Life in hills remains crippled by bandh- Admn worried over people gathering in numbers on 20 August

Policemen sit idle in Darjeeling’s Chowk Bazar on Monday when roads were deserted as people
heeded the stay-at-home call given by hill parties:Picture by Suman Tamang, The Telegegraph

SNS, Darjeeling, 19 August, Life in the Darjeeling Hills has remained shuttered in response to the call ‘people inside their house’ given by the pro Gorkhaland parties.

These parties now grouped under the Gorkhaland Joint Action Committee (GJAC) called the programme to articulate the people’s resentment against the state
government’s atrocities to curb the statehood movement that has seen a spurt following the ruling UPA having endorsed the demand for Telangana late last month.
Another objective behind the shutdown call under a new nomenclature is to prod the Centre to intervene.
However, GJAC changed tactics in view of the pressure being mounted by the state government and the hostile Calcutta High Court order regarding the continuing shutdown in the Hills.
The five-day ‘Janta ghar bhitrai’ programme earlier announced was reduced to a single day affair.
However, police and administration are worried over the conglomerate having asked the people to gather in huge numbers on the roads, including National Highway, as part of its four-day ‘janata sadak ma’ (janata on streets) beginning from tomorrow.
Markets and shops, educational institutions, government and private offices would be closed on these four days, the leaders spearheading the movement said, adding that the tea and cinchona plantations would function normally.
The committee, however, made it clear that they would not take recourse to any kind of picketing or coercion to make the movement successful.
(Source & Courtesy: http://www.thestatesman.net/news/11002-life-in-hills-remains-crippled-by-bandh.html)