Subash Ghisingh at Pintail village. Telegraph picture

Darjeeling/Calcutta, Feb. 18: The GNLF-controlled Darjeeling municipality has decided to stop supplying drinking water and clearing garbage in the town from tomorrow.

In Calcutta, home secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said the situation in the hills was “worrisome” but tourists were safe.

“Those feeling unsafe would be brought down to the plains,” he added.

Although a lean season for tourism, there would be several hundred tourists in the Darjeeling hills now. The peak period will begin in March.

Pema Yolmo, who was elected chairman of Darjeeling municipality by 15 GNLF councillors on Saturday, said: “We will neither clear the garbage nor supply water from tomorrow since our staff weren’t allowed to work today.”

Government offices were not allowed to function by the Opposition Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which has called an indefinite shutdown of government establishments.

Banks and post offices will be open only twice a week — on Tuesdays and Fridays.

The 32 wards of the municipality generate about 62 tonnes of waste everyday and the civic body is able to clear only about half of it.

The GNLF has laid down three conditions for withdrawal of its strike. “The Darjeeling Paathpasala (hawkers) Sangh has stopped paying taxes (from February 13). We want them to give us in writing they will pay the tax,” said Yolmo.

The traders (474 of them) accused the GNLF board of demanding the daily hawkers’ tax (Rs 10), though they owned “permanent structures”.

The GNLF also wants the Morcha flag, planted atop the municipality on Saturday, to be removed. “Only the national flag can flutter from that tower,” said Yolmo.

The third demand is compensation for the damage done to municipality vehicles and the building during the Saturday siege to prevent the chairman’s election.

Morcha leader Dinesh Gurung’s supporters had allegedly smashed windscreens of vehicles parked on the municipality premises.

Asked if the government would appoint an administra-tor when Subash Ghisingh’s tenure as caretaker administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council ends on March 24, the home secretary said: “It is a political decision.”

Municipal affairs minister Asok Bhattacharya said: “Tourism, education and the economy of the hills are suffering. I appeal to the Morcha to speak to the administration.”