Panel push to counter plains agitation

Siliguri, April 25: The forum launched to oppose the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s territorial demand today formed an 11-member committee with the sole objective to counter the ongoing agitation by the hill party in the plains.

Leaders of the Dooars Terai Joint Action Committee, an umbrella organisation of 26 outfits, met at Shivmandir and announced the launch of the panel after a five-hour-long discussion.

Atul Roy of the Kamtapur Party and Rajesh Lakra of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad will be the convener and the joint convener of the panel respectively.

“The new committee was formed exclusively to monitor and organise our movement against the Morcha’s demands and their ongoing agitation in the Dooars. We will hold public meetings at Baghajatin Park in Siliguri and Gairkata or Malbazar in the Dooars on May 17 and 27 respectively to highlight the negative aspects of the GTA and our opposition to the inclusion of the plains mouzas in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. We will also demand that the high-powered committee (formed to make recommendations on the territorial jurisdiction of the GTA) be dissolved immediately,” Roy told journalists after the meeting.

The Morcha has been demanding that more than 400 mouzas in the plains be made part of the GTA as they are largely Gorkha dominated.

Lakra, who is also the secretary of the Dooars Terai unit of the Parishad, reiterated that the forum would thwart any attempt by the Morcha to hold a meeting in the plains.

“No area of the Dooars and Terai will be allowed to be brought under the GTA. We won’t let John Barla and the Morcha to hold meetings and rallies in the Dooars and Terai. If the administration grants them permission, we will resort to any form of agitation, be it road blockade or strike, to prevent the meeting to take place.”

The Parishad leader blamed the administration for the violence in the plains in the past two days.

“We strongly condemn the role of the administration that failed to check violence at Banarhat and Oodlabari. The breakdown in the law and order has not only affected the economy of the region but also created panic among the people,” said Lakra.

Earlier in the day, the state president of the Parishad, Birsa Tirkey, said he would seek an appointment with the chief minister to apprise her of the Morcha’s movement.

“I will seek an appointment with chief minister Mamata Banerjee next week so that I can tell her how the Morcha supporters went on the rampage in the Dooars, ransacking and setting fire to vehicles. We will also highlight the spontaneous response of the people to the Morcha’s strike call,” Tirkey said on the phone from Calcutta.(TT)