Morcha supporters burn an effigy of Ghisingh in Darjeeling. (Suman Tamang)

Darjeeling/Kurseong, Feb. 24: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today decided to keep for a week the tea gardens and the cinchona plantation outside the purview of the indefinite bandh.

“The party has decided to let gardens and cinchona plantations remain open for the next seven days. After that, the bandh will resume in the plantations,” said Binay Tamang, press and publicity secretary of the Morcha.

Although this is the lean season, the 87 Darjeeling gardens still employ 55,000 permanent workers during the period. In the plucking season, which starts from mid-March, the gardens take an equal number of temporary workers.

The cinchona plantation has bagged orders of Rs 20 crore for this year. It is the biggest public sector undertaking in the hills and provides sustenance to around 40,000 people.

While work at the cinchona plantation had come to a grinding halt following the indefinite bandh that started on February 20, 12 of the 87 tea gardens had carried on with normal work.

Apart from essential services, the Morcha has exempted educational institutes from the bandh. The protesters today gathered at Chowrastha in Darjeeling and burnt the effigies of Subash Ghisingh and Shanta Chhetri, the GNLF MLA from Kurseong. The supporters later brought out a torch rally in the town.

In Kurseong, the Gorkha Janmukti Nari Morcha — the women’s wing of the Morcha — brought out a rally and burnt the MLA’s effigy. The Morcha has announced that like Ghisingh, Chettri, too, will not be allowed to enter the hills.

“Shanta Chettri has betrayed the people of Kurseong. She has forgotten that it is the people who elected her as the MLA with the hope that she will speak for the Gorkha community and those residing in the hills. We will not allow her to enter Kurseong,” said Prava Chettri, the secretary of the Nari Morcha.

The Morcha said the MLA’s claim during an interview to a private TV channel that all would be well once the bill on Sixth Schedule was passed, was unacceptable.

The MLA, however, said over phone from Calcutta: “I had only said Ghisingh was not scared and that the hills were in favour of the Sixth Schedule till four months ago. The Morcha supporters attacked my house and said they will not allow me to enter the hills. Is this a democratic movement?”