Bimal calls for unity- Kalimpong sees all party in one platform

SNS, Siliguri, 27 July 2017: As Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) chief Bimal Gurung made a clarion call for unity in the Gorkha community's fight for a separate state, leaders and cadres of various parties shed their party flags and gathered, for the very first time, on one platforms to mark the Gorkha Sahid Diwas in Kalimpong and Kurseong today

However, while it was a show of unity in the new district, the GJMM and the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) held separate programmes to mark the day in Darjeeling town. Also in Darjeeling, GJMM supremo, Mr Gurung, used the day to call upon all the Gorkha people to leave aside their political, social, cultural, and religious differences and unite "at a time when the Gorkhaland issue has reached a decisive phase."

"I have not budged an inch from my resolve to make our martyrs' dream for Gorkhaland come true," he said.

In Kalimpong, people of all walks of life and belonging to various parties assembled at Sahid Park to pay homage to the 1,200 people killed during the Gorkhaland agitation in the eighties.

GJMM MLA,Sarita Rai was there too."A lot of things is happening. Internet is down, local channels are blocked, many people have lost their lives and many are fasting to death, but the governments are mum; our MP is mum; the absence of our MP in this dark hour is a bitter experience," she said.

In Kurseong too, people forgot their party affiliations and went to the 'Sahid Bedi' at Durbin Dara, where they paid tributes to the martyrs. Later, they joined a cultural programme at the motor stand in the town organized by the Sanyukta Kalakar Manch as part of the organisation's' cultural movement tor Gorkhaland.

In Darjeeling, the 31st Gorkha Sahid Divas was marked at two places by two parties.

While the GNLF organized an event at the Club Side, the GJMM marked the day at Chowk Bazaar.

However, thousands joined the two programmes, while bare-foot GNLF supporters marched from Zakir Hussain Road to the Club Side, Niraj Zimba, the GNLF spokesperson, said the agitation in the Hills will continue until the central government opens dialogue on the statehood demand. The GJMM, meanwhile, started the rally from the Railway Station and ended at Chowk Bazaar and offered garlands at the Martyrs Memorial there.

Tilak Chettri, the president of the GJMM yout youth wing's town committee, said he felt had that there were two events to mark a common occasion.

"It would have been a lot better had we marked the day as one, at one place," he said.

Meanwhile, in Siliguri, the Siliguri Metropolitan Police today issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPc in areas between Darjeeling More and Sukna.

`We had information that 600-700 Gorkhaland supporters were headed to Panchnoi to mark Sahid Diwas. We issued the orders as precautionary measure to avoid any untoward situation or confrontation,' Commissioner of Police, SMP Niraj Kumar Singh said.