Anti-Gorkhaland outfit convenes 48-hour bandh

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 12 JULY: The anti-Gorkhaland outfit, the Bangla O Bangla Bhasha Banchao Committee has convened a 48-hour statewide bandh beginning on 18 July to protest against the proposed tripartite settlement to be signed in all probability on 19 July in Darjeeling. “Any settlement short of addressing the foreign national issue involved in the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty is unacceptable to us,” said the outfit president, Dr Mukunda Majumder (see photo).
Notably, eight anti-Gorkhaland organisations have convened a 24-hour north Bengal bandh on 15 July on the same issue.
It has been learnt that the chief minister, Miss Mamata Banerjee would arrive in Darjeeling on 18 July. She is expected to come by train through New Jalpaiguri station.  
However, the Trinamul Congress and the CPI-M have taken strong exception to the spells of shutdowns in the region.
Expressing anguish, the north Bengal development minister, Mr Gautam Deb said that the outfits had convened the bandh at the behest of the Marxists.  “Everybody knows that these organisations act according to the whims of the Marxist satraps. They seem hell bent on disrupting the initiative being taken by the chief minister to resolve the long lingering political crisis in the Hills,” he said.
“I would ask the administration to take proper steps to maintain law and order during the spells of shutdowns,” he added.
The CPI-M has, however, brushing aside the Trinamul Congress allegations.  The former state urban development minister, Mr Asok Bhattacharya said that his party's stand on the bandh had remained consistent all through. “We had opposed the bandh when we were in power. Now when we are in the opposition our stand remains the same. Disrupting life in the name of agitation can never solve any problem,” he said.
Apparently unfazed by such criticism, Dr Majumder said that they would block the railway tracks near Mahananda Bridge in Siliguri in the morning of 18 July to prevent the chief minister from reaching the New Jalpaiguri station.