The decision comes after the state government of West Bengal decided to deploy additional security personnel in the Hills to suppress the ongoing protest.
A meeting of ´Gorkhaland Joint Action Committee´ comprising the seven agitating political parties held at Siliguri on Sunday decided to resort to severe forms of protest programs, altering the protest programs they had earlier announced for the next phase, which is to start from Monday.
Raju Pradan, coordinator of the committee, informed that the committee has shortened the five-day “janta curfew” program into a day, where people voluntarily remain indoors to express solidarity to the protest. [break]
In the remaining four days, the residents in Darjeeling will now hit the streets with placards and banners criticizing the state and central governments for turning a deaf ear to their demands. During the protest, according to Pradhan, all the markets in Darjeeling will remain closed.
“All the locals will take to the street from August 20 to 23. We have titled the protest as ´People in Streets´,” said he.
Emerging from the meeting, Pradhan said the protest programs had to be stepped up also because the self-imposed curfew went unheeded.
However, the committee has not changed a torch rally program to be carried out on August 24 and 25. Likewise, on August 27, the locals will stage protest for two hours in the streets tying black bands around the arms.
Similarly, the agitating political parties on August 27 and 28 will send a fax to the country´s president, prime minister and home minister, demanding a separate state.
Meanwhile, the committee has urged all the members of the Indian parliament to express solidarity to their protest.
Pradhan further informed that additional protest programs will be announced by the committee following a meeting on August 30.
Meanwhile, All Indian Gorkha League (AIGL) has alienated itself from the Gorkhaland Joint Action Committee on Sunday.
Chairman of AIGL, Bharati Tamang said that her party will not join the committee unless the struggling Gorkha Janamukti Morcha abandons Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, a special administrative unit formed by the Indian government in Darjeeling to placate similar agitations in the past for a separate statehood.
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