A car with a GL plate below its real number after the check. (Kundan Yolmo)

Siliguri/Darjeeling, Oct. 18: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha activists today blocked vehicles entering Darjeeling district without “Gorkhaland” number plates, forcing most drivers to switch to GL numbers.

Vehicles coming via Sukna and Sevoke were told to go back to the plains if they only had WB (West Bengal) number plates. “We will not allow any vehicle to enter the hills without a GL number plate,” said Binay Tamang, Morcha press and publicity secretary.

The outfit has opened camps at Sukna, about 10km from Siliguri, and other points where hill-bound vehicles can get GL numbers. From these camps, activists are running their “checks” on vehicles during this peak tourist season.

“We are intercepting every vehicle with a WB number plate. In case they have a GL registration, we are insisting that they change the number,” said Madhusudan Thapa, secretary of the Morcha’s Siliguri subdivision.

“Those who don’t have the registration need to get it from the camp office. They have to fill out a form, pay Rs 30 to Rs 50, take the number and write it on stickers pasted on the WB number plate.”

Hundreds of vehicles were stopped and most drivers took the GL numbers. A few, however, returned to Siliguri.

Tamang said the vehicles of the defence forces, police, district magistrate’s office, forest and health departments and the media have been spared, as have been trucks carrying goods to the hills.

In Siliguri, minister Asok Bhattacharya condemned the Morcha’s “anti-national” move. Citu said that if the government did not act, it would not allow vehicles to go to the hills from October 22.

Amra Bangali, opposed to the Morcha’s statehood demand, has threatened an indefinite strike in the proposed Gorkhaland areas from October 20. Bangla Bangla Bhasa Bachao Samiti has called a 24-hour strike on October 22 in north Bengal.