Track protest on added land

The blockade at the New Malbazar station in Jalpaiguri on Thursday. Picture by Biplab Basak

Siliguri, March 15: Supporters of more than 10 organisations blocked the railway tracks in the Dooars and Terai for half an hour today to protest Mamata Banerjee’s silence on the demand to bring Gorkha-dominated plains areas under the hill set-up.

Hundreds of supporters of the Dooars Terai Joint Action Committee resorted to rail roko at four locations in the Terai and Dooars to demand that the government reject outright the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha demand to bring plains mouzas under the Gorkha Territorial Administration, instead of appointing a panel to look into the demand.

The joint action committee, which consists of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad, the Kamtapur Progressive Party and nine other organisations, was formed last week to oppose the Morcha demand.

“We find no logic behind the silence of the chief minister and her government on the issue. The formation of the territory panel was unnecessary. With its formation, it became clear that the Morcha would be pursuing the issue,” said the state president of the Parishad, Birsa Tirkey.

He said the Morcha leaders would not take it lightly if the panel recommended that no part of the Dooars and Terai could be included in the GTA.

“Now is the time for the government and the chief minister to speak out, to announce that the Morcha demand cannot be met to prevent fresh trouble and agitation in the region,” he said.

Tirkey said the adivasis, the Rajbangshis and the other communities that had been living here for centuries were opposed to the demand. “It is tough to understand why the chief minister is ignoring us and consistently holding talks with the Morcha and visiting the hills. There has not been any specific or major announcement for us or our areas,” he added.

The protesters squatted on the tracks at Rangapani and Naxalbari in the Terai and at Malbazar and Mainaguri in Jalpaiguri. Although the blockades were planned for two hours, they were withdrawn in all four places within 30 minutes because of police intervention.

The joint action committee has called a 48-hour north Bengal strike on April 6 and 7.

“If the state government remains silent, we will have no alternative but to launch an aggressive movement,” said Rajesh Lakra, the secretary of the Dooars-Terai regional unit of the Parishad.