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| Morcha chief Bimal Gurung addresses party workers at Gymkhana Club in Darjeeling on Thursday. Picture by Suman Tamang |
Darjeeling, June 14: Bimal Gurung today described Mamata Banerjee as a “shrewd” lady who makes a lot of empty promises and said there was little chance that his party would arrive at an agreement on the mouzas during the June 16 meeting with the chief minister in Calcutta.
The Morcha chief indicated that the only way out was to intensify the statehood agitation in the days to come and appealed to party workers to remain united and be ready for any situation.
“A 21-member delegation will meet the chief minister on June 16 but I have little hope of the delegation reaching a positive agreement. Mamata Banerjee is a shrewd lady who only indulges in lip service. Her announcements for Darjeeling would have filled up two-three boxes but in reality nothing much has happened,” Gurung told his party workers at the Gymkhana Club hall here today.
This was his first public outburst since the disclosure of the Justice Shyamal Sen committee report that recommended to the government the inclusion of five plains mouzas in the new hill set-up. The Morcha had demanded that 396 mouzas from the Dooars and Terai be made part of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.
The Morcha leader warned the delegates, who would be led by party general secretary Roshan Giri and the four Morcha MLAs, even against smiling at Mamata. “You should not even smile at her and not be influenced by her smile. Look straight into her eyes while discussing with the chief minister and your heads should not bow down,” he said indicating that he would not be attending the scheduled meeting.
“The MLAs should stop building networks with state ministers and they should not attend the Assembly session which is starting soon.”
The Morcha while announced a series of agitation to protest the Sen committee report had sought an appointment with the chief minister. Mamata has agreed to meet the Morcha leaders on Saturday.
“It is not a report of the 10 member committee but of a one-man commission,” Gurung said referring to the Sen committee’s recommendations. The territory report was drawn up by Justice Shyamal Sen alone. The other members of the committee were not privy to the recommendation nor the census report based on which it was drawn up.
The Morcha’s agitation programme includes resignation of chairman and councillors of hill municipalities on June 27.But today Gurung said: “The programme of civic chairmen resigning from their posts must be pushed back and done only at the last moment. The moment the civic chiefs and the councillors resign, the government will appoint their sub-divisional officers in their places and they will play their own games in the hills,” said Gurung.
The hill party warned the state government against forcing elections to the GTA without settling the territory issue. “If they force the elections on us, we will close down the offices of the district magistrate and the sub-divisional officers. If they still try to conduct the polls, we will only ask the deaf and dumb people to contest,” said Gurung, indicating that the party would make a mockery of the polls.
The Morcha president was also angry at Mamata’s alleged ploy to force the party to accept Justice Sen’s recommendation. “Soon after announcing that only five mouzas would be included in the GTA, Trinamul floated its unit in the hills and got together all the people who were against us. They are trying to force us into submission but we will not allow this to happen. We are not afraid of being arrested or to facing bullets.”
North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb, who had held the first Trinamul meeting in the hills earlier this week, refused comment on the Morcha chief’s charges. Nearly 1,500 disgruntled Morcha and GNLF leaders with their supporters had joined Trinamul at the meeting.
“We are keeping a close watch over the entire situation but will not comment. Both our party and the government are waiting for the meeting scheduled for Saturday in Calcutta and its outcome,” said Deb, who is also the chairman of the north Bengal core committee of Trinamul.
Party insiders, however, said Trinamul was looking forward to the GTA polls. “Considering the situation, we don’t feel there is any problem in holding the GTA polls. The Morcha might take up the territory issue and launch a movement but it has nothing to do with the polls to be held within the current DGHC area. This decision was taken by the state, in consultation with Bimal Gurung’s party,” a Trinamul leader said.(TT)
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