GJM leaders told to leave Dooars for time being

GJM leaders told to leave Dooars for time being

ENS,Kolkata, Thu Apr 26 2012:After two days of violence in the Terai and Dooars region, district administration of Jalpaiguri on Wednesday held a meeting with the GJM leaders in the area and asked them to leave the Dooars region for some time.

A senior GJM leader said: “We have been asked to leave the area for the time being as the situation in the area remains to be tense. We have also relaxed the strike called by us for 48 hours.

The GJM has also sought permission from the district administration for holding meetings in the Dooars region.

The local administration, meanwhile, lifted Section 144 from all the areas except Banarhat and Oodlabari in Jalpaiguri district. Even though shops remain closed today in Banarhat area as local businessmen protested against ransacking of the shops, no untoward incident was reported today from the area.

Meanwhile, PTI reported that GJM has stuck to its threat to pull out of the tripartite agreementfor setting up the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA), the new hill council in Darjeeling, saying that this was being demanded by the people of the hills.

“We are being pressurised by the people to come out of the GTA agreement,” GJM General Secretary Roshan Giri told PTI from Darjeeling.

“We will be compelled to think about rejecting the GTA if the state government does not allow us to hold meetings in the Terai and Dooars,” Giri said. The GJM had not been given permission to hold a public meeting at Nagrakata in Jalpaiguri district on Sunday, which had led to a bandh being called leading to violence and arson.
When told that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday ruled out division of West Bengal, Giri said, “The CM will say that. But we stick to the demand (for creation of Gorkhaland).”