900 cops for GJMM public meet

Statesman News Service SILIGURI, May 6: The Darjeeling district administration has called in additional police forces in view of the Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha’s public meeting at the Indira Gandhi Maidan in Siliguri tomorrow. According to police sources, 900 of the extra forces, summoned from the adjoining sub-divisions, would be deployed in and around the venue adjacent to the National Highway (NH) 31. The rest would be kept on standby at the police reserve, Mallaguri in the town. While the GJMM spokesperson Mr Binoy Tamang said that they were expecting a gathering of about two and half lakh supporters at the Siliguri meeting tomorrow, the administration is assuming a gathering of nearly a lakh. According to the IGP (north Bengal), Mr KL Tamta, 12 IPS officers including the Jalpaiguri SP and 24 DSPs would be on duty at the meeting venue and elsewhere in Siliguri during the meeting hours tomorrow.There would be five assistance booths for guiding the crowd, which would be jointly manned by the police and the GJMM volunteers. As per the GJMM spokesperson, about 4,000 party volunteers including a sizeable number of Gorkha ex-servicemen would be assisting the police in maintaining the crowd. “Eleven speakers would address the gathering,” he said.