Trinamul to hit street to fight strikes Minister promises normal life

Trinamul to hit street to fight strikes Minister promises normal life

OUR CORRESPONDENT/ The Telegraph

Siliguri, July 14: Trinamul Congress workers will be out on the streets for the next five days starting tomorrow to oppose the shutdowns called by the various outfits in the Dooars and the Terai that are against the hill agreement, minister Gautam Deb said today. In another protest against strikes, lawyers Moumita Pal and Pritam Ghosh filed a suit in the court of the Siliguri civil judge (junior division) here today, seeking judicial intervention to restrain three organisations and a political party from observing shutdowns on July 15, 18 and 19. According to the advocates’ lawyer, Sunil Sarkar, Bangla Morcha, Rashtriya Shiv Sena, Bangla O Bangla Bhasha Banchao Committee and Amra Bangali have been named in the suit. Judge Prabir Mahapatra has ordered a hearing tomorrow. North Bengal development minister Deb, who is also the core committee chairperson of the region for Trinamul, said he would accompany party MLAs and workers to ensure that the bandh was not enforced. “We will be out on the streets, keeping a strong watch to help people lead normal life. We will inform the administration wherever we find that their intervention is needed,” he said. In the evening, Deb held a meeting with police and the civil administration. He also met owners and employees of private buses and other means of transport, requesting them to run their vehicles. “Government buses will be there and police and civil administration will run control rooms that will monitor the situation,” Deb said after the meeting. “I will be at new Jalpaiguri station tomorrow morning to see that tourists and passengers are not inconvenienced. I have assured private transport owners of safety. They in turn have agreed to run their vehicles. “The presence of our MLAs and municipal councillors would instill confidence in the common people. If the need arises, they can draw the attention of the police and the administration,” he added. The bandh enforcers are opposed to the formation of a new administrative set-up for the hills, the agreement on which was earlier expected to be signed in Darjeeling on July 18. Eight forums based in Siliguri and the Terai and the Dooars have jointly called a 24-hour north Bengal strike tomorrow to protest the state’s decision to form the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad has called a 48-hour strike in the Terai and the Dooars from July 16 to protest the formation of a committee by the state to look into the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s demand to bring certain mouzas of the plains under the GTA. The Bhasha Banchao Committee has called a two-day strike on July 18 and 19 to protest the formation of the GTA. “A number of organisations that hardly have any presence (in the Dooars and the Terai) are trying to destabilise the region in collaboration with the CPM,” Deb told a news conference at the Siliguri Journalists’ Club earlier in the day. The Darjeeling district CPM has also opposed the strikes but said the state should place the hill agreement in the Assembly for discussion. “If the government refuses to divulge the details, we would have no option but to file applications under the right to information,” CPM state committee member and former minister Asok Bhattacharya said today.