CM rejects GTA poll delay plea

March 16: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today turned down the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s plea to hold the elections to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration only after the issue of the added areas from the plains was resolved.

“The government wants to conduct the polls now, in accordance with the tripartite agreement and the GTA Act. But we, as a party, have certain compulsions,” said Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri after meeting Mamata and chief secretary Samar Ghosh separately this afternoon. “We told the chief minister about our stand. She told us the government’s point of view.”

The Morcha has called a meeting of the party’s central committee on Sunday to discuss the future course of action. The party has been insisting that the elections to the GTA be held only after the Justice Shyamal Sen committee, which is looking into the Morcha demand to include parts of the Dooars and Terai in the GTA, submits its recommendations to the government.

After the meeting with the Morcha delegation led by Giri, chief secretary Samar Ghosh said: “They told us what they had to. We told them that the agreement and the Act must be followed in letter and spirit. They were a party to the agreement and the framing of the Act. It wasn’t a rushed job. A lot of thought, discussions and deliberations went into the process before every aspect was agreed upon and finalised. There cannot be considerations to the contrary now.”

The territory committee, which also met today, decided to do a field survey of the areas demanded by the Morcha to find out if they are Gorkha-dominated.

L.B. Pariyar, one of the Morcha representatives on the committee, said: “One of the positive aspects is that a consensus has been reached to conduct a field survey to independently verify our claims to the mouzas which are dominated by the Gorkha-speaking population.”

But the district magistrate of Darjeeling Saumitra Mohan said it was not yet clear how the survey would be done. “The government will work out the modalities.”

The Morcha was also “disappointed” that the chief minister had turned down the request of ensuring one seat for the party in the Rajya Sabha.(Telegraph)