Protesters stop traffic - Tourists leave before blockade

Darjeeling, Nov. 11: Picketers stopped traffic in town from 11am today in response to a chaka jam called by All Hill Transport Joint Action Committee to protest against the alleged government move to open a camp of the motor vehicles department in Siliguri.

However, most hill residents seem to have been prepared for the two-hour transport strike. Hoteliers had ensured that the few tourists in town who were supposed to catch flights were out of the hills by 11am.

Narbu Lama, president of the joint action committee, said: “This is a conspiracy to slowly shift the Regional Transport Authority office to Siliguri in the coming days. We will oppose such a move tooth and nail.”

Surendra Gupta, the district magistrate of Darjeeling, had said earlier that there was no order from the state government to open an RTA camp in Siliguri.

Many vehicle owners from Darjeeling and Siliguri have not been able to update their transport documents and route permits as the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha had stopped the RTA office from functioning normally since April 1.

In Chowk Bazar today, Mahendra Subba, the president, Janmukti Astai Karmachari Sangatan, said a “parallel administration” would be set up if the government deducted salaries of workers who were currently on a pen-down strike.

Subba was reacting to minister Asok Bhattacharya’s threat that if the contractual workers did not join their duties, they may not be paid their salaries for the strike period.