Minor incidents mar Sikkim bandh

The first day of the 48-hour Sikkim bandh passed off peacefully, barring minor incidents on Tuesday.

There was some tension in Gangtok town when students gheraoed Sadar police station and damaged two vehicles. Fourteen students were arrested as a preventive measure, official sources said.

But the students claimed a deputy commissioner had slapped one demonstrator. Following the protests, patrolling in the capital was intensified.

Attendance in state and central government offices was thin and shops, business establishments and schools remained closed. All vehicles, other than government vehicles, kept off the roads.

The bandh, sponsored by the Sikkim educated unemployed and self-employed association, was supported by the opposition Congress, the Sikkim Sangram Parishad and the Sikkim Ekta Manch.

The protests are directed at the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front's decision to extend the Employment Exchange (compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act, 1959, and the government's failure to fulfil a 15-point charter of demands placed earlier. In a new development, the three opposition parties met to form a joint action committee to chalk out their future course of action.

Meanwhile, a government release clarified that the EEA is not being imposed in the state and it has written to the Centre not to apply it in Sikkim.

It reiterated that the act "is not being imposed and the question of applying it in Sikkim is also not under consideration". The release added "the protection being accorded to the people of Sikkim under Article 371(f) of the Constitution is not and cannot be diluted in any way".

The government has described the bandh as unjust and unlawful.

State Director General of Police P C Sharma and Chief Secretary K S Rao called on Governor Chaudhuri Ranvir Singh on Monday night and apprised him of the law and order situation.