Violence returns to bandh-hit Darjeeling

TIL Desk/National/Darjeeling/ After a brief lull last week, violence returned to Darjeeling after alleged “miscreants” burnt the house of the chairman of the Khas Development Board of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) followed by the symbolic burning of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s (GJM) copy of the GTA agreement. The party’s leaders said the burning of the agreement symbolises their ardent stand to settle for “nothing less than full-fledged statehood”.

On Tuesday afternoon, GJM leaders, backed by hundreds of agitators, gathered at the centralised Chowk Bazar area in Darjeeling and burnt copies of the GTA accord, which the Centre and the West Bengal government signed with representatives of the Gorkha community, guaranteeing limited autonomy in the region.

A GJM leader, who recently resigned from the GTA, alleged that while executive powers were given to the GTA, the semi-autonomous body had remained dependent on the state government for funds which allegedly were “insufficient and didn’t came on time”.  “Besides, the Bill which resulted in the creation of the GTA highlights the socio-economic and linguistic development of the hills but is silent over the Gorkha ethnicity”, a senior GJM leader said.