This youth brigade, GJM’s general secretary Roshan Giri said, will be formed to “raise the drooping morale of the youth here”. They will be trained to maintain law and order in the Hills, GJM members said. Giri added, “If the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) can have their own youth forces, why can’t we?” His colleagues said the people of the Hills have “lost faith in the state’s police machinery”, and will raise their own cadre to guard peace in the upper regions.

However, Writers’ Buildings is not yet worried, but does feel the GJM leadership is taking the law in their own hands. A Home department official said, “Administration in the Hills has collapsed.”

The recruitment of the GPs will begin from June 22, a Morcha spokesperson said.

Two thousand young men and women will be selected for the purpose and then deployed in phases.

The force will have 1,300 men and 700 women. While the age of the men have been fixed between 18 and 30 years, the women will be younger — between 17 and 24.

The three sub-divisions of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong as well as the Terai, Dooars and Siliguri will be manned by this force.

The former servicemen of the Gorkhas are in charge of the enrollment process.

The youths will undergo a six-week course in crowd and disaster management, assisting tourists, community service and maintaining law and order. They will then be deployed in various regions.

A few of them will also be “officially” granted permission to carry a kukri and a lathi.

The indefinite bandh in the Hills, meanwhile, entered its fourth day on Thursday. Morcha chief Bimal Gurung said he had received Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s invite for talks in Kolkata but would prefer to speak to the Centre.

The GJM press secretary, Benoy Tamang, said the bandh will be called off or relaxed depending on the Centre’s response. “We have no objections if the state joins these talks,” he added.