With alleged Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters expanding their disruptive activities in the planes of Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri districts, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have asked the police administration to “tackle law-breakers with firm hand.”
The Chief Minister, who held a high-level meeting at Uttarkanya the Secretariat building in Siliguri, told the senior police officers to act tough, a senior official said.
“She has given instructions to deal with the mischief-mongers according to law. There will be zero tolerance for people who break law in the cover of darkness and create terror and tension in the Dooars regions,” the official said, adding “the police have been asked to take instant action so that violence does not spread to other areas.”
She has also asked the police to spruce up Intelligence network so as to pre-empt moves to create communal disharmony in the plains where the Gorkhas have a sizeable population. Her directions came against the backdrop of increasing disruptive activities in the Dooars regions of Joygaon, Madarihat, Panighata, Sukna and other areas.
The strategy in the Dooars region is slightly different from the one adopted by the police in the Hills where the administration has taken a “wait and watch” stance apparently in order to wear out the movement.
Darjeeling had been on the boil for the past about two months with the principal Hill outfit Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and 17 other parties descending on the streets once again for a separate Gorkhaland State.
Several people have been killed in violent clashes between the police and the GJM supporters and many Government properties have been destroyed thanks to disruptive activities of the alleged Morcha supporters.
The Chief Minister also asked the Trinamool leaders including Ministers from North Bengal Gautam Deb and Rabindranath Ghosh to take the Morcha campaign politically and deprive the GJM scopes to ally with the other separatist groups like Greater Coochbehar People’s Association or Kamptapuri People’s Party.
“Mix up with the people, take recourse to continuous political programmes, address the grievances of the local people against the party men and ensure that the separatist groups are not able to spread their tentacles in the Dooars region,” Banerjee has told the Ministers.