Morcha asks estates to shut for rallies

Vivek Vhhetri, TT, Darjeeling, May 28: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has lined up a series of public meetings in Darjeeling town starting tomorrow and told tea garden owners to keep their estates closed on designated days so that workers from that area can attend the rally.

The demands that will be made at the rallies are old — withdrawal of cases registered against Morcha activists during the statehood agitation, field visits by the state’s fact-verification committee, non-interference of the state in the functioning of the GTA, and to protest the alleged police atrocities against party workers.

“From tomorrow, a rally will be brought out by Morcha supporters from Darjeeling railway station. It will pass through Ladenla Road, Robertson Road and HD Lama Road before ending at a public meeting in Chowk Bazar. The rally will start from 10.30am,” said Dawa Lama, the president of the Morcha’s Darjeeling subdivisional committee.

Sources said the hill party had drawn up a list of areas, taking clusters of four or five tea gardens, from where people would join the rallies on a given day.

The ralies would go on till June 8. From June 5 to 8, various Morcha arms would attend the rallies.

For example, tomorrow, tea workers from Takdah, Glenburn, Teesta Valley, Peshok and Takling gardens would come to the rally.

Similarly on May 30, workers from Lebong, Tukvar, Phoobshering and Pandam would attend the meeting.

The Morcha has never tried this staggered model to mobilise supporters before this. The party had earlier this month called off a hill general strike keeping in mind the tourism industry, the other mainstay of the hill economy along with tea.

The Morcha, however, is known to have spared tea gardens from the ambit of general strikes.

Suraj Subba, the general secretary of the Morcha-affiliated Darjeeling-Terai-Dooars Plantation Labour Union, said: “We have requested the Darjeeling Tea Association and the Indian Tea Association to keep their gardens closed on the day our supporters from the area are scheduled to take part in the rally.”

This means, at least three to four gardens will be shut everyday till June 4.

Asked for a reaction, a tea garden official said: “When they have requested, can we keep the gardens open?”

Another official associated with the industry said: “We just hope we don’t have to close the garden for more than a day.”

The hill estates have just started plucking the second flush.

“Closing a garden for only a day would not affect anyone much. We will ensure that the industry is not severely affected,” Subba said.

He added that the Morcha union was working with the management to adjust the closure against an earned leave so that the daily wage of a worker is not deducted.