Over 8000 seek to return to Hills

SNS, 6 May 2020, Darjeeling: More than 8,000 people stuck in several parts of the country have so far registered for return to Darjeeling Hills after the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration took initiatives to bring them back, even as the lockdown is extended for two more weeks.

The over 8000 persons registered themselves in a web-site, www.gtadmin.org, which the GTA opened only three days ago.

"We have received 8600+ Return Citizen's forms in the past 36 hours, along with multiple queries, requests, and complaints from people stranded at different places," GTA chairman Anit Thapa said in a Facebook post.

Till Sunday, 2,832 people from the GTA area stranded in Karnataka had already filled the forms. The other places where people have filled the forms from include Tamil Nadu, other places of West Bengal, Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar, Goa, and Kerela.

Mr Thapa yesterday maintained that the GTA has already sent the first list of such names to nodal officers who will take for appropriate action. The state government's nodal officer, in turn, will interact with both the state and central governments and arrange for train facilities.

"The government is phasing the extraction process, where priority is being given to areas from green zones. Red zones would be the last to be acted upon due to obvious risk factors involved," said Mr Thapa. He also urged people not to travel unless it was absolutely necessary.

Keeping in mind such stranded people, the Gorkha National Liberation Front has also opened helpline numbers jointly with the apolitical body, the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh.

"The government is gearng up to ferry stranded people to their respective areas. For people from this region, they have to fill online registration forms provided by the West Bengal government and the GIA. There are many people who still do not know about this, along with many also not net-savvy. We will make people aware of this even in rural places, so that their family members can know of it," said GNLF leader Ajoy Edwards. As an immediate relief to the stranded, the GNLF has also decided to deposit some funds in their bank accounts so that they can carry on for a few weeks.

"We are starting with about 100 people in Delhi who are in dire need. We decided to deposit funds in their account instead of supplying essentials as due to the lockdown many cannot travel to far off places while an ATM will be there in localities," Mr Edwards said. The helpline numbers are 9679479114 and 7908969195.