Kolkata: The all-party meeting convened by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) on Tuesday decided to continue with their indefinite strike in Darjeeling and gave July 14 as the deadline for all the development boards' chairman and vice-chairman to resign for the cause of a separate Gorkhaland.
The meeting was convened by the GJM under the banner of Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC) at Mirik.
GJM had accused the Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of playing divisive politics in the Hills by forming separate boards for the indigenous people in the Hills.
Besides giving a deadline to the board members to resign, the GMCC members also decided to go for a fast unto death sit-in from July 15 at Mall Road, Darjeeling.
On July 14, they will gather in front of the District Magistrate and Sub-Divisional Officer's (SDO) offices in Siliguri and Darjeeling to raise their demand for a separate state and protest against the "atrocities of state administration" on the Gorkha leaders.
Similar in the line of ‘Award Wapsi’, they have also decided to return all awards received from the state government on July 13 as a mark of their protest. On the same day, there will be a celebration led by Gorkha Unity Day.
During this period, a separate team of leaders will soon go to Delhi to place their demand for Gorkhaland.
For almost a month, Darjeeling has witnessed clashes between security personnel and civilians. Trouble started after Mamata Banerjee government announced that the Bengali language will be made mandatory for students up to Class 10.
Meanwhile, a GJM activist succumbed to his injuries, and the GJM’s youth department office of Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) was torched by some unknown miscreants on Tuesday. GJM leaders alleged that a group of miscreants vandalised the office and set it on fire on Monday night.
“The local police questioned some of our supporters, and they are trying to frame them in the youth department office vandalisation case. We condemn the incident,” a GJM supporter said.
Talking about the youth who succumbed to his injury, he said, “Ashok Tamang got seriously injured during the lathicharge by West Bengal Police in Darjeeling a few days ago, and today morning, he died at Manipal CRH Hospital in Sikkim.”
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