Y DO WE ALWAYS NEGLECT HILLS ??

Recently, for their demand of a separate state of Gorkhaland, the GJM (Gorkha Janmukti Morcha) was blocking the NH-31; and extending the blockade by an hour each successive day; this highway is almost like the neck of NE India ... it's like a gateway to sikkim and mountainous areas of North Bengal from the plains of Siliguri. Inspite of the great strategic importance of NH31, it was indeed shocking to see the negligence of the bandh and demands of GJM by the media, both print and electronic ...

I fail to understand y v only concentrate on the plains and treat hills only as entertainers for those living in plains (i.e. tourist destinations) ... we care for even 20 minutes of delhiites and make flyovers to reduce their travel time (and obviously, there's nothing wrong in that; kudos to Delhi governance for that) ; however, do we really care for so many hrs of blockade on the roads of highest strategic importance ?? and abt the condition of such roads ?? NH31, (or atleast the part that lies in West Bengal), is worse than most of the local roads in Delhi-NCR region ..

media was too busy covering the issue of Telangana, in minutest details (prob coz of the involvement of Hyderabad there); however the only news in print media that i could get abt duration of bandh declared by GJM was thru the local edition of Dainik Jagran (no news abt it even in the Kolkata edition of TOI while HT discusses the bandh with respect to the problems that tourists are facing in Darjeeling (click here)) ... and neither of them neways mentions the duration of the bandh on NH31 ..

i m not supporting (or opposing) GJM in their demand for a separate state ... all i feel is that there is more to hills than just tourism/tea/apples etc ... they deserve good roads and better infrastructure as much as ppl in plains do ... and the way media is informing ppl of the opinions/demands of both pro and anti telangana groups, the ppl in hills too deserve the same ... i met localites in Kolkata who r supportive of their cause for a separate statehood and also ppl in Siliguri who are against them ... so, whether their demand is legitimate or not cant be decided by just looking at one side of the coin ... though i wonder how many of my friends from plains even know abt the NH31 bandh and the reasons for GJM to ask for a separate statehood !!

however, i titled this blog as "Y DO WE ... " as i personally feel that media only shows what it can sell .. hence, media is just a reflection of what we want to see/read ... and if v concentrate on only plains and treat hills as just places of tourist attraction, y blame media for making news along that line ???