IGP to continue work in strife-torn Hills, irrespective of threat

SILIGURI, Nov. 12: The inspector general of police, North Bengal Mr Kundanlal Tamta said today that he would continue discharging his duty in the Darjeeling Hills irrespective of any threat from any quarters. He was replying to queries concerning the reported threat from a Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha frontal organisation against his entry into the Darjeeling hills for providing protection to the AIGL president Mr Madan Tamang.

Meanwhile, the state urban development minister Mr Asok Bhattacharya urged the GJMM leadership to desist itself from what he called ‘infantile obsession’ with undermining the governmental machinery in the name of an agitation.

Mr Tamta said that providing security cover to Mr Tamang was his official prerogative and no one would prevent him from doing so. “Mr Tamang is a threatened person in the Hills. We are fully alive to his threat perception given the expulsion drive having been launched by the agitating outfit in recent past. It is the bounden duty of the police force to see to it that no harm comes to the hill leader,” he said.

However, in the same breath, he extolled what he called ‘the unflagging commitment’ of the GJMM chief Mr Bimal Gurung to the cause he had been striving for. “Knowing intimately the GJMM leader as I do, it seems incredible that Mr Gurung could have issued such a diktat debarring me from getting into the hills to discharge my duty,” Mr Tamta said.

Meanwhile, commenting on the matter, the state urban development minister Mr Asok Bhattacharya said that the agitating hill-based outfit should come out of its obsession of undermining the constitutional pillars of the state administration. “Any attempt to weaken the state machinery amounts to anti-national acts and no government worth its name can brook it,” he said.

“The minister, the district magistrate, the police officials represent the state and as per the constitutional provisions no outfit can restrict their movements in the name of an agitation,” the minister said.