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Correspondent
Kalimpong
Feb 10: The fast onto death stir started by the Lepcha youths under the banner
of Lepcha Rights Movement committee entered its fourth day today with more
protesters joining the fast. The number of protesters crossed 3000 mark Sunday
while another 2000 people from the community has flocked in to give moral
support to the youths.
Conditions
of many sitting on hunger strike have started to deteriorate but the protesters
denied taking any medical attention. “Some of them seriously need medical
attention as their condition is deteriorating day by day,” a Medical officer
told Himalayan Mirror.
Political
leaders are continuing to visit the protesters but so far they have been unable
to pacify them to call of the strike. Today Dawa Pakhrin, the president of the
Gorkhaland Rajya Nirman Morcha (GRNM) met the protesters and Lepcha leaders who
congratulated them for the formation of the Lepcha Development Council.
Pakhrin
who is an ex-GNLF leader before he formed the GRNM said that the ruling party
at both the State and the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) should
immediately interfere and pacify the Lepcha leaders to cool down the situation.
“If any untoward incident takes place during the fast onto death stir, then a
communal disparity among the people of hills would occur and that is dangerous.
The hill people have always lived together united as Gorkhas since decades and
this should not be broken at any cost,” said Pakhrin.
Yesterday
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) spokesperson Harka Bahadur Chettri and North
Bengal Development minister had met the protesters but both the leaders were
unable to pacify the Lepcha leaders to call of the strike. The Lepchas however
does not want the formation of the council to be politicized as it is seen over
the past couple of days. The GJM chief Bimal Gurung has already urged the
Lepchas to call of the strike but to no avail.
Looking
back at Lepcha’s Agitation
Rajesh
Sharma
Jaigaon Feb 10: Huge protest rallies of
the Lepchas were carried out in Kalimpong, Darjeeling
This was followed by a huge Dharna in
Kolkata from August 9 to September 7, 2011 where more than 200 Lepchas, old and
young, men and women, took part under very difficult humid conditions and
incessant rain. The Lepchas also sat on an indefinite Dharna from
September 1 in front of the Sub-Divisional Officer’s Office, Kalimpong.
The number of Lepchas started to increase and swell by the day like a
wild fire in Kalimpong. Lepchas from the other two Sub-Divisions, Darjeeling
Mahasweta Devi, a renown writer, scholar
and tribal activist, came to meet the Lepchas sitting in Dharna on September 1, 2011 in Kolkata and openly
declared her full support for the original Lepcha tribe’s genuine demands.
She also read and sang three songs from Guru Dev’s Gitanjali, a
translation work from Bengali into Lepcha.
On September 2, 2011 huge rally of the
Lepchas with various Kolkata based organisations, institutions and NGOs took
place in Kolkata where many leaders, intellectuals, thinkers, scholars in
supports of the Lepchas very seriously spoke on the Lepcha tribes and their
genuine demands.
The same day the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made a sensational announcement in the Assembly to the sheer delight of the original Lepchas of West Bengal on their very long standing genuine demands; she announced that a “Lepcha Development Council” will be established for the betterment, advancement of the original Lepcha tribes inWest Bengal .
The same day the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made a sensational announcement in the Assembly to the sheer delight of the original Lepchas of West Bengal on their very long standing genuine demands; she announced that a “Lepcha Development Council” will be established for the betterment, advancement of the original Lepcha tribes in
With this announcement by the Chief Minister of
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