Lebong, Jan. 6: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today announced a series of “non-cooperation” programmes for the next three months, which is expected to cripple the administration across the hills.

Bimal Gurung, the president of the Morcha, while addressing a crowd at Lebong Ground, 7km from here, demanded that the chief principal secretary of the DGHC along with the executive officers (formerly called secretaries) should resign from their posts on February 29. “We are fighting for Gorkhaland but your stay in office is a hurdle. You are all retired people (most executive officers are retired WBCS officials on contract service) and occupying chairs meant for unemployed youths,” said Gurung. He also added that if the officials fail to resign, the people would force them into doing it.

In an appeal to the hill residents, the Morcha told them to stop paying taxes (both state and central) from April 1.

Gurung, who is riding high on his recent “success” in delaying the implementation of the Sixth Schedule bill, claimed that it was virtually “in the dustbin”.

Elaborating on how to go about the protest against the special status bill in a non-violent manner, the Morcha leader harped for some time on “Gandhibad”. He then announced a series of non-violent programmes (see chart) like hunger strikes and gherao of the Lal Khoti, the headquarters of the DGHC. For the first time, the protest movement will include people from the Dooars.

Earlier in November, the Morcha had chalked out a plan to gherao the Lal Kothi but were forced to return 500m from the building after a police barricade blocked their approach.

This time, the gherao will be for three days — March 4, 17 and 24. “On the last day, people from the proposed Gorkhaland area, which includes the Dooars, will come and join us,” said Gurung.

“People might have thought that Bimal Gurung would announce a violent agitation. We, however, do not want to hand over khukuris to the intellectual class. They must hold a pen instead. The Bimal Gurung of the ‘agitation days’ (he was referring to the Gorkhaland movement of the 80s) is different from the current one.”

The Morcha has also appealed to state and central government employees not to attend offices in the hills from January 14-21. The same request has been made to the DGHC staff. They have been asked to stay away from their offices from March 10-14 and from March 17-21. Gurung claimed that his party would organise pickets in front of the government offices during the “non-cooperation” drive.

Harka Bahadur Chhetri, a central committee leader of the Morcha from Kalimpong and one of the speakers at the meeting today, warned that if Parliament passes the Sixth Schedule bill, the people would ensure that that it fails by coming out into the streets in hordes.

D.K. Pradhan, a former Darjeeling MLA, Roshan Giri, the general secretary of the party and K.S. Ramudamu, the vice president, were some of the other speakers.