No strike..Educational Institutions to remain open and Govt offices to shut

KalimNews: All educational institutions will remain open while all governmental and DGHC offices (except emergency departments) will remain shut from 9th February 2011, declared Dr HB Chhetri, spokesperson of GJM. After the meeting of the central committee of GJM held in Khumani this afternoon he said that Rail Roko programme by Vikalanga Sangathan will be held in Dooars and Terai.

Senior citizens and Ex Army wing of GJM, GJ Bhutpurba Sainik Morcha will start their Long March Terai Chalo from Darjeeling to Dooars from the 9th February. Bimal Gurung will continue his Long March to Dooars accompanied by members of minority (read Adivasis) of Dooars from 9th February, declared Dr Chhetri.

Thrice a week GJNM will gherao respective police stations are the programmes of GJM from 9th added Dr Chhetri. Speaking about the draft of interim setup Dr Chhetri said that the draft is of no use to GJM, it may be useful to Ashoke Bhattacharya he added. 
Banks and post offices will remain open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while Food & Supplies office will open on Monday and Tuesday, added a GJM source.
People especially examinees, guardians of the students were more relieved to hear the declaration.
Morcha eyes track for protest- Special party members to stop trains

Morcha chief Bimal Gurung (left) and general secretary Roshan Giri at Kumani on Sunday. (Chinlop Fudong Lepcha)

Rajeev Ravidas, TT, Kumani, Feb. 6: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today said party members who are physically challenged would block railway tracks as part of its intensified agitation starting February 9 but refrained from naming the areas — expected to be in the plains — that would bear the brunt of the agitation.

At the same time, the party once again expressed disinterest in the proposed interim set-up for the Darjeeling hills. The agitation will cover the Darjeeling hills and the Gorkha-dominated areas of the Dooars and Terai.

Late this evening, around 500 Morcha supporters from Kumani More bypassed a police barricade and reached the abandoned railway station at Champramari on way to the Dooars where prohibitory orders are in place. They were, however, pushed back.

A Terai-Chalo padayatra from Darjeeling to Siliguri by the ex-servicemen’s wing of the party on February 9, an indefinite hunger strike in the Dooars from February 11 and gherao of all police stations by the Nari Morcha figure in the intensified agitation plan. The siege of police stations will be held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays interspersed with rallies on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“Five members each drawn from western, eastern and central Dooars will sit on an indefinite hunger strike,” said Harka Bahadur Chhetri, the spokesperson for the Morcha at a news conference at Kumani More on the Darjeeling-Jalpaiguri border.

He, however, did not reveal the venue of the fast. Chhetri also refused to disclose the places where the trains would be blocked.

But since the hills do not have any railway lines as such except for the toy train tracks, the agitation is expected to be in the Gorkha dominated areas of the Dooars and the Terai.

Asked about the agitation led by the physically challenged, Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said the involvement of the party’s frontal organisation of handicapped members was “nothing new”.

“They had taken part in an agitation in Bagrakote in 2008. Everyone of us is part of the movement. They (physically challenged) had told us that they too wanted to play an active role in the agitation,” Giri said.

As far as the strike in government offices is concerned, the Morcha spokesperson said banks, post offices, and insurance companies would be allowed to remain open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Essential services like hospitals, offices of the electricity department, and the conservancy departments of municipalities have been exempted from the strike.

Chhetri said as of now the educational institutions were being kept outside the purview of the strikes, but if the situation demanded, they, too, could be part of the agitation. “We hope such a situation will not arise. However, what is the point of being an educated unemployed. They (read students) might as well join the agitation,” he said.

In the same context, Giri who was also present at the news conference in Kumani on the fringes of the Dooars, said parents should be prepared to face any eventuality.

About the Morcha supporters reaching Chapramari, Giri said: “It was not a scheduled march.”

The Morcha also said it would continue to press for permission to continue with its aborted march to the Dooars but did not disclose how long it was willing to wait for the permission from the administration.

From January 19, nearly 600 party members with Morcha chief Bimal Gurung have been camping at Kumani after Section 144 was clamped on the Dooars to stop them from progressing further.

“Only three persons will go on the padayatra,” said Giri. Gurung will be among the three. Last week, the Morcha chief had said three persons would accompany him across the Dooars so that Section 144, which prohibits the assembly of five or more persons, was not violated. However, earlier in the day, Jalpaiguri district magistrate Vandana Yadav said: “They (Morcha) are now planning to come in twos and threes to the Dooars. This will not be tolerated in the interests of law and order.”

Giri warned that the party would shut down the entire hills and the Gorkha-dominated areas of the Dooars and Terai in a couple of days if the administration tried to disrupt its agitation programme.

On the interim administration, the Morcha suggested it was not keen on it.

“It (the proposal) may be of interest to Asok Bhattacharya (urban development minister). When it (the draft) comes to us, we will send it to him,” said Chhetri.

In recent times, the Morcha has been saying that the interim set-up was a closed chapter even though the Centre is believed to be working on a fresh draft to push through the mechanism.

Flood control meet

TT, Jaigaon, Feb. 6:A five-day meeting to discuss methods of flood control began at Thimpu in Bhutan today.

Experts from north Bengal, Assam and Bhutan are taking part in the meet that will end on February 10. The superintendent engineer of the North Bengal Flood Control Commission, Dhiren Dhar, said 23 rivers and streams flow through north Bengal and Assam and during monsoon they destroyed both human habitation and tea gardens. He added that because of dolomite mining in the Bhutan hills, the riverbeds have risen causing the water to overflow. The secretary of the Dooars Branch of the Indian Tea Association, Prabir Bhattacharya, said in the past two years, gardens in the Dooars have lost 300 hectares of land in erosion leading to a loss of around 5 lakh tea bushes.