Darjeeling Statehood movement resumes today the 16th June’08 at 6.00 PM, although it was supposed to restart from Saturday morning, but for the ‘tit for tat’ policy this time by the people of plains who confronted Gorkha Janamukti Morch (GJM) head on and forcibly stopped essential supplies to hills resulting in a further delay in resuming the agitation by GJM by another 60 hours. Apprehending the mood of the people, Bimal Gurung adopted a much softer line this time by issuing directives to exempt plains from the ambit of the indefinite strike apart from exempting schools, colleges, news media, various essential services, tea gardens and even sinkona gardens in the hills. In view of the ensuing indefinite Bandh, about 100 truck-loads of essentials were sent to hills from Siliguri on Sunday, the 15th June.
The state government, on the other hand, did not invite GJM in the ‘all party’ meeting to be held on 17th June, but extended invitation to them for talks on 18th June at the government level in Calcutta. However Gurung has expressed his unwillingness to attend this meeting, but is ready to sit with the central leaders, if invited without any pre-conditions. Mamata Banerjee of Trinamul Congress has, as usual, refused to attend the ‘all party’ meeting on the plea that GJM should have been invited. She however reiterated that she does not want Bengal to be divided but stressed the need of stepping up development in the hills by creating a separate secretariat for the north Bengal region and giving more powers to the Hill Council.
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