Hills on fire after cops disperse plains protesters

Police jeep set on fire in Darjeeling

Hills on fire after cops disperse plains protesters
OUR BUREAU - The Telegraph

Feb. 4: A police jeep and two buses were set on fire in the Darjeeling hills late in the evening, an hour after cops dispersed a group of Gorkha Janmukti Vidyarthi Morcha members with batons while they were on fast in Siliguri demanding permission for a public meeting.

The windscreen of a prison van was also damaged along with a private bus in Kalimpong, where a night guard and a constable were bashed up by the arsonists.

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha Morcha vice-president Pradip Pradhan said no government vehicles including those of the police would be allowed to ply in the hills from tomorrow till an inquiry was conducted on the lathicharge in the plains.

In Darjeeling, the Vidyarthi Morcha confined the district magistrate to his office from 3.30pm after he refused permission for a public meeting in the plains. The confinement is indefinite, the student wing of the Morcha said. It was continuing well past midnight. Late in the evening, the supporters of the hill party laid siege to the police stations in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong and Bijanbari.

The situation at the fast site in Siliguri’s Darjeeling More turned tense at 7.30pm with the arrival of members of the Bangla Bangla Bhasha Banchao Committee, an outfit opposed to the Morcha demand for a separate state.

Forces from Pradhannagar and Matigara police stations and personnel of the district commando force soon cordoned them off near the statue of Tenzing Norgay, 50 metres from where around 60 Vidyarthi Morcha supporters were sitting with the seven fasting members. The Vidyarthi Morcha refused to withdraw the hunger strike till the police chased them with batons.

The police arrested 22 Morcha supporters and eight members of the Bhasha Banchao Committee. After midnight, the gherao at the Kurseong police station was lifted.

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Morcha confines DM for meet permit
Mob beats up cop in Kalimpong, burns buses
OUR BUREAU - The telegraph
 
Vehicles parked on DS Gurung Road in Kalimpong during a two-hour ‘wheel jam’ by a drivers’ association affiliated to the Morcha on Thursday. Picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha
Feb. 4: The district magistrate of Darjeeling remained confined to his office for an “indefinite period” even as the hills burned — two police jeeps were set on fire along with two NBSTC buses. The siege had not been lifted even after 10 hours.

A prison van was also damaged and so was a private bus in Kalimpong, where constable Mohan Rai was pelted with stones by the arsonists. He was taken to the Kalimpong hospital and later referred to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. A guard of the North Bengal State Transport Corporation Dushyant Chhetri, who was beaten up by a mob, was also admitted to the Kalimpong hospital.

The siege to the DM office started at 3.30pm after a delegation of the Vidyarthi Morcha was informed that permission for a public meeting in Siliguri on February 6 could not be granted.

“I have received a report from the additional police superintendent in Siliguri that the atmosphere is not conducive to such a meeting and it would provoke a breach of peace. So we cannot grant the permission,” district magistrate Surendra Gupta said.

After the delegation left the office, Vidyarthi Morcha supporters stayed in the corridor, but did not resist other officials from meeting the district magistrate.

There was some drama at 6.15pm, when Gupta suddenly came out of his office and got into his car. The Vidyarthi Morcha supporters blocked the car and Gupta stepped out and began walking towards his bungalow, about a kilometre from the collectorate.

“We request you to remain in your office as our demand has not been met,” the Vidyarthi Morcha supporters following him appealed.

“I have been sitting in office and no one from your side came to meet me after 4pm, that is why I left,” Gupta countered before returning to the collectorate.

“We have sought permission to hold the meeting on February 6 but till date, the administration has not granted any permission,” said Keshav Raj Pokhral, the general secretary of the Vidyarthi Morcha, at a news conference at Dagapur in Siliguri earlier this afternoon.

“It has been decided to keep the DM confined to his chamber indefinitely and not allow him even a glass of water. On the other hand, seven of our supporters will be on an indefinite hunger strike at Darjeeling More (in Siliguri),” he said.

Police chased away those on fast around 8pm. Nearly two hours later, Morcha supporters laid siege to the police stations at Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong and Bijanbari. The gherao continued late into the night.

A mob set fire to a police jeep at the Darjeeling motor stand at 10.30pm. Two NBSTC buses in Kalimpong met with the same fate. A private bus that stood nearby was also damaged and so was a prison van in Thanadara.

The Vidyarthi Morcha has threatened to confine the hill subdivisional officers tomorrow.

“We selected a new venue, the truck stand at Dagapur owned by the Darjeeling District Truck Owners’ Association. The secretary of the association has given an NOC. We have submitted it but till date, the administration has not issued any permission,” said Pokhral.

“We want to make it clear that even if the administration does not permit us, we will hold the meeting at the truck stand on February 6 from 12 noon. Earlier, we had thought of inviting our supporters from the Terai only, but now that the administration has not given us permission upon instruction from the state government, our supporters from all over the hills and Dooars will also join the meeting. It is for the administration and police to take a decision (on what they want to do). There is no question of withdrawing our programme,” said Amrit Yonzon, the vice-president of the Vidyarthi Morcha.

Anti-Morcha forces like the Bangla O Bangla Bhasha Banchao Committee has threatened to call a 48 hours’ strike from Saturday to protest the Vidyarthi Morcha meeting. The CPM has also decided to hold a rally on Saturday to protest the “division of the state”, said Mukul Sengupta, the Siliguri zonal committee secretary of the party.

In 2008, the Morcha had been refused permission by the district administration to hold a meeting in support of its statehood demand in Siliguri’s Baghajatin Park.

However, after an agitation for a month, the hill party was allowed to hold a rally on the Indira Gandhi grounds on the outskirts of the town.

The Vidyarthi Morcha had been banking on the fact that its meeting was likely to provide a fresh impetus to the statehood demand from the plains.

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Month full of protests and sit-ins
OUR BUREAU - The Telegraph

Morcha supporters on hunger strike at Darjeeling More in Siliguri on Thursday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo
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.”

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Gorkhaland row: Ruckus in plains, Hills on boil
Times of India

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.