Gorkha body protests decision on Bengali

As West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee conducted her cabinet meeting at Raj Bhavan in Darjeeling on Thursday, members of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) staged a protest against her government’s decision of making Bengali compulsory from Class I to IX in the state.

Around 3 pm, the protestors who started their rally from Bhanu Bhavan, tried to break the police barricade. When stopped, they pelted stones and bottles at the police, and nearly a dozen police vehicles were burnt. Several policemen were injured.

Police opened lathi charge and fired tear-gas shells to disperse the irate mob. Later, the army was also deployed to bring the situation under control. Two columns or 160 personnel were brought in from Jalapahar cantonment, headed by a major.

Mamata Banerjee said: “They are protesting over a non-issue. Giving them importance would only give them publicity.”

Eyeing more support from the hills after her party won the Mirik Municipality, Mamata announced several sops for Darjeeling today including opening up of a mini-secretariat there, naming it after mountaineer Tenzing Norgay.

The GJM, meanwhile, has called for a 12-hour Darjeeling bandh tomorrow, beginning 6 am. GJM leader Bimal Gurung, who was leading the protest, said, “If she is the CM of the plains, then I am the CM of the hills.”