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Basu: situation in Darjeeling grim

Special Correspondent

Kolkata: The situation in the Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal is grim in view of the ongoing agitation there by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu said here on Friday.

The agitation that the GJM leadership was now trying to bring to the foothills in Siliguri had made it “impossible for tourists to visit the region,” he said on emerging from a meeting of the State Secretariat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The Darjeeling Hills is a popular tourist destination, particularly during summer. The GJM leadership is demanding Gorkhaland, comprising the hills and certain areas contiguous to it.

“How will those wanting to visit Darjeeling go there?” Mr. Basu said. The manner in which the movement for statehood was being carried out was reminiscent of “earlier times when nearly 100 people died [in the 1986-88 Gorkhaland movement] though that is not the case now.”

“They [the GJM] have called for a hunger strike and there are reports that they are changing the number plates of cars,” Mr. Basu said. The Chief Minister was looking into the developments in Darjeeling.

The GJM leadership, which has called for boycott of payment of electricity and telephone bills as part of its agitation, recently announced that the letters “WB [West Bengal]” on number plates of vehicles will be replaced from July 7 with “GL [Gorkhaland].”

Earlier this week, Urban Development Minister Ashok Bhattacharya, who is from the district, advised tourists planning to go to the Darjeeling Hills to consider other destinations as a visit to the region now could “be risky” in the view of the GJM’s agitation.

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