National

Sikkim cut off as bandh enters sixth day

KOLKATA: Sikkim was cut off from the rest of the country when the national highway linking it to West Bengal came under the bandh called by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM).

The GJM leadership said the bandh, which entered the sixth day in the Darjeeling hills on Monday, would continue till the demands for the immediate removal of Subash Ghising from the post of administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) and the scrapping of the move to grant Sixth Schedule status to the region were met. The bandh severely disrupted normal life in the three hill sub-divisions, the leadership claimed.

“The movement in the Darjeeling hills for a separate Gorkhaland is justified and has the moral support of the Sikkim government,” B.B. Gooroong, adviser to Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling told The Hindu over telephone from Gangtok.

“But the Sikkim government will not meddle in the affairs of those behind the call for Gorkhaland, as the agitation is occurring in a different State. The Chief Minister has made that quite clear,” he said.

Mr. Ghising, who arrived here on February 22, called on Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

On the developments in the hill, GJM president Bimal Gurung said: “The situation is volatile and could erupt as students are coming forward volunteering self-immolation in support of our demands. The State government will be responsible for any deterioration in the situation.”

The GJM leadership is yet to officially receive any request for talks on its demands from the West Bengal government following Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s appeal on Sunday to sit for talks to discuss matters, he said.

The number of those joining the hunger strike by GJM activists in the hills had swelled to more than 136, the GJM chief said. The first batch of volunteers began a fast on February 17 and the condition of a few was stated to be serious.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee criticised both the Left Front government and the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre for the situation in the hills but said that her party was against creation of Gorkhaland.

“The CPI(M)-led State government failed to address the problems facing the people of the hills for the past 30 years while the Centre has encouraged the situation to drift,” Ms. Banerjee said, adding “we are against the division of West Bengal.”

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