Madhyamik examinees on their way to the centre in Kalimpong on Wednesday. Picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha

Siliguri, Feb. 20: Reaz Rehman, a director of the Transcom Group of companies, one of the biggest business conglomerates from Bangladesh, was in for a rude shock when he landed in Bagdogra Airport this afternoon.

“After arriving here, I came to know that an indefinite shutdown has begun in the hills from today. More than a hundred of our employees are here for a two-day conference in Darjeeling that starts tomorrow. The bandh has thrown all our plans in disarray,” Rehman said.

“I can’t decide what to do. You have any suggestions?” the director asked from his room in a Siliguri hotel.

The shutdown in the hills has been called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which is protesting against the proposed Sixth Schedule status for Darjeeling and demanding the removal of Subash Ghisingh as the caretaker administrator of the DGHC.

The Transcom Group is into a number of businesses, including tea, distribution, manufacturing and media — its publication include The Daily Star and Prothom Alo — besides bottling soft drinks for Pepsico in Bangladesh.

“The bandh is doing untold damage to the region’s tourism industry,” said Samrat Sanyal, a partner of Nature Beyond, which is handling the group.

“We had not anticipated that things would come to such a pass. The bandh was called at a time when the visitors had left Bangladesh and were already on their way here,” added Sanyal, who is also a senior member of Eastern Himalayan Travel and Tour Operators’ Association, an apex body of stakeholders in north Bengal.

The Transcom team is not alone. A number of tourists have had to cancel their trips because of to the bandh.

“We were expecting two groups — one of 18 members and another of 24 — to arrive today,” said Animesh Chakraborty, the manager (operations) of Help Tourism. “Both cancelled their programme because of the bandh.”

The turmoil in the hills looks set to affect tourist inflow for the coming months as well. “Generally, by this time of the year, we get a large number of bookings for March and April,” Chakraborty said. “But this time there has been none so far. People are afraid to come here.”

“We take the responsibility of bringing out the tourists who are stranded in the hills,” said Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri. “We will not stop others from coming to Darjeeling, but what will they do when there is a bandh everywhere?”