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Call for end to Darjeeling bandh

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday appealed to the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) to end the bandh in the Darjeeling hills and sit for talks to discuss its demands.

Mr. Bhattacharjee expressed concern at the developments in the region in view of the bandh that entered the fifth day, paralysing normal life in the three hill subdivisions. The condition of 19 of the 111 persons on hunger strike, many since February 17, was reported to be serious.

The GJM has been joined by several regional parties in its movement for a separate Gorkhaland to be carved out of the Darjeeling hills and certain areas contiguous to it. It is demanding the immediate removal of Subash Ghising from the post of administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) and the scrapping of the move to grant Sixth Schedule status to the region.

“We want an official note signed by the Chief Minister containing his appeal to call off the agitation, after which we will consider going to Kolkata and discussing our demands with him,” GJM president Bimal Gurung told The Hindu over telephone from Darjeeling.

“If he is so concerned, let him come to Darjeeling and see for himself the popular support for our demands. We were not given importance during our talks with the State officials at our last meeting in Kolkata [on February 13]. Any future meeting will have to involve the Chief Minister.” Mr. Gurung said the bandh would continue though tea gardens and cinchona plantations would be exempted from its purview from Monday. The GJM had sought the support of Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling for its Gorkhaland cause. A delegation went to Gangtok on Saturday and reportedly met his political advisor B.B. Gurung with an appeal to pass a resolution in the Assembly in favour of Gorkhaland.

Another delegation had left for New Delhi to meet national leaders, Mr. Gurung said.

Mr. Ghising, who went to the capital to press for the passage in the budget session the bills that would facilitate Sixth Schedule status for the Darjeeling hills, is now here after deciding against going to Darjeeling on February 18 in view of the blocks set up by GJM supporters.

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