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Central forces to stay put in Darjeeling for now

Kolkata, The Calcutta High Court has once again come to the rescue of the West Bengal Government with Justice Harish Tandon today ordering stay on the withdrawal of central forces from Darjeeling.
The court asked Centre to file an affidavit on the issue by October 23, and told the West Bengal Government to submit its reply on October 26. The court would now hear the case on October 27.
West Bengal had moved the High Court asking for stay on the withdrawal of central forces in the interest of maintenance of law and order in the trouble-torn Darjeeling hills. On Sunday, the Ministry of Home Affairs had said that it would withdraw 10 companies of central forces from October 16 and the remaining five from October 20 onwards.
However, after a phone call from the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the latter agreed to withdraw seven companies instead of 10. Banerjee strongly protested against the decision of the Centre and said it was a unilateral decision and amounted to violation of the spirit of federal structure.
The West Bengal BJP has supported the Centre’s move to withdraw paramilitary forces from Darjeeling. Blaming Mamata for stoking fire in Darjeeling and tormenting the people, the party said the central forces should not be used for intimidation.
“The Centre has the right to decide where to deploy central forces. It can’t be used for anti-people activities and torturing the commoners. Mamata should not expect that the central forces would handle the hostility and agitation of people that was created because of her government’s anti-people policies,” state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said.
Ghosh said during his recent visit to Darjeeling, people requested him to ask the Centre to withdraw central forces as these were being used indiscriminately against the locals.
It may be recalled that in July, the court had directed a reluctant Centre to provide four companies of the CRPF, in addition to 11 companies of the central forces already deployed there, to quell violence in the hills. The turmoil in the Darjeeling hills began in June after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made an announcement about making Bengali compulsory in all state-run schools.

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