With the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha having relaxed the indefinite bandh to demand Gorkhaland in the Darjeeling hills for four days from Independence day, its President Bimal Gurung said on Tuesday that the 'agitation' would be continued from August 19.
The Justice Shyamal Sen Committee has been urged to submit its report -- on the issue of the inclusion of Dooars and Terai areas in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration -- by early June, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha said on Saturday. "A resolution to this effect has been passed after a meeting between a seven-member Gorkha Janmukti Morcha delegation led by its president Bimal Gurung and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee," GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said.
The BJP, which has emerged as the main opposition party in West Bengal after winning 77 seats in the assembly polls last year, failed to win even a single civic body.
With eight more people on Sunday succumbing to injuries, the toll in the wooden footbridge collapse in West Bengal's Darjeeling district rose to 32. More than 100 people were injured in the mishap.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asserted that Darjeeling Hills would remain part of West Bengal, even as a section of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters raised slogans demanding a separate state, during the inauguration of the North Bengal Festival. "Let us remain together. Darjeeling is part of Bengal and we will remain together," Banerjee said.
GJM president Bimal Gurung has been holding meetings in Darjeeling district claiming that none could resist the formation of Gorkhaland, while urging partymen in the plains in the Dooars to ensure that the government assessment team returned convinced that people there area wanted to be under the new hill council.
The historic tripartite agreement for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) was on Monday signed to resolve the vexed Darjeeling problem amidst protests and bandhs in the Terai and Dooars areas.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday complimented West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung for making the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration agreement possible.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha Thursday asked the government to consider its demand for a Gorkhaland state if it takes into consideration creation of a separate Telangana.
Official-level talks on Gorkhaland has failed to make a headway owing to Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's insistence on discussing the territorial jurisdiction of the proposed interim authority.
The army was being deployed in violence-hit areas of Darjeeling district after 2 persons were killed on Tuesday when the police opened fire to stop Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters from taking out a march in adjacent Jalpaiguri district defying prohibitory orders, sparking arson by GJM workers who torched government vehicles and offices.
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.
A day after the signing of the tripartite agreement on Darjeeling, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung on Tuesday said its original demand for Gorkhaland still stands.
Ethnic divisions are likely to dominate elections in West Bengal's Dooars region, which has 12 assembly seats, with the choice of the adivasi and Nepalese-origin electorate likely to be a deciding factor.
At least ten people were killed and 50 injured when an old wooden footbridge over a spring gave way when a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha meeting was going on near Bijanbari, nearly 30 km away from Darjeeling, on Saturday evening. Darjeeling District Magistrate Soumitra Mohan said ten persons were killed and several others were injured in the mishap. The bridge, which had been weakened by the September 18 earthquake, gave way when a large number of people gathered on it.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former president M Venkiah Naidu on Thursday welcomed the Centre's decision to move a resolution for the creation of Telangana state in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, saying smaller states could be better administered.He added that the demand for Harit Pradesh in western Uttar Pradesha, raised by Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Chaudhary Ajit Singh, and Gorkhaland in West Bengal raised by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, will be strengthened.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Friday said the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, the new hill council to run the administration in the Darjeeling hills, is a step towards achievement of Gorkhaland, an indication that they are not going back on their demand for a separate state.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Tuesday put aside its demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland and agreed to a new hill council with more autonomy in a bipartite agreement signed with the West Bengal government, signalling an end of the 15-year-old movement in Darjeeling.
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung and its general secretary Roshan Giri have been named in an FIR filed by the police in connection with the murder of Gorkha leader Madan Tamang. Charges of conspiracy have been brought against the two besides Gurung's wife Asha, the chief of Gorkha Nari Mukti Morcha, the outfit's press and publicity secretary Harka Bahadur Chettri, vice-president Amar Lama and GJM police wing GLP's 'commandant' Ramesh Aley.
All India Gorkha League president and Gorkhaland proponent Madan Tamang was seriously injured after being attacked with sharp weapons by unidentified assailants in Darjeeling town on Friday.
As the first phase of assembly elections was underway, rediff.com's Indrani Mitra Roy toured north Bengal only to find that the Trinamool-Congress alliance has a few takers here. Most voters swore by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, a few referred to them as extortionists.
"Nothing short of Gorkhaland is now acceptable for the morcha. No discussion on interim set-up anymore," Gurung told media persons after the GJM meeting at Kumani, on the border of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts.
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) took the decision after the Home Ministry briefed it about the stalemate on the tripartite talks between the Union, the West Bengal government and the GJM, since December last year.
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.
Centre agreed to repeal the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha fighting for a separate Gorkhaland state on Tuesday.
Life came to a standstill in all three sub-divisions of Darjeeling district on Monday due to Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's indefinite bandh called to press for a separate state and other demands.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha activists demanding release of some of their supporters went on the rampage on Friday, setting ablaze the house of a Gorkha National Liberation Front leader in Darjeeling district and hurling stones at the police when they intervened, leading to a baton charge on them.
The fourth round of tripartite talks on Gokhaland issue on Monday failed to come to an agreement in the absence of a consensus and the organisation spearheading the movement for a separate state has sought political dialogue at the next round of talks within 45 days.
Home Minister P Chidambaram appealed to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Friday to call off its fast-unto-death agitation and create a conducive atmosphere for the December 21 tripartite talks.
A 96-hour bandh called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Monday to press for Gorkhaland in the Darjeeling hills has been withdrawn.GJM general secretary Roshan Giri told PTI from Delhi that the decision was taken after senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley urged that the shutdown be called off for a normal situation to prevail before the tripartite talks begin in Darjeeling on December 21.However, the indefinite fast will continue.
Darjeeling Member of Parliament and expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh raised the demand for creation of Gorkhaland state in the Lok Sabha, on Monday, saying the people of the region were already "emotionally separated" from rest of West Bengal.
The Centre on Saturday sought to downplay the growing momentum for carving out of small states in some regions after the decision on Telangana and said cooperation of (undivided) states and political parties is needed in addressing such demands.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has said it is satisfied with the positive dialogue its delegation had with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and hoped it will pave the way for early tripartite talks on the Gorkhaland issue."We are expecting tripartite talks on the Gorkhaland issue soon as the dialogue with Mukherjee was positive," GJM press secretary Benoy Tamang said.
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".
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Thursday said it was no longer interested in holding talks with the West Bengal government on Gorkhaland issue and was awaiting tripartite talks in Delhi.
Talks between the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the West Bengal government on the Darjeeling crisis are expected to take place in Kolkata on June 25.
Stating that the GJM was seeking appointment with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and the Leader of the Opposition L K Advani, Gurung told PTI from Darjeeling that a delegation, comprising GJM central committee members, would meet MPs of different political parties.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which has been invited by the Centre to a third tripartite meeting in New Delhi on August 24, on Wednesday said it was 'meaningless' and would not call off the indefinite shutdown which entered the third day in the Darjeeling hills.
According to a 2020 study Analysis of bridge failures in India from 1977 to 2017, as many as "2,130 bridges" -- excluding culverts and pedestrian bridges -- have collapsed during various phases of construction in the last four decades.
Gurung vowed to support the TMC in the 2021 Bengal assembly elections.
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