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| Tourists resting at the Mall after their arrival in Darjeeling and before checking into their hotels on Sunday. Picture by Suman Tamang |
Darjeeling, June 10: The month-long agitation programme announced by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has left a window open for the tourist season.
The more-than-a-month-long Morcha programme that is devoid of strike till July when the tourist season ends, has come as a huge relief to hoteliers in town. The hotel industry had been spending sleepless nights ever since an agitated Morcha termed Justice Shyamal Sen’s recommendation to include only five of the 396 mouzas demanded by the party in the GTA as “humiliating”.
The Morcha had called a meeting of its central committee today to decide on future course of action. Hoteliers said they spent the entire day thinking of backup plans in the worst case scenario of an immediate strike. “We were anxious throughout the day and were thinking of various back-up plans. In the worst-case situation of the Morcha deciding to call a strike with immediate effect, we thought of taking the tourists out of the town late to night. We were trying to figure out what accommodations we would provide to them in Siliguri,” said a hotelier.
The Morcha, however, has called a 72-hour general strike only from July 2 onwards. The month-long agitation programme starts with submitting memorandum to the chief minister and the chairmen and commissioners of the three hills municipalities resigning from their posts. The second phase of agitation starts in July with the strike.
But by then, the hotelier said, the tourist season would have ended.
“Going by the bookings, I believe that the season will end after June 18,” he said. In the peak summer season, nearly 2,000 tourists arrive in the hills daily.
Many tourists were, however, unaware of the unfolding drama or the tension of the hoteliers today. Many of them trudged up to the Mall to enjoy the promenade before checking in, unaware of possible agitation programmes.
Sudhant Mondal and his 20 friends from Behrampore are among that group that arrived today.
They headed straight to the Mall from the motor stand even before checking into their hotel. Asked if they were anxious having arrived at this time in Darjeeling, Mondal was surprised. “Why should we?” he asked. Told about the development, Mondal said: “We had been travelling and we did not have the time to get any updates. We have arrived in Darjeeling and have not even checked into our hotel. We have found the place to be beautiful and we are enjoying our rest (after a steep walk uphill from the Motorstand) at the Mall now.”
Even D. Mukherjee from Calcutta, who had been in Darjeeling for the past two days, was unaware of the developments. “We wanted to extend our stay by another day or two but could not find a room. We are surprised that the hotels are full. We were not aware that anything like this (the Sen committee report and the Morcha protest) is happening in Darjeeling,” he said.
Darjeeling receives around 3.5 lakh domestic tourists annually, besides 40,000 foreigners.
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