GJM announces relief for boarding school students on June 23

PTI, HT, 21 June 2017: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) offered a 12-hour “window” on June 23 to the schools in the Darjeeling hills to evacuate their students safely to Siliguri and Rongpo. 
"The central committee of our party has decided to offer a 12-hour window, from 6 am to 6 pm on June 23, to the schools in the hills to evacuate their students. 
“The students will be allowed to go to Siliguri and Rongpo only in school buses. The indefinite shutdown will continue. Only the students will be allowed to leave safely,” senior GJM leader Binay Tamang told reporters here. 
He said barring school buses, no other vehicle would be allowed to leave the hills during the 12-hour “window”. 
An indefinite bandh was called in the hills by GJM on June 15. 
With supplies running out and the vacations to start shortly, the renowned boarding schools of Darjeeling are facing a harrowing time due to the shutdown. 
Darjeeling is home to some of the oldest and renowned boarding schools in the country, but with the GJM-sponsored indefinite shutdown over the demand of a separate Gorkhaland entering its seventh day on Wednesday, the school authorities are at their wits’ end as regards how to send the students home once the vacation starts next week. 
“We are facing two problems presently. One is of the supply of food stock and another is of sending the students home,” Rabindra Subba, the principal of Himali boarding school, said.


Shiv Sahay Singh, TH, DARJEELING, JUNE 21, 2017: With no breakthrough in sight in the Darjeeling impasse, the situation in the hills remained on tenterhooks on Wednesday as the indefinite shutdown entered the seventh day. 

There was a near total shutdown in the hills and only essential services like medical shops and hospitals remained open. There were no vehicles on the streets in Darjeeling but there was no let-down in protests and agitations, particularly by the Nari Morcha, women's wing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM). 

It organised a number of rallies across the town. While there were bike rallies taken out by GJM supporters in various parts of the hills, pro-Gorkhaland supporters started a new campaign of putting posters throughout the hills. 

The GJM announced a 12-hour relaxation on June 23 for boarding school students to leave Darjeeling and go to Siliguri at the start of their summer vacation. 

About a dozen reputed boarding schools are in Darjeeling with hundreds of students from across India and from countries like Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and South Korea. The relief will be between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

(Source & Courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/darjeeling-still-on-tenterhooks/article19114340.ece?homepage=true)