Gorkha Janamukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung has warned that any attempt to arrest him in connection with the ongoing agitation in Darjeeling hills will unleash a spate of violence there and the West Bengal government will be responsible for the consequences.
India, the land that gave the world Darjeeling and Assam tea, risks losing its place at the global tea table, not because of its leaves, but because of its lost opportunities, notes Kanika Datta.
Gorkhaland supporters torched a police outpost, a toytrain station and clashed with the police at two places.
Hurling petrol bombs and stones, Gorkhaland supporters on Thursday fought pitched battles with police, who broke up protests, bursting teargas shells and baton-charging violent crowds, plunging Darjeeling hills into deeper turmoil.
The national capital was in the grip of a cold wave, with the sun largely obscured by clouds and pollutants lingering in the atmosphere, leading to reduced visibility. At least 129 flights were cancelled at the Delhi airport on Saturday due to dense fog, according to an official.
In the last three years, 20 gardens have changed hands, and 90 per cent of the buyers are from non-tea background.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Monday demanded Rs 1,000 crore from the Centre for reconstruction work in Kalimpong and other areas of Darjeeling hills affected by the September 18 earthquake.
Chatterjee had quit the TMC in November 2018, resigning as minister, mayor and district president, citing personal reasons.
Observing that law and order was a "state subject", a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra stayed the Calcutta high court order restraining the Centre from relocating the paramilitary forces from the state's strife-torn districts and asked the state government to respond to the Centre's appeal within a week.
Over ten Gorkha Janmukti supporters were arrested when they burnt a motorcycle and a car at Rambi on the National Highway near, as a three-day bandh demanding Gorkhaland began in the Darjeeling hills in West Bengal on Monday.
The unrest in the hills has led to the tea sector losing its entire second flush, and Rs 200 crore of its annual earnings.
Gurung is worth his weight in gold to the BJP which is trying hard to make inroads in West Bengal
Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung on Wednesday threatened to launch a militant agitation in the Darjeeling hills to press for the original demand for a Gorkhaland state, a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee firmly ruled out any division of the state.
'A master politician who excelled in the politics of intrigue, Subash Ghisingh kept winning election after election, sending a clear message to the state and central governments that he remained the undisputed king of the Darjeeling hills.'
Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi on Wednesday welcomed the bandh relaxation in the Darjeeling Hills by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, but said that Gorkhaland was an impossibility.
She said in such a scenario, the Centre and the state must start talking on the matter.
Being a victim of recurring political unrest over three decades, low productivity and escalating production cost, the Darjeeling tea industry has not been in good financial health over a long time.
Scanty rainfall, last year's lockdown, growing competition from Nepal and the disaster of the 2017 Gorkhaland agitation are steadily weakening exports and sales of Darjeeling tea.
He died in New Delhi on Thursday at the age of 78.
The abusers probably mistook the students with mongoloid features for nationals of China from where novel coronavirus had spread worldwide.
The statehood issue and implementation of the sixth schedule of the Constitution have been the major demands in the hills since the beginning of the protracted Gorkhaland movement in 1986.
In a climbdown, Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, spearheading an indefinite bandh in Darjeeling hills for the last 10 days to demand Gorkhaland state, on Mondy said it would not use force to enforce the shutdown but a 'janata curfew' would be held as announced from Tuesday.
Police earlier fired tear gas shells and lathicharged GJM supporters
Ambulance operators were refusing to carry patients due to fear of harassment.
The alpona (artwork) on the steep, winding road leading to Makaibari bears testimony to the visit of G20 delegates for the second tourism working group meeting in April last year. The lush tea bushes, the delegates joining in for the moonlight plucking of Silver Tips Imperial first flush, a favourite of late Queen Elizabeth II, cut a picture of mystical magic. But it's not the Kurseong tea garden's only shining moment - the last few years have been busy for the estate and its bungalow.
In a strong message to the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that West Bengal and Darjeeling were inseparable.
The Bharatiya Janata Party surprised many with its latest list of Lok Sabha candidates for West Bengal, nominating a protester from Sandeshkhali for the Basirhat constituency and changing the seats of its two incumbent MPs -- the party's former state chief Dilip Ghosh and ex-Union minister Debasree Chowdhury.
Our election slogan is simple "Ballot for Bullet".
A landslide caused by heavy rains on the Hill Cart road in Darjeeling has snapped the road link of the hill station with the rest of the country.
Going back on its call for an indefinite shut down in Darjeeling in view of the Eid festival, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Thursday announced a four-day bandh from Saturday to demand a separate Gorkhaland.
The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha on Friday rejected the West Bengal government's offer for talks on the Darjeeling issue on June 18, saying the agenda of development of the hills was "irrelevant" when the main issue was a separate state of Gorkhaland.
The exotic brew from West Bengal is facing an onslaught from 'original' duplicates.
Hours ahead of the second-phase strike, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) president Bimal Gurung on Monday sought intervention of the Centre for resolving the crisis in the Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal.
Protesters also burnt effigies of Banerjee and vowed to continue their fight for Gorkhaland.
The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha today rejected West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's offer of more autonomy, power and funds for Darjeeling hills, saying it would not rest till its demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland is met.
Accusing the Left Front government in West Bengal of ignoring Darjeeling Hills, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh on Friday demanded the creation of a separate Gorkhaland. Singh also demanded more funds under the Cyclone Aila package. Initiating a debate on the Finance Bill in the Lok Sabha, the Darjeeling Member of Parliament wondered, "What wrong have the Gorkhas done not to deserve a separate state."
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which is fighting for a separate state in the Darjeeling hills, has warned that it will unilaterally form 'Gorkhaland' if the next round of tripartite talks scheduled in December failed to deliver "justice".
