Political temperatures ran high in Darjeeling with both the Mamata Banerjee administration and Hill ruling outfit Gorkha Janmukti Morcha preparing for a showdown around a bandh called by GJM chief Bimal Gurung.
Armed by a High Court order which directed the State administration to ensure smooth functioning of affairs in the Hills, Banerjee on Tuesday warned of tough action if a shutdown was enforced on the people.
“Bengal’s economy has suffered a lot due to the politics of bandh practiced for so many years. I will not tolerate any more bandh and blockades,” the Chief Minister said when asked to comment on Gurung’s bandh call.
With both the sides putting their feet down the tourists had started leaving the Hill station fearing violence on Tuesday, sources said.
The GJM chief earlier called a bandh and asked the tourists to stay away from the Hills during the Durga Pujas lest there were political disturbances. Gurung had been opposing what he called the Chief Minister’s “divisive politics” whereby she was going about creating community-specific boards one after the other followed by fund allocation for the newly created
bodies.
She had in the past a few years created “development councils” for the lepchas, Gurungs and other sub-castes apparently creating fissure in GJM’s support base.
Though the basic demand of GJM has been the creation of a separate Gorkhaland State it had made an “interim arrangement” by signing the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration accord with the Mamata Banerjee Government.
The creation of new councils has led to formation of smaller groups which are breaking away from the GJM to join the Trinamool Congress.
Gurung is also livid because the State Government has asked to furnish accounts for Rs4,000 crore that was reportedly given to the GTA for development of Darjeeling Hills. “The GTA has to furnish the accounts of expenditure or else the Government will take recourse to legal actions,” said State Minister Arup Biswas.
“let them first make public the details of the stated Rs4,000 crore that they gave us then we will place the details. If they fail to show when they gave us Rs4,000 crore we will call a bandh on September 28,” Gurung said.
There was no question of retracting from the bandh call Gurung maintained saying “the people of Hill have decided to take on the Trinamool Congress come what may. We are not going to be cheated and bogged down by the threats issued by some people in the Government. The bandh will take place tomorrow” Gurung said even as the administration braced up for “all kinds of eventualities.”
Meanwhile, hearing a public interest litigation the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the State Government to ensure smooth functioning of affairs in the Hills.
When asked to comment on the Court order State Home Secretary Maloy Dey said the district administration had been asked to keep all the Government offices open. “I will monitor the situation there” he said. leaves of all the Government staff had been cancelled, he maintained.