GJM has condemned the incident.
Unidentified people broke into Roy Villa in Darjeeling, the place where Sister Nivedita used to stay in Darjeeling, vandalised the place and even looted the donation box which contained about Rs 60,000. Sister Nivedita breathed her last in this historic Roy Villa. Sister Nivedita, a social worker, teacher and philosopher was Swami Vivekananda's most famous disciple.
“I had gone to Siliguri with other monks on Wednesday with other monks to bring essentials and edibles. I was informed over the phone about the incident this morning. It is an unprecedented incident,” Swami Nitya Satyanand, secretary, houses Ramkrishna Mission Nivedita Educational and Cultural Centre.
It was found out that offenders entered the three-storey Roy Villa on Lebong Cart Road of Darjeeling. Shattered window panes lied all over the prayer room of Sister Nivedita. Furniture have also been damaged.
Pradeep, the gardener and kitchen help discovered it early on Thursday morning when he reported for work. “We work throughout the day and leave the place at 6 pm after locking the gate. This morning when I entered the building, I saw broken glass strewn all over the place and the donation box was broken,” he said.
District police authorities said that a probe has been initiated into the matter. Darjeeling SP Akhilesh Chaturvedi said, “Prima facie it looks like the motive was theft and it has nothing to do with the ongoing agitation.”
GJM leader Roshan Giri condemned the act. “We condemn the incident. GJM supporters dont believe in such a thing. Police must investigate and nab offenders,” he said.
The Roy Villa is about 115-year old building. Sister Nivedita died here in October 1911. The building was in a poor condition till in 2012 the Mamata Banerjee-government ordered a repair work. It was brought under Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) but in 2013 it was converted into Nivedita Educational and Cultural Center (NECC) and Ramakrishna Mission of Belur Math was given the responsibility to run and maintain it as GJM chief Bimal Gurung had engineered to swap it with Tenzing Norgay Youth hostel.
NECC arranges for free tuition, food and co-curricular activities for underprivileged children of tea garden of the neighbourhood. During the ongoing strike at the hills, monks of NECC had been feeding over 100 people. Sister Nivedita had arrived at Darjeeling in 1903 with botanist Jagdish Chandra Bose and his wife Abala Basu, who had rented the property from Dawarka Nath Roy, a Calcutta resident.
Darjeeling struggling to go back to normalcy:
After West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met leaders of parties of the hills on September 12, attempts were made on Thursday by police and members of the administration to open shops and other business units in Kurseong but it was soon thwarted as supporters of Bimal Gurung took out a rally forcing shops to down shutter once again.
In Darjeeling too, former municipal corporation of ward 25 Dinesh Gurung oversaw a drive to open shops on Thursday but as soon as he left the place, shop owners shut their establishments to avoid trouble. Eye-witnesses said that the plan had backfired because street-side makeshift shop owners who had been selling mostly foodstuff have vanished as well, anticipating trouble.
Government offices saw fair turnout and teachers also returned to schools but parents decided to keep students away from schools. Government buses were seen plying between Darjeeling and Siliguri escorted by police vehicles.
Later on Thursday Gurung released a recorded statement saying that Bandh should be further intensified and those trying to open their shops should do at their own risk. “Some opportunist leaders with the help of police have managed to coerce government employees to join office. I would urge school authorities, tea garden owners and the business community to support the agitation. Those who are trying to end it are doing it at their own risk,” he said.
He said that the party’s youth and women’s wing should hit the streets and prevent any forceful attempt to open shops and that people should be counselled to let go of Dasai and Tihar festivals for a greater cause. “The on-going struggle is for the Gorkha community and our land. To win in that we might have to endure inconveniences. Students might lose a year. Festivals would have to be forgone. I am equally sad but that is how a movement takes place,” he added.
Sending a note or warning to the state government he said that Mamata did not want a tripartite talk. “She is happy for the GTA to function with the help of some traitor leaders but if the Centre did not do something soon, the youth members who I have been pacifying for so long might get out of control,” he said and added that people should have patience because with the kind of feedback he was receiving some positive change would take place in 10-15 days.
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