Skip to main content

Sikkim vehicles allowed along NH 31A

DARJEELING, November 25: Life in all three sub-divisions of the Darjeeling district remained paralysed as the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF)-sponsored indefinite bandh entered the second day today.

Shops remained shut and the Police patrolled the streetswith prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC following the attack on the life of a prominent GNLF leader K B Gurung, who is the organisation’s Darjeeling Sadar-II unit, on Friday.

The GNLF chief, Subash Ghising has decided to continue with the bandh till 20 Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJMM) activists, including its president Bimal Gurung, were arrested. The GNLF have alleged that the attack was carried out by GJMM supporters.

While GNLF supporters used strong-armed tactics to impose the bandh in many places, stranded tourists were the most affected. The tax-stand here were jammed packed with tourists desperate to get out of the town at the earliest since Saturday morning. But most drivers were unwilling to venture out, fearing attacks by bandh supporters, leading to a panic situation amongst the tourists.

As taxis became scarce, some drivers, willing to take the chance, began to charge exorbitant rates to ferry tourist out of the town. Tourists also complained that the local administration had made no arrangements to provide them with escorts for a safe passage.

Darjeeling District Magistrate Rajesh Pandey said all shops and business establishments in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong subdivisions were closed and vehicles stayed off the road. Educational institutions and tea gardens did not function.

The District administration has made arrangement to shift the tourists to Siliguri in view of the continuing bandh.

Meanwhile, vehicles plying to and fro from Sikkim were allowed to move along the National Highway 31A to Siliguri. Reports have indicated that although the Sikkim-bound vehicles were allowed a safe-passage, they were directed not to stop anywhere the stretch of the NH 31A which falls under the Darjeeling District. The volume of traffic along the NH 31A was low today.

A vehicle with a Sikkim number plate was damaged at Kakjhora here yesterday, though no one was injured.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

India’s illegal occupation of independent Sikkim has to be reversed

Extracted from Pakistan Defence India’s “Chief Executive” in Gangtok wrote: “Sikkim’s merger was necessary for Indian national interest. And we worked to that end. Maybe if the Chogyal had been smarter and played his cards better, it wouldn’t have turned out the way it did.” It is also said that the real battle was not between the Chogyal and Kazi Lendup Dorji but between their wives. On one side was Queen Hope Cook, the American wife of the Chogyal and on the other was the Belgian wife of the Kazi, Elisa-Maria Standford. “This was a proxy war between the American and the Belgian,” says former chief minister BB Gurung. But there was a third woman involved: Indira Gandhi in New Delhi. Chogyal Palden met the 24-year-old New Yorker Hope Cook in Darjeeling in 1963 and married her. For Cook, this was a dream come true: to become the queen of an independent kingdom in Shangrila. She started taking the message of Sikkimese independence to the youth, and the allegations started flying thic...

JANHA BAGCHA TEESTA RANGIT

This was a national song of Sikkim sung in the Nepali language during the monarchy system. During the merger with India, the song got banned and later re-released. Two words on the 8th para, which earlier said 'Rajah rah Rani,' were replaced with "Janmah bhumi."     This song was dedicated to the King and Queen of Sikkim. The song lyrics were penned by Sanu Lama, and the music was composed by Dushyant Lama.  The song was first sung on the birth anniversary of Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal on April 4, 1970, at Gangtok by Aruna Lama, Dawa Lama, and Manikamal Chettri.    JANHA BAGCHA TEESTA RANGIT,  JAHAN KANCHENDZONGA SEER   YEHI HO HAMRO DHANA KO DESH,  TAPAWAN HO PYARO SIKKIM     INTERLUDE     PHULCHAN YEHA AANGANAI MAA,  CHAAP , GURAS, SUNAKHARI   SWARGASARI SUNDAR DESH KO  HAMRO PYARO PYARO JANMAHBHUMI     JANHA BAGCHA……     BATASHLE BOKCHAA YAHA,  TATHAGAT KO AAMAR WAANI ...

The Gorkhas - Sons of the Soil, Pride of the Nation

 Nanda Kirati Dewan, a journalist from Assam traces the origin of the Gorkhas in India. Many people have misconceptions about the Gorkhas in India - that they are foreigners and have migrated from Nepal. There could not be a greater mistake than this. The Gorkhas are in fact the aborigines of India and they can trace their history back to ancient times. The Gorkha community is the product of Indo-Aryan and Mongoloid assimilation from ages past. As a linguistic group, they can trace their origin back to Indo-Aryan and Tibeto-Burman beginnings. In fact, the Gorkhas consist of both Indo-Aryan and Mongoloid racial groups. In the Mahabharata and Manusmriti names of Khasa are mentioned. They are in fact the Gorkhas. The Gorkhas spoke the language then known as Khaskura Khasas as a community existed in Nepal which it later changed to another ethnic name. The Lichchhavis, one of the aboriginal tribes of India originally lived in the plains of present Nepal. During the early centu...