Mamata reaches plains, Darjeeling SP removed

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee descended to the plains of Darjeeling district tonight after taking stock of the situation in the hills.
She started from Darjeeling town at around 10 pm and reached Siliguri after over two hours, officials said.
Banerjee would spend the night at Uttar Kanya, the mini- secretariat in north Bengal, and monitor the situation in the hills from there, officials said.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo had stayed back at Darjeeling after holding a cabinet meeting there yesterday. She had personally intervened to ensure that vehicles were arranged for the tourists, who got stranded in the hills, to reach Siliguri.

Meanwhile, Darjeeling Superintendent of Police (SP) Amit Javalgi was removed from his post and Deputy Commissioner (Central), Kolkata Police, Akhilesh Chaturvedi, was tipped to be the new SP, said a senior Kolkata Police official.
The chief minister had earlier said a three-member team comprising senior IPS officers had been formed to look after the law-and-order situation in Darjeeling.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) had called a 12-hour strike in the hills today for the revival of the Gorkhaland agitation, while the Army was out on the streets in Darjeeling and two other hill towns -- Kalimpong and Kurseong.