Life was crippled on the second day of the 48-hour bandh called by several anti-Gorkhaland organisations on Tuesday in the foothills of the Darjeeling Himalayas and Dooars and Terai.
Markets were closed, only skeleton transport services were operating and office attendance was minimal in response to the bandh called mainly by Jana Jagaran with moral support from other similar outfits, the police said.
Mukunda Majumdar, chief of the organisation, claimed total success for the bandh which, he said, was being observed to protest against the government’s ‘move’ to include areas of adivasi-dominated Dooars and Terai under the jurisdiction of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.
The GTA was born on Monday under a treaty signed by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, spearhead of the Gorkhaland agitation, the West Bengal government and the Centre at picturesque Pintail village near here.
The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP), the voice of the adivasis in the Dooars and Terai regions, has also given its support to the bandh.
ABAVP secretary Birsa Tirkey had said before the start of the bandh that they were not against the tripartite agreement but against inclusion of areas of the two regions which the GJM is pressing for.
