Darjeeling: The situation in the hills showed no sign of any respite even on the 13th day today Bimal Gurung-led GJM-sponsored indefinite shutdown with Gorkhaland Nirman Morcha (GNM) president Dawa Phukrin demanding immediate Central intervention. Talking to reporters at Siliguri this morning, Mr Phukrin said he will be going to Delhi to chalk out their strategic purpose of their movement for Gorkhaland. Meanwhile, uncertainty loomed large over this strategic eastern Himalayan region sharing four international borders following the strike coupled with stoppage of plying of Sikkim vehicles on the highway. The Sikkim Government yesterday told tourists not to visit the state until further order, and today stopped plying its all fleet of vehicles – Sikkim Nationalised Transport (SNT) – the major carrier for passenger traffic and import and export of goods through NH 10 for precautionary measures.
SNT official at Siliguri said there will be no plying of buses till further order owing to safety measures. A Sikkim vehicle and its driver was attacked near Champasari on Friday, three days after a Gangtok-bound goods-laden truck and its diver was set on fire near Kalijhora on Sevok Road, NH 10, connecting Siliguri and Gangtok, about 110 km through Kalimpong district of West Bengal. The stoppage of plying of the SNT vehicles led to total collapse of transport service in the upper eastern Himalaya, having borders with China in north, Bhutan in east, Nepal in the west and Bangladesh in south. An eerie of silence was prevailing across Darjeeling as speculation had been doing round in people’s mind over the next step as the GJM decided to severe link with the GTA and its members resigned en-mass yesterday. Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) president Bimal Gurung said all the resignation letters of its 45-member body would be delivered to state Governor Kesari Nath Tripathy today. The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), a semi-autonomous body, was a dead issue now, Mr Gurung told reporters yesterday. Mr Gurung said the GTA agreement, singed in 2012, would be burnt on June 27 and warned against holding of the GTA elections in future. The scheduled all party meeting for the day (June 24) was deferred to June 29. He also dared the state government to arrest him. ” I am not fleeing anywhere as I am staying here in Darjeeling, and if the government dares, let them arrest me, ‘ Mr Gurung thundered. Darjeeling police has filed an FIR under Sections 302 and 120B charging Mr Gurung and his wife Asha in murder case after June 17 violence at Singmari, where three youths were killed. The state government-sponsored all party meeting on June 22 in Silgjuri flopped due to boycot by the Opposition parties.
