Govt invites GTA forum for talks on strike

Rajesh Lakra (second from right) and other Parishad leaders at the district collectorate in Jalpaiguri on Monday. Picture by Biplab Basak

Siliguri, April 16: The state government will tomorrow hold talks with representatives of organisations which have called a strike in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts on April 18 and 19 for the inclusion of the Dooars and Terai in the set-up for the hills.

The invitation for the talks at Writers’ Buildings was sent to John Barla, the convener of the Joint Action Co-ordination Committee that has called the strike. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha is a constituent of the committee.

North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb said the government would request the leaders of the committee to withdraw the strike as disruptive activities would hit the economic growth of the region. “The government is relentlessly trying to dissuade all organisations from calling strikes. We will hold talks with the John Barla group (of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad) and other associations tomorrow and request them to call off the strike,” said Deb.

“We would like to tell them that the government is not against rallies and other forms of agitation, but they should refrain from strikes or any other disruptive activity which will have a negative effect on the region’s economy or will deteriorate law and order.”

The committee had called the strike in response to a shutdown announced by a forum of outfits on April 10 and 11 to protest the demand to bring the Terai and Dooars under the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. However, the anti-GTA forum scaled down the strike to one day (April 10) at the request of industries minister Partha Chatterjee.

Barla said a seven-member delegation from the committee would attend the meeting tomorrow.

“We have received an invitation from minister Gautam Deb. A seven-member delegation will sit with ministers and officials. If the government appeals to us to withdraw the strike, the delegates will consult with other leaders before making any announcement. They will ask the ministers to promise us in writing that 349 mouzas in the plains will be made a part of the GTA,” said Barla.

The official faction of the Parishad said its supporters would hit the streets if the Barla group and other outfits went ahead with the 48-hour strike.

“We had scaled down our strike by one day on the basis of the government’s assurance that there would be no fresh problems in the Terai and Dooars. However, if these people (Barla and others) observe the strike, we will not sit idle and scuttle the strike with the help of the common people,” said Rajesh Lakra, the general secretary of the Dooars-Terai regional unit of the Parishad.(TT)