The Bengal government on Tuesday took several long- and short-term decisions, including the re-creation of a separate police range for Darjeeling and extending the internet ban in the Hills, as part of a multi-pronged strategy to take the wind out of the Gorkhaland agitation.

The government meeting, chaired by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, came on a day when Gorkha Janmukti Morcha agitators hit Darjeeling's streets with a novel "tubelight protest" (in which protesters had tubelights smashed on their bare backs) and burned copies of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration accord. The broad consensus at the Nabanna meeting was that it would be best to tire out the agitation as, sooner rather than later, there would be "internal pressure" on the GJM to withdraw the bandh, which was severely inconveniencing life in the Hills. Prices of essentials have already started to skyrocket.