LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Unprecedented Brutality – Turning Darjeeling to Syria, Not Switzerland One of our readers who belongs to the Gorkha Marwari community writes… “With the Video I saw today in regards to protest of the people and the lathi charge ordered by the SP, it clearly shows what the state government has planned […]

Kolkata, June 5 (IANS) Coming down heavily on the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration – the development body in the north West Bengal hills, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced a special audit to check how it has utilised the government aids and a punishment ifany discrepancies are found. “I have decided to run a special […]

SHOCK and AWE: In Lathi-charge Police Sends a Message – ‘Behave or We Will Make You’ The Mamata Banerjee government is focusing for the time being on two components in Darjeeling: collate actionable intelligence on the Gorkha Janmutki Morcha and send a message that law-keepers will not hesitate to use force to nip any attempt […]

BJP demands peace committee to contain violence in Darjeeling KOLKATA: The BJP today criticised the West Bengal government for failing to contain violence in the Darjeeling hills and demanded that a peace committee be formed to restore peace. “The TMC administration has completely failed to contain violence in the hills. There was no shut down […]

No backing out of 3-language norm, says Mamata The Mamata Banerjee government isn’t going to back out on making Bengali compulsory in schools. On Saturday, the chief minister insisted that students with English or Hindi and even Nepali (for Hills students) as first language should have Bengali as a compulsory paper. Banerjee, however, didn’t specify […]

PERSPECTIVE: “Bengali is not our language” Writes: Wangchuk Bhutia On 16th  May,  West  Bengal Chief  Minister  Mamata  Banerjee announced that Bengali will  be made a compulsory subject in all schools across  the state  as  part  of  a  three-language  formula. “Students  have  the  freedom to take  any  language  of  their  choice  as  a  first  language, second […]

Former GNLF leader and ex- MLA Mrs Shanta Chettri, who has been nominated as Trinamul Congress candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections, stood by the state government’s decision to introduce Bengali language in schools and said that there is no harm in Learning a new language. Moreover, according to the minister, Arup Biswas, Bengali will […]

Writes: Upendra for TheDC The strike in Darjeeling, held two days ago has been termed ‘a success’ by GJM, while TMC has called it an ‘absolute failure.’ What is funny is that almost all the Bengal based news media, other than the ones based in North Bengal, have toed the official line and reported that the […]

KOLKATA: Gurung of Gorkha Janamukti Morcha made a last ditched effort to make his presence felt and give fresh air to the now dormant Gorkhaland movement by calling for a 12-hour bandh in the Darjeeling Hills on September 28. The objective of the bandh is to demand details of Rs 4,000 crore spent in hills […]

Trinamool magic won’t work in Darjeeling hills: JAP Darjeeling, Sept. 26: In an obvious sign of relations souring up between the Jan Andolan Party and the Trinamool Congress, the JAP today rebuffed the TMC’s attempts to make inroads in the hills, asserting no national-level party would be able to usurp power in the region. The […]

Why has the demand for Gorkhaland returned to Darjeeling? Written by Aniruddha Ghosal The demand for a seperate Gorkha state is an issue that since its first origins in the 1970s has dictated politics in the hills. September 28, 2016 In 2009, Mamata Banerjee’s proximity to Bimal Gurung was a cause of great concern for […]

23rd Sep 2016 Darjeeling Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) chief Bimal Gurung has threatened to go for a bandh in the Hills on 23 September if Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee fails to give detail break up of this Rs 4000 crore which, according to the chief minister, has been given to the GTA. “You carry […]

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday declared Kalimpong in the Darjeeling hills as the 21st district of the state. So far, Kalimpong used to be a sub-division under the Darjeeling district. Mamata, who is on a three day tour to north Bengal made the announcement while addressing the locals at the Lepcha Board […]

NO!! AAY Ration Cards Won’t Make You A Refugee – Know the TRUTH About AAY Ration Cards Writes: Upendra Darjeeling is a strange land, here people don’t bother with issues that should actually concern them, but they will happily believe in rumors, and start to outrage. Some of you may remember when a rumor started […]

Amitava Banerjee, HT, 31 July 2016, Darjeeling: At the time when Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has been labelling the creation of numerous development boards as “divide and rule policy” of the state government, the Biswakarma Youth Association (BYA) has rallied for the development boards saying development activities of these boards will result in the uplift of […]

Writes Bireswar Banerjee Siliguri, Aug. 24: Mamata Banerjee today termed as “political gimmick” Bimal Gurung’s recent announcement that he would quit the GTA within three months. The GTA chief executive had said on August 18 that he would quit the hill body “in the next two to two-and-a-half months” and start an agitation for a separate […]

Darjeeling 12th July 2016: For Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian President Darjeeling is not just merely a hill station. For the President who is presently in Darjeeling, the famous hill station—known for Tea, Tourism and Toy Train—is ‘mini India’. Mukherjee was responding to the state reception hosted by the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at […]

Writes Swareena Gurung Darjeeling 13 Jul 2016 Jubilation erupted among the Kami, Damai and Sarki communities when chief minister Mamata Banerjee today announced their respective development boards at Chowrasta in Darjeeling. The chief minister made this announcement at a programme organised to celebrate the 202nd birth anniversary of illustrious Nepali poet, Bhanu Bhakta Acharya To […]