THE IMPASSE in the Darjeeling hills took a new turn on the third day of the indefinite bandh with Subhas Ghisingh, Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) leader flying to Kolkata to meet chief minister Buddha Bhattacharjee. He was confined by Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) supporters in Pintail village, in Siliguri, for four days and prevented from proceeding to Darjeeling.

 

That Ghisingh, who is the caretaker administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, is in trouble became evident with CPI (M) (Communist Party of India – Marxist) patriarch Jyoti Basu saying that the GNLF chief has lost the confidence of his own party. “He has become weak because his own party men have gone against him,” the veteran leader told the media in Kolkata. He said the chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is monitoring the situation and is in touch with the centre to ensure that the Sixth Schedule Bill is passed in Parliament.

 

The Morcha has demanded the removal of Ghisingh from the post of caretaker administrator and refuses to allow Darjeeling to be brought under the Sixth Schedule. It wants a separate state of Gorkhaland, a demand made by Ghisingh in the mid eighties.

In a bid to bring back normalcy in the hills, the West Bengal government has at last said Ghisingh’s term, as caretaker administrator, would not be extended after it expires on March 24. The state government is negotiating with the Morcha to end the impasse, even as it fears an outbreak of violence between the GNLF and GJM. Additional forces have bee moved to the district.

 

The Morcha has resorted to the same tactics that Ghisingh had employed all these years and is enforcing an economic blockade in the Darjeeling hills since February 17 and an indefinite bandh from February 20.

 

Life in the hills remained crippled for the third today. There was no vehicular traffic in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong, disrupting supply of essential commodities and leading to price rise. Tourism in the hills have been badly hit with tourists leaving the hill station as soon as the bandh was announced and new arrivals cancelling their bookings,