Thu, Feb 28 11:45 PM
Santiniketan, West Bengal: The hills of West Bengal have erupted again with the Gorkhas reviving their demand for a separate state.
Leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha have been on a hunger strike in Siliguri, North Bengal, for the past 11 days, and are baying for the blood of Subhas Ghising, who has ruled the Darjeeling hills for over three decades now.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has broken away from the Ghising-led Gorkha National Liberation Front or GNLF and are opposing the implementation of the Sixth Schedule, which will give the region a tribal status.
"We want the provision of the Sixth Schedule for the region annulled immediately. This will lead to internecine clashes here. We also want Ghising to be ousted as the Administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC)," GJM Central Committee leader Vishal Chetri says about his party's demands.
Life in the hills, meanwhile, has come to a standstill over the past week due to an indefinite bandh called by the Morcha. While occasional relaxations of curfew has hardly managed to ease tension, its impact has now been felt in adjacent Sikkim with tourists having to bear the brunt.
"The taxi-owners and drivers have been facing a lot of problems. The Sikkim Government should take up this issue with the West Bengal Government and find a way out so that the tourism industry does not suffer," the in-charge of Sikkim National Transport, MM Ramudamu, says.
Hounded out of the trouble-torn hills and acting upon the advice of the West Bengal government, Ghising is at present cooling his heels in Santiniketan. But even as his opponents meet the Bengal Chief Minister with the definite agenda of seeing the end of Ghising's political supremacy, Tagore's abode of peace may just fail to provide him necessary solace.
(With Narayan Singh Roy in Siliguri and Mrinal Sarkar in Santiniketan)
