Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

The indefinite shut down in the hills continue as the demand for Gorkhland and the protest enters its 62nd day. GJM along with the regional parties are demonstrating a protest in the hills of West Bengal from part 2 months demanding for a separate statehood for the Gorkhas.

The protest triggered a few months back when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had declared that Bemgli should be made mandatory in all school in the state. It became violent and all the more fueled the agitation of the protestors when instead of approaching the GJM and solving the matter with peaceful means Banerjee deployed CPRF armies to suppress the protest and banned the supply of all basic necessities, even blocking the telephone and internet services.

Darjeeling has suffered a lot of damage due to the protest especially the government properties, government documents and the educational field is bearing the major repercussions of the demand for Gorkhaland. As apart from the medicine shops, everything in the hills is shut down from past two months including shops, business establishments, schools and colleges remained closed.

GJM Chief Bimal Gurung while addressing the people after unfurling the tricolor on the Independence Day thanked the people for their support despite the hardship they were enduring due to the shutdown and vowed to continue the fight till the Gorkhaland dream was achieved. He also said “We would request you all to keep the morale high as we assure you that we will never compromise on all our collective aspirations and our one and only dream- Gorkhaland. Let us continuously strive till we attain this Gorkha dream.”

No incidents of violence were reported on 15 Aug, still taking precautions police and security personnel made special security arrangements in the hills and were maintaining a tight vigil to avoid any untoward incident.

The Independence Day was incident-free and was celebrated in various parts of the hills with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and other parties taking out rallies with the national flag. They also took out rallies demanding the restoration of internet services in the region which is banned from June 18.