Fresh tribal campaign against GTA

Siliguri, April 29: The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad will launch a fresh campaign in the Dooars and Terai to counter the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s bid to rope in the adivasis to support the proposed Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. The Parishad today announced that it would hold indoor meetings and distribute leaflets among the people ahead of the outfit’s rallies in Siliguri and the Dooars in May to oppose the Morcha’s demand to include more than 400 mouzas in the plains in the GTA. “Ahead of the public meetings next month, we have decided to organise a campaign across the Dooars and Terai by holding small indoor sessions at different places and distributing leaflets to appeal to all not to fall prey to the Morcha’s tactics. Our leaders and members will go around in tea gardens and villages and tell people to oppose Morcha’s demand to extend the territorial jurisdiction of the GTA beyond the Darjeeling hills,” said Rajesh Lakra, the secretary of the Dooars-Terai unit of the Parishad. The Morcha has been telling tribal people that the region will gain if it is brought under the GTA. The hill outfit had called a meeting at Nagrakata in the Dooars on April 22 to press for its demand, but it could not be held as the government had denied permission. John Barla, an influential tribal leader, is backing the Morcha’s campaign in the plains. The Parishad will hold meetings in Siliguri’s Bagha Jatin Park on May 17 and at Gayerkata or Malbazar in the Dooars on May 27 to counter the Morcha’s agitation. The meetings will be held under the banner of the Dooars-Terai Joint Action Committee, an umbrella organisation of 26 outfits, which are against the hill party’s demand for the inclusion of the plains mouzas in the GTA. Lakra said the thrust of the Parishad’s new campaign would be to stop the people from being carried away by the Morcha’s claim that the adivasis would get a fair deal under the GTA. “There are several state and central government schemes for the welfare of the tribal people. The Parishad will tell the people that we should concentrate our campaign on the proper implementation of these schemes.” After the Morcha had been denied permission to hold the meeting at Nagrakata, the party had called an indefinite shutdown in the plains from April 23. The strike led to violence in Oodlabari and Banarahat, where vehicles and shops were torched. On Tuesday, the Morcha relaxed the strike for 36 hours. The shutdown was later deferred. Asked whether the Morcha had gained ground in the Dooars through its strike, Lakra said: “Not at all. We had already showed our strength by enforcing strikes across the region on April 10 and 22. We received spontaneous response from all people. They oppose the Morcha’s claim to the plains.”