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Darjeeling, Jan. 14: Most government offices across the hills remained shut for the entire day in keeping with a protest schedule announced by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha earlier.

In Kalimpong alone, 500 protesters courted arrest, including GNLF(C) president D.K. Pradhan. All of them were subsequently released. In Darjeeling, the number was 64. Binay Tamang, a central committee leader of the Morcha, was one of the arrested.

P.T. Sherpa, the SDO of Kalimpong, said barring officials of the magistrate rank, other employees stayed away from office.

“We have suspended all party programmes and are supporting the Morcha in our common struggle to achieve a separate state for the Gorkhas,” said Pradhan.

On January 6, the Morcha had declared that its supporters would lay siege to state and central government offices as part of the 11-point protest programme that will continue till April. People have been told to stay away from the offices till January 18.

Much of the action today was, however, confined to the Darjeeling Municipality premises where a large number of protesters blocked the main gate for eight hours, starting from 8am, in the presence of a huge police contingent. However, no untoward incident was reported.

The Darjeeling district administration also clamped Section 144 — preventing the assembly of more than four persons — on the municipality premises. Traffic along Ladenla Road, where the municipality office is located, was stalled for several hours because of the crowd. The municipality, which was supposed to elect a new chairman today following the death of the incumbent on January 1, could not do so. According to civic rules, a new chairman must be in seat within 14 days of it falling vacant.

Later in the evening, Rajesh Pandey, the Darjeeling district magistrate, held a meeting with the municipality commissioners to discuss the day’s development.

“Since the special board meeting could not be held to elect the new chairman, it has been decided that the vice-chairman will prepare a report which will be submitted to the state government to fix a new date for the elections,” said Pandey.

Till now, the GNLF enjoys a majority at the municipality even though a number of municipality commissioners have joined the Morcha.

Deepak Gurung, the president of the GNLF Darjeeling branch committee, said: “This (agitation) is undemocratic and a sign of hooliganism. We believe in democracy and apart from being in a majority at the municipality, the people are also with us.”

Roshan Giri, the general secretary of the Morcha, said the protest had nothing to do with the civic election.

“We had announced our programme on January 6,” Giri said.