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www.telegraphindia.com
Feb 5, 2009

Binay Tamang, press and publicity secretary of the Morcha, said: “The strike on Saturday will be total and we have decided to close even the tea gardens, construction work at the NTPC and NHPC project sites and the cinchona plantations. Only emergency services will be exempted.”

Tamang also appealed to the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad to extend support to their strike. “The strike is to highlight the atrocities on the Adivasi community and also for their betterment of the community,” said Tamang.

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, Feb. 5: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today took their case to the governor but ignored his suggestion to call off an indefinite fast.

Bimal Gurung, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president, and eight other leaders of the outfit called on governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi at Raj Bhavan a day after the party’s talks with the state government drew a blank. (more…)

The Telegraph

Feb. 4: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today refused to allow the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to hold rallies in the restive Dooars, prompting the hill outfit to claim that it “walked out” of a meeting at Writers’ Buildings and call a 24-hour general strike in the region on Saturday.

The call for the strike, which will cover the Darjeeling hills, the Dooars and the Terai, including Siliguri, was given after the chief minister stuck to his stand at the meeting with Morcha president Bimal Gurung today.

“The chief minister was adamant and denied us permission to hold the public meetings in the Dooars and the Terai areas. When the chief minister refused permission, we staged a walkout. Our indefinite hunger-strike at Gorubathan will also continue,” Gurung said. (more…)

The Telegraph

Gorubathan, Feb. 4: Health officials are worried over the deteriorating condition of the six of the 22 Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters, who have been on an indefinite hunger strike here since January 29.

Doctors attending on the protesters said the six, including two women, would require immediate hospitalisation, but none of them were willing to take any medical help. Of the 22 protesters, 11 are from the hills, 10 are Adivasis from the Dooars and a Bengali. (more…)

The Telegraph

Kalimpong: A workshop and demonstration on Medical Response in Disaster will be held at the army station here on Thursday. The programme will be organised by the army in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority.

(Wg Cdr (Retd) Praful Rao of the Kalimpong-based NGO “Save the Hills” will be presenting a lecture on Landslide Hazards. The other presenters are Dr. P.K. Chettri, ADM Development, Dist. Darjeeling; Dr (Mrs) E Lyngdoh, ACMOH; Lt. Col B Harikrishnan, Ortho Surgeon, 158 BH. )

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, Feb. 2: The condition of five of the 22 Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters on hunger strike in Gorubathan has become serious, but the party has ruled out calling off the agitation till all its demands are met.

Seventeen party supporters have been on an indefinite fast since January 29 to exert pressure on the state government for permission to carry out its Dooars Chalo campaign. Five Adivasi supporters of the Morcha joined the fast yesterday. (more…)