The Telegraph


Gurung gestures at the Kalimpong crowd. (CF Lepcha)

Kalimpong, Feb. 7: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung today said his outfit would drive away the top administrative and police officers from the hills and run its own regime if the next round of tripartite talks did not bear fruit.

Addressing a rally 5km from Kalimpong town, he said the hills had people experienced enough to run the administration. “We’ll chase out the DM, the SP, the DSP and the SDOs. We have already done a detailed study…. We know how much money is required to pay the salaries of staff and how to generate revenue.”

In Darjeeling, Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri revealed that a “secret” proposal Gurung had sent to the Centre dealt with an interim arrangement — till the 2011 Assembly elections — for the area they wanted as Gorkhaland. “Every point in our proposal will have to be accepted. There will be no compromise on Gorkhaland,” he said.

The Morcha students’ wing has already given a call to stall movement of government vehicles in the hills after Thursday night’s police baton charge on a group fasting near Siliguri for permission to hold a rally in the plains. In protest, a constable was beaten up brutally and two state buses were torched.

Gurung said Delhi would announce the dates for the fifth round of talks on February 9 or 10. “Since the talks will be held at the political level, I expect (chief minister) Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Union home minister P. Chidambaram and myself to take part in it,” he said.

He warned that he would not accept “someone like (state urban development minister) Asok Bhattacharya representing the state”. “I will not talk to those who have come through the barbed wire fence from Bangladesh,” he added.

Gurung also took potshots at Sikkim chief minister Pa- wan Chamling, suggesting he had a hand behind a Sikkim resident’s petition in the Supreme Court against frequent Morcha blockades on National Highway 31A, the only road link to the Himalayan state.

At Birpara in Alipurduar, in the plains, police today arrested over 300 Morcha supporters who had assembled for a rally flouting prohibitory orders. They had planned the rally in memory of a Morcha supporter killed last year in a clash with Adivasis opposed to the demand for Gorkhaland.

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