcha president Bimal Gurung said the women’s wing will take out candlelight processions from 4pm to 7pm every Saturday and Sunday.
 

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UK toy train lovers on trip to check funds
OUR CORRESPONDENT - The Telegraph

File picture of DHRS members at the toy train station in Darjeeling
Siliguri, Feb. 7: After two years, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society chairman David Barrie is visiting Darjeeling this week to review the projects his organisation has funded for people living along the tracks.

Barrie’s wife Moo, a trustee of the Darjeeling Railway Community Support Group, the charity wing of the DHRS, will also accompany him during the 12-day trip.

They will arrive here on February 11 and leave for the UK on February 23.

The DHRS, a UK-based society of toy train lovers, and its two wings, the DRCS and the DHR Education Group, are involved in education, health and employment projects for the people living along the tracks. In the past few years, the DRCS has helped set up children’s parks at Tindharia and Rongtong, a preparatory school at Kurseong and a tailoring training centre for women at Gayabari.

“One of the key things about our tour is we like to meet the communities that live along the DHR and review the projects. When we come as tourists it separates us from the people. We want to penetrate the invisible bubble between tourist and the person for whom this area is home. My wife also wants to look at the school we are helping to fund through our charity fund raising at Kurseong,” Barrie wrote in an e-mail to The Telegraph.
 
The Education Group works to create awareness and local support for the toy train, which enjoys the Unesco World Heritage status, by providing resource material to schools in the region.

The DHRS was presented with the Best International Achievement Award in September last year by the Association of Community Rail Partnerships, a federation of over 60 community rail partnerships and rail promotion groups in the UK, for the projects along the toy train tracks.

“We want to focus on this region of outstanding natural beauty and friendly and helpful people. We think its all part of the holiday experience to meet and talk with the people of the region. If we can say a ‘Thank you’ for their hospitality by giving something more in return then that would be the icing on the cake!” Barrie wrote.

To give an additional boost to the projects, the couple is bringing along a group of 26 European steam enthusiasts who are interested in the DHR affairs, most of whom are first time visitors to Darjeeling.

“As I have been captivated by the DHR and Darjeeling, there are others too who wanted to fulfill their dream of visiting the World Heritage Railway. By bringing tour groups there’s a chance of getting them interested in our community projects. That’s how our fund raising began for worthwhile projects in the region,” he wrote referring to a similar trip a few years ago from which the DHRS conceived the idea of establishing the DRCS to help the local people.

On the first day of its trip, the group will visit the locomotive shed at Siliguri and explore the tracks. They will also enjoy a three-meal course in a dining charter from Siliguri Junction to Rongtong in the evening.

The group’s itinerary includes chartered rides on the toy train, a visit to Kurseong and to Makaibari Tea Estate, and trips to Mirik, Gorumara National Park and Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary.

The DHRS team will also take a chartered ride from Siliguri Junction through the forests of Sukna to Tindharia where the B class (a type of model) steam locomotive workshop is located.
 

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GJM will not be responsible for public outbursts along NH 31A: Bimal Gurung
Voice of Sikkim

GJM will not be responsible for public outbursts along NH 31A: Bimal Gurung
KALIMPONG, February 7: At a time when Sikkim is turning on the heat on New Delhi over disruptions along its lifeline National Highway 31A, one of the respondents on the recent Supreme Court’s order for keeping the highway open, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) today issued a veiled threat of possible public outbursts along the highway, which has now become a political minefield between the two hill neighbours.

“We respect the Supreme Court order and the national highway will be kept open,” said GJM chief Bimal Gurung in a public speech at Dello, Kalimpong today. “However if there is a public outburst and anything happens along the highway, we will not be responsible,” he said.

“The responsibility then must be taken by the Sikkim Chief Minister,” said Gurung, whose party is spearheading the renewed Gorkhaland agitation for the past two years. “The aspirations of the people of Darjeeling must not be taken for granted,” he added.

The GJM president said that Sikkim and Darjeeling shared brotherly ties. “If Sikkim is hurt, Darjeeling feels the pain and if Darjeeling is hurt, Sikkim also feels the pain,” he said. “The blood brotherhood bond must not be broken or else, it would be uncomfortable for both sides,” he said.

Gurung reiterated his party’s stand that the next tripartite meeting must be held on a political level. “The meeting must be attended by West Bengal Chief Minister and Union Home Minister and I will also attend it,” he said.

At the same time, the GJM president demanded that the West Bengal minister Ashoke Bhattacharya and his clique should not be allowed to attend the tripartite meeting. “We will not accept it,” he said.

Gurung reminded that Darjeeling hills falls under the strategically important ‘Chicken’s Neck’ of the nation, a factor, which he said, must be viewed seriously by the Centre. Anything can happen here in one night and in this situation, the government must take responsibility, he said.

The GJM president also claimed that West Bengal government is pumping money in the hills as part of a conspiracy. “The money must be used for development of every corner of the hills and if this is not done, we will remove the District Magistrate,” he warned.

Gurung also announced the completion of the 37 day long relay hunger strike by the party’s frontal organizations in the hills. Now, there will be serial relay hunger strike of 48 hours each by the youth, he said. He informed that the Nari Morcha members would be taking out candlelight rally every evening in the hills as part of the Gorkhaland movement.

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Congress, SHRP reiterates Gorkhaland support
Himalayan Express
 
Congress, SHRP reiterates Gorkhaland support
Gangtok, February 7: Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee (SPCC) President and former Chief Minister Nar Bahadur Bhandari has reiterated his support for a separate Gorkhaland state. Indifferent on his effigy being burnt by Rastriya Shiv Seba, an anti-Gorkhaland outfit in Siliguri last Friday, Bhandari said that he will continue to support the separate statehood demand of the people of Darjeeling and adjoining areas.

“If any opposing party burns my effigy for doing so, I will continue my support for Gorkhaland’ he said.

On a similar note, Sikkim Himali Rajya Parishad Party (SHRP) led by Dr. AD Subba has also restated its support for Gorkhaland. According to a press release issued by SHRP general secretary Tara Shrestha, the party has demanded that the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) led state government pass a resolution in Sikkim legislative assembly in support of a separate Gorkhaland state. ‘Rather than mere verbal support, the state government should act on the issue’ it said. The party has also demanded that both MPs from Sikkim raise the Gorkhaland demand in the parliament during its upcoming budget session.

Hopeful of positive response from the Congress led UPA government at the centre, the SHRP has asked SPCC president Nar Bahadur Bhandari put forward his written demand to the Congress party. The party has submitted memorandum on the significance and need of a separate Gorkhaland state to the Prime Minister, President, UPA Chairperson and other central leaders twice, the release mentions.