By IANS,
Kolkata : Normal life continued to be paralysed in the Darjeeling hills Wednesday, on the second day of the indefinite shutdown called by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) in support of its demand for a separate Gorkhaland state.
“There is no vehicular movement. But the situation is peaceful,” Inspector General of Police (law and order) Raj Kanojia told IANS.
Shops, markets and government offices remained closed as the three hill sub-divisions – Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong – and Dooars observed the shutdown. Tea gardens too were closed.
Thousands of tourists were stranded in Sikkim as the National Highway No. 31-A ,linking the state with Siliguri rail-head, remained cut off because of the shutdown in the Darjeeling hills.
Kanojia said most of the tourists stranded in Sikkim and Darjeeling have been brought to the plains. “We are giving them all assistance,” he said.
Though the GJM leaders announced that the tea gardens were outside the purview of the separate Gorkhaland agitation, the party activists enforced a shutdown in all the tea gardens in Darjeeling Wednesday.
“At Dooars, some of tea gardens were affected,” National Union of Plantation Workers’ central committee general secretary Aloke Chakraborty told IANS.
“But there is a more serious problem. With the transportation network collapsing due to the agitation, the tea cannot be brought to the markets. The owners do not have the money to pay the workers,” Chakraborty said.
“Besides, the gardens are fast running out of provisions. The stock of coal can last for only two days,” he added.
GJM leader Amar Lama said that the central government should intervene and call his party for talks.
“There can be an interim solution only if the central government steps in. The state government has unleashed a reign of terror. Our supporters were beaten up mercilessly in Siliguri, Bagdogra and Naxalbari,” Lama said.
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Tuesday categorically rejected the demand for a Gorkhaland state and said the issue could be solved through talks if GJM activists stayed away from the indefinite shutdown that began Tuesday morning.
Bhattacharjee also offered more financial assistance and administrative control to the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC).
The GJM had convened a 24-hour shutdown Monday, but decided to extend it indefinitely in protest against police action on their supporters at Naxalbari Monday.
Darjeeling was the summer capital of British India till 1911, when the capital was shifted to Delhi from Kolkata.
The verdant hills and the Himalayan toy train service are a prime tourist attraction, particularly during the summer.
The GJM, led by its president Bimal Gurung, has been spearheading a movement in the hills for a separate state, besides opposing the Sixth Schedule status for Darjeeling district.
The central government in 2005 conferred the Sixth Schedule status on the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF)-led DGHC that ensures greater autonomy to the district’s governing body.
The DGHC was formed in 1988 through an agreement between the central and state governments and the GNLF after the hills witnessed violence for about two years.