12-hour bandh in Darjeeling on June 9 ... Action for unauthorised attendance

Debashish Konar | TNN | Jun 8, 2017, KOLKATA: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's youth wing has called a 12-hour bandh in Darjeeling on Friday and for that there was major rush among the tourists who were stranded in the hills after the violence of Thursday.

Army was deployed to control the situation.

However, all government offices in the hills will remain open on Friday and action will be taken for unauthorized absence. The state government also removed Gorkhaland Territorial Administration's secretary Ravi Inder Singh and placed Barun Ray as the GTA secretary. Even Bengal government is sending a team of six auditors to make a special audit of GTA, as there are allegations of defalcation of funds.

While Mamata Banerjee was holding her cabinet meeting at Darjeeling Raj Bhavan on Thursday around 2 pm, GJM supporters started their agitation and burnt effigy of the Bengal CM and pelted stones at the police. This is the Soon the agitation turned violent and the GJM supporters burnt a dozen police vehicles and damaged several other cars.

Police had to lathi charge and lob tear gas shells to control the mob. Locals said that the police had followed a strategy of restraint; otherwise there could have been deaths due to police firing.

Mamata Banerjee in her facebook posted that it was indeed a historic occasion to hold the cabinet meeting in the hills.

"We have taken decision to hold two cabinet meetings in the hills and two cabinet meetings in Jangalmahal areas every year."

She stated "To fulfill the long-standing demand of the people of the hills and to give more thrust to development in the area, today we have taken decision to set up a new West Bengal State Government Secretariat in Darjeeling, adjacent to the present Circuit House Complex. The new building will be named "Tenzing Norgay Bhaban", after the legendary mountaineer."