Down with defaced boards, govt orders

Siliguri, Oct. 21: The Darjeeling district administration has ordered that signboards reading “Government of Gorkhaland” be brought down from offices at the earliest.

The order comes four days after the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha started blackening “West Bengal” on the signboards hanging outside state government offices and replacing them with “Gorkhaland”.

“Given the policy of restraint that has been adopted for the hills, we have not resorted to any confrontation with the Morcha so far. Instead, we have instructed the officials of departments whose signboards have been changed to bring them down, both in the hills and plains,” said Surendra Gupta, the district magistrate of Darjeeling. “They were earlier asked to file police complaints following which 16 FIRs were lodged.”

The district magistrate also said the government would deal more stringently with vehicles plying on “GL” number plates, especially in the plains. Cars with changed number plates are being noticed mostly in “trouble-prone” areas like Salbari, Sukna, Salugara, Sevoke and Panighata near Naxalbari, usually the entry points to the hills. The police have marked these spots as “red zones”.

“After discussion with district police officials, we decided that any vehicle sporting ‘GL’ would be seized and the drivers prosecuted. Extra forces have been deployed in these areas.”

Yesterday, a mob in Bagdogra had set fire on a motorcycle sporting “GL” number plates. According to the district superintendent of police, Rahul Srivastava, eight “GL” vehicles have been seized in Siliguri so far.

Gupta said “a lack of adequate police personnel right now” and the fear of “serious repercussions” were preventing the administration from cracking down on the Morcha agitators.

The district magistrate said he was aware of the problems being faced by vehicle owners as work has stopped at the Regional Transport Authority’s office in Darjeeling.

“The transporters could not renew their permits or obtain fitness certificates of their vehicles which is causing them inconvenience. Under these circumstances, if there is an accident, car owners would be deprived of insurance claims,” Gupta said. “An oil tanker from Siliguri plying without valid papers (its fitness certificate had expired) was intercepted at Dhulagarh in Howrah yesterday.”

“We have to inform the districts as well as Sikkim about the impasse here and request them to consider the vehicles registered in Darjeeling for most of them have permits and fitness certificates that have expired,” he added.