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| Mamata Banerjee, flanked by her cabinet colleagues and the chief secretary, at an administrative meeting in Siliguri; (Below) a rally before the inauguration of Uttar Banga Utsav on Friday. Pictures by Pradip Sanyal and Kundan Yolmo |
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Darjeeling, Feb. 10: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president will meet Mamata Banerjee in Siliguri tomorrow and take up with the chief minister the delay in forming the administrative arrangement for the Darjeeling hills.
The talks come a day before the Morcha holds rallies across the hills to demand an early creation of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.
Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said: “We will meet the chief minister at the NHPC guest house in Siliguri tomorrow. There is a strong possibility of our party president (Bimal Gurung) leading the delegation.”
Sources in the party said Gurung would leave for Siliguri tomorrow and meet the chief minister.
The Morcha had been invited to the inauguration of Uttar Banga Utsav in Siliguri today and the party was represented by Giri.
Asked about the agenda of the meeting, Giri said: “It will definitely be the GTA.”
The hill outfit has of late started attacking the state government for the delay in the formation of the GTA. The party even set a deadline of March 27 for the creation of the autonomous set-up and decided to hold rallies across the hills to protest the delay.
The meeting between Mamata and Gurung assumes significance as the government is unlikely to put in place the GTA before the deadline expires. One of the major stumbling blocks to the formation of the GTA is the inability of the high-powered territorial committee — constituted to look into the Morcha’s demand to bring certain mouzas in the plains under the GTA — to submit its report before March 27.
The committee, headed by Justice (retd) Shyamal Sen, was expected to place its recommendations before the government by February end. But given the complexity of the issue, the tenure of the panel has been extended by six months, a move which did not go down well with the Morcha.
Gurung even threatened to withdraw four representatives of the Morcha from the committee, if around 400 Gorkha-dominated mouzas were not brought under the GTA. The mouzas are scattered across the Dooars and the Terai.
The panel has called all those who are for and against the inclusion of the plains mouzas in the GTA to a meeting in Calcutta on February 24. The Morcha wants the GTA to become a reality as early as possible because of rival parties’ attempts to make a comeback in the hills taking advantage of the complex situation.
The party’s anxiety could be gauged from the statement of a top leader on tomorrow’s meeting. “We are sticking to our deadline. Let us see what the chief minister has to say. We are hoping that the outcome of the meeting will be positive,” said the Morcha leader.
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