Hill activists end fast in Dooars
The Dooars where the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha was out to establish a toe hold leading to sporadic clashes with Adivasi residents may see a period of peace with hill activists withdrawing their fast unto death heeding the Bengal chief minister???s appeal.
A SEMBLANCE of order seems to be returning to the Dooars and Terai region which has been a hot bed of violence between the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha activists and tribals belonging to the plains of Darjeeling district owing allegiance to the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad. Good sense prevailed among the Morcha leaders who called off their hunger strike which has been on since January 29 following a letter from the chief secretary of West Bengal.
The hunger strike by 22 Morcha activists and supporters, where several were in a serious condition and a number of them had to be hospitalised, was called off late on Friday after the West Bengal government assured hill leaders that it would meet all its recent demands barring granting permission to the Morcha to hold rallies and meetings in the Dooars area. The Morcha leaders had a meeting with the chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, on Thursday, which at the point of time did not yield any result but seems to have worked later after a missive from the government.
It was only on Friday that the Morcha president Bimal Gurung after confabulations with his colleagues announced the withdrawal of the hunger strike in Gorubathan at a public meeting. The Morcha chief and his lieutenants and activists have been camping in Gorubathan for days on end trying to hold rallies and meetings in the Dooars and ending up clashing with the Adivasi activists opposed to the Terai and Dooars being included in the proposed map of a separate state of Gorkhaland. The Darjeeling district administration has been having a trying time keeping the warring group apart and preventing what could snowball into a major ethnic strife.
The Morcha had placed a six-point charter of demands to the CM. The state’s chief secretary in his missive to the Morcha leadership has clarified that the government would, in the course of a month, compensate hill activists who had suffered losses during clashes with the Adivasis. The state administration would also withdraw all cases against hill activists and release those arrested. One of the major demands of the Morcha was the reopening of tea gardens closed in Darjeeling and Dooars. The government has assured that 13 tea gardens would be opened within three months. The chief secretary at the same time, however, requested the Morcha leadership to refrain from holding meetings and rallies in the Dooars while it is in a volatile state and could see fresh unrest. The chief minister had been adamant that no permission would be granted to the Morcha to hold rallies in the plains given the volatile situation and to avoid a conflagration.
Login
 Login through Social ID
|
Not finding what you are looking for? Search here.
