Siliguri/Darjeeling
Sep 13: The hills is gradually limping back to normal with two government
buses carrying passengers today heading for uphill Darjeeling town from
Siliguri, almost after three months of suspension of services, a day after
yesterday's second round bipartite talk between West Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee and the political parties operating in the hills, which
stressed on restoration of normalcy. While two NBSTC ( North Bengal State
Transport Corporation ) buses left this commercial town of Siliguri to traverse
around 70 km uphill roads via Kursegong and are expected to return by evening
with commuters, reports reaching here said the NBSTC buses were also plying at
Mirik and Kalimpong. Sources said efforts were on with proper security
arrangement to reopen some educational institutions at Mirik, which is
comparatively returning to normal for the past few days. Immediately after the
90-minute all-party meet at Uttarkanya on Tuesday afternoon, Ms Banerjee
announced that the government was keen on restoration of the public
distribution system and urged all stake holders help the administration to
bring peace and sanity in the hills, crippled for the past over three months
following indefinite shutdown by the GJM (Gorkha Janmukti Morcha) demanding
statehood for Gorkhas. Ms Banerjee told the meeting clearly that Darjeeling
hills are part and parcel of West Bengal and it will remain so , but her
government was for a permanent solution for Gorkhas and sought their
suggestions. Meanwhile, GJM president Bimal Gurung, evading arrest, said from
an undisclosed location that " not a single word was spoken regarding
Gorkhaland in the all-party meeting " and threatened to launch "
Janta Curfew ' to protest police atrocities against rallies in support of
Gorkhaland demand. " Bandh not called by me, it was called by Binay
Tamang, he has to clarify regarding this to people. I will call off the bandh
only after tri-partite meeting for Gorkhaland starts," Mr Gurung said.
" We want tri-partite talks at political level. We have our MP, MLAs. I am
not in favour of calling off bandh, ' he stated. JAP president Dr Harka Bahadur
Chhetri said, " We have requested Ms Banerjee to clarify her stand on
Gorkhaland issue and we have also clarified from our side. " UNI
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Darjeeling limping back to normal, first time in three months: Gurung
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