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Strike paralyses Darjeeling hills

Life was paralysed in the three hill sub-divisions of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong today following a dawn-to-dusk general strike called by the opposition front in the Darjeeling hills.

The opposition front, comprising the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists, the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League, the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the recently-floated Bharatiya Gorkha Jana Shakti and three other organisations called the strike in protest against the government's failure to control rising prices of essential commodities.

The police said markets, business establishments, educational institutions, banks and central government offices remained closed. There was poor attendance in state government offices.

The strike, however, was partial in the tea garden areas and several tea gardens in Kurseong sub-division were reportedly functioning normally. According to additional superintendent of police, Kurseong, A K Megwal, several gardens in Miric and Kurseong sub-division were open, while a few in the Terai area had closed for the day.

Tea gardens and other plantation in Kalimpong sub-division remained closed, the police said. No untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the hills so far.

Meanwhile, Sikkim remained cut off from the rest of the country since vehicular movement between the state and Siliguri passes through Kalimpong subdivision.

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