Cable curfew in Darjeeling

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, Darjeeling, 9 August 2013: The cable television network in Darjeeling town was blacked out last night by district officials, angering Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung who warned that all mobile telephone towers would be removed from the hills.

A notice served to Darjeeling Combined Cable Network, one of the service providers, said: “As per the direction of the district magistrate, Darjeeling, the broadcast of the Darjeeling Combined Cable Network is hereby shut down and the control room is suspended until further order.”

The notice did not bear any government seal.

The control room of the other service provider, Milky Way Cable Vision, was also shut down.

Sources in the hills said the target could be three local channels — Hamro Channel, Himali Channel and Darjeeling Television — that have been beaming news of the protests.

Employees of the two service providers said two officials came to their control rooms between 8.30pm and 9pm and demanded to see all permits and the list of consumers.

Asked about the blackout, Gurung said: “This is the work of the state government as the information and cultural affairs department is under them. Proper notice should have been issued.”

He then said: “I have been receiving complaints, almost 100-150 applications from people who are saying the mobile towers are posing health hazards. I will write to the mobile operators and this, too, must be removed from the hills.”

A close aide of the Morcha chief said Gurung wanted to drive home the message that if the state government can clamp down on the media, “it might as well stop all forms of communication in the hills.”

But Anuj Sharma, the inspector-general of police (law and order), warned: “If anyone uproots cellphone towers, stern action will be taken.”

The cable service providers took the documents to the district magistrate’s office today, but it was shut for Id.

Saumitra Mohan, the outgoing district magistrate of Darjeeling who will hand over charge to Puneet Yadav on Sunday, was not available for comment.

A home department source in Calcutta said: “The operators do not have valid papers and they have been running the operations illegally. But the crackdown was made simply to exert pressure. These operators are Morcha sympathisers and they air the three channels that have a pro-Morcha agenda.”