Barring some sporadic incidents of violence and arson, the first day of the indefinite bandh called by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in Darjeeling, passed off peacefully on Monday.
While the headquarters of the hill district remained incident free, the bandh supporters ransacked the offices of PWD, Electricity and Gram Panchayats in other parts of the districts.
Our correspondent reports that agitators tried to set fire to the BDO office at Bijanbari in the early hours of the day. Later in the afternoon, the supporters barged inside the PWD and Electricity department offices situated in Kurseong and Kalimpong area. All the government offices all over Darjeeling remained open today.
Expressing her strong resentment over the bandh, the Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee said in Kolkata that only a handful leaders of Morcha are trying to create troubles in the hills while majority of the local people do not support the disruptive activities.
The Morcha leader, Roshan Giri on the other hand, stated that their movement is totally democratic and they did not indulge in violence.