People led by the Anit Thapa group today put up protests at different railway stations, both in the Hills and the Plains, against the central government’s plans to monetise the World Heritage Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR).
The protest programme saw a good turnout of people, who held black flags and wore black bands in their arms. They also carried placards protesting the central government move.
“Such protest programmes were held in eight railway stations of the DHR right from Darjeeling town up to Sukna near Siliguri in the plains. If the DHR is taken over by a private company and if changes are made to the railways here, we could lose the UNESCO heritage tag. We have started with this protest programme today, and if we do not get any positive response we will see what else we can do to pressure the government,” said Keshav Raj Pokhrel, the leader of the Anit Thapa group. Signature campaigns were also held as part of the protest programme.
The DHR has been listed as one of the state-owned assets to be monetised by the central government under its National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP). While the Centre has said that NMP does not mean privatization, it has also specifically mentioned that the ownership of assets would remain with the government and that private sector partners would have to hand the assets back to the government after a certain period of time.
The Centre has further said that any heritage nature of the assets would have to be preserved by the private partner operating them. On the other hand, Anit Thapa, who has already resigned from the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha faction that he led, today announced the formation of a new party on 9 September. Mr Thapa said that intellectuals and sports personalities would be part of the new party.