No rule of law in Darjeeling hills, says Ghisingh

Confined to a guesthouse in Siliguri and unable to reach Darjeeling — his home town — GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh on Friday...

Confined to a guesthouse in Siliguri and unable to reach Darjeeling — his home town — GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh on Friday said it showed how far things in the hills had gone out of the state Government’s control.

“Darjeeling hills do not have the rule of law any more,” said Ghisingh, who had been denied entry into Darjeeling for over a fortnight now.

The Darjeeling Gorkha Janamukti Morcha has launched an agitation and its leaders said Ghisingh was unable to get back to his home town because the hill people did not want him any more.

Story continues below this ad

A senior state Government official said on Friday that once Ghisingh put in his resignation as the caretaker administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), he would he allowed by the agitators to get back to the hills.

West Bengal Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said Jalpaiguri Divisional Commissioner B L Meena was likely to take over as the new DGHC caretaker administrator. He would succeed Ghisingh, who was expected to put in his papers on March 10. Ray, however, did not specify the date of the handing over of the charge.

Sources at Writers’ Buildings said the state Government was not eager to pursue the Sixth-schedule status demand for Darjeeling region. The administration felt it would not be a problem for him to move in, once he resigned from his post, officials said.