Course shift protest in hills

Kalimpong, May 7: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s four frontal organisations today enforced a five-hour pen-down strike in the subdivisional office here to protest the shifting of a library science course from Kalimpong Janata College to Siliguri.

Representatives of the four organisations — the Janmukti Secondary Teachers’ Organisation, Gorkha Primary Teachers’ Organisation, Janmukti Karmachari Sangathan and the Janmukti Asthai Karmachari Sangathan — reached the subdivisional office before 10am to enforce the strike.

Since the agitating organisations had issued a prior notice on the strike, the employees had not turned up for duty. When The Telegraph visited the office in the afternoon, it wore a deserted look.

Hari Dahal, the Kalimpong unit secretary of the JSTO, said the organisations have called for an hour-long chakka jam in town from 11am tomorrow and on Sunday. “We will continue with our protest till the director of library services rolls back his order to shift the college from here to Siliguri,” he added.

A delegation of the four organisations met Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh, who is in town, last night and apprised him of the developments. “Mr Singh gave us a patient hearing and said he would take up the matter with the appropriate authorities,” said Dahal.

The directorate of library services had decided to shift the 16th batch of the library science course from Janata College to the additional district library in Siliguri citing the “present administrative turmoil in Darjeeling”.

A letter sent by the director of library services to the secretary of the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad and the district library officer of Jalpaiguri reads: “The government has decided that one training course may be organised at additional district library, Siliguri instead of Kalimpong People’s (Janata) College, due to the present administrative turmoil in Darjeeling.”

Even though the opening paragraph talks only about shifting one course (library science), the subsequent content of the letter says “the courses” may be organised in Siliguri “until and unless the situation of DGHC area of Darjeeling becomes normal”.

Source: The Telegraph