CPRM call for attendance on Darjeeling shutdown days

Darjeeling, May 13: The CPRM has asked its supporters at tea gardens to join work during the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-sponsored strike on May 15 and 16, expressing its dissatisfaction with the shutdown call.

K.B. Subba, the general secretary of the CPRM-affiliated Darjeeling Terai Dooars Chai Kaman Mazdoor Union, said: “We are dissatisfied with the two-day strike. We appeal to our supporters to join duty on both the days. The management (of gardens) must ensure that the workers are allowed to work and that they receive their salaries.”

Although May 16, a Sunday, is a holiday in tea estates, the previous day is a working day in the gardens.

“The management is already talking about low productivity. It will cite the instances (of strikes like this) during the wage and bonus negotiations and ultimately our workers will be losers. We once again appeal that the tea gardens be kept out of the strike’s purview,” said Subba.

The Morcha has, however, iterated that the strike will be strictly enforced during the two days.

Observers believe that the CPRM’s call to join work can create tension in the Rangmook-Cedar tea garden, near Sonada, about 35km from Darjeeling, as the estate is the native place of CPRM general secretary R.B. Rai and is traditionally a stronghold of the Left party. The CPRM has also some support at Gorubathan in Kalimpong subdivision also.

The second largest party in the hills, the CPRM had announced on May Day — about 4,000 supporters of the party had taken out a rally on that day — that it would sever its ties with the Morcha. The party also unveiled its voluntary force, the Swayam Sevak Vahini, which is being seen as an ominous challenge to the Gorkhaland Personnel raised by Bimal Gurung’s outfit.

In the past, the CPRM had drawn flak from many quarters for its soft approach towards the predominant party in the hills, be it the GNLF or the Morcha.

But the CPRM this time has condemned an attack on a former GNLF commissioner at Kalimpong yesterday. Tikaram Chhetri, 42, who had resigned from the party in 2008, was assaulted by suspected Morcha supporters and was later admitted to a Siliguri hospital. No FIR has been lodged. The attack is seen as a fallout of Saturday’s incident when members of the student wing of the GNLF had plastered posters in town favouring Sixth Schedule for the hills following which alleged Morcha supporters assaulted GNLF sympathisers.

“We condemn the incident. Many intellectuals within the Morcha have been urging the party leadership to refrain from violence, but over the years the Morcha is turning violent. Their Gandhigiri is stained with blood. We appeal to all the Gorkhaland loving people to come up openly and bravely oppose such tactics,” the CPRM general secretary said.

Source: The Telegraph