GJMM threatens ofrelaunching hunger strike

Siliguri, Feb 14 (UNI) The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJMM) today threatened to go for ''hunger strike'' again from February 16 if the Centre did not concede their demands at the earliest.

Morcha Secretary Roshan Giri said, '' We will relaunch our hunger strike from Saturday af the Union Government does not meet with our demand. '' The GJMM postponed its strike on the seventh day yesterday following an ''assurance'' from the West Bengal Government to look into its 11-point charter of demands.

Mr Giri led a seven-member delegation to meet Chief Secretary Amit Kiran Deb Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray yesterday and demanded that GNLF supremo Subash Ghising be removed as head of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, an autonomous body, and that the Sixth Schedule status not be conferred on Darjeeling.

The Morcha, a breakaway faction of the Gorkha National Liberation Front, had been trying to revive a movement in the Darjeeling hills for separate statehood.

Meanwhile, police here said all the Central and State Government offices remained closed following the GJMM-sponsored indefinite strike.

However, educational institutions and Banks had been exempted from the purview of the bandh.

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