Siliguri, December 29: Surface transport services, including train services to Delhi and Kolkata, were disrupted for the third day today following blockades put up by hundreds of GJM activists on Sevok, demanding resumption of talks on statehood of Gorkhaland.
The students’ wing of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), spearheading the latest spate of indefinite blockades on the highways and rail traffic, also called a 24-hour Darjeeling bandh tomorrow, GJM Assistant General Secretary Binoy Tamang said.
The duration of the GJM’s Vidyarthi Morcha sponsored bloackades is increasing for an hour every day from three hours since Sunday, disrupting vehicular traffic to Sikkim and Bhutan, and train services to the Northeast states and metro cities like Kolkata and Delhi.
The blockade was also hampering movements of essentials, especially the perishable goods.
Kurseong SDPO Rakesh Singh said reinforcement, including combat police and a Deputy Magistrate were already at Sevoke, about 20 km from here, to persue the agitators to lift the blockade. He said if theactivists did not hear and leave the place then arrests were expected to clear the roads and rail lines.
Mr Singh said the activists were asked to leave the site and allow traffic to move or else police would be forced to keep open traffic by removing the human bloackade on the highways andrail tracks.
Tension was prevailing in the Dooars since detention and arrests of agitators, including Kalchini MLA Wilson Champramary, yesterday for blockling roads leading to Bhutan. They were also released last night after GJMactivists gheraoed number of police stations in the Dooars.
The GJM activists were also observing a relay hunger strike at many places in the hills since last four days to create pressure on the administration for resumption of poltical talks on statehood of Gorkhaland.
–Agencies