Morcha wing to award Barla

Darjeeling, Aug. 16: The Janmukti Asthai Karmachari Sangathan has decided to award tribal leader John Barla for strengthening ties between the Gorkhas and adivasis.

Deepak Sharma, the spokesman for the Sangathan, an affiliate of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, said: “We have decided to confer this year’s Sadbhawana Award on the adivasi leader John Barla for having worked towards strengthening ties between the Gorkhas and tribal people.”

The Sangathan, whose members are contractual workers with the now defunct DGHC, had given the award to Morcha president Bimal Gurung last year.

“This year, we have invited party president Bimal Gurung as the chief guest to the event where the award will be presented to Barla. Gurung will give away the award to Barla at the Darjeeling Gymkhana Club on August 20,” said Sharma.

The move by the Morcha wing to award Barla is significant because Gurung is keen that Barla, a dissident leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad, gets prominence as a tribal face from the Dooars and Terai — areas that the Morcha wants to bring under the GTA.

Barla had first opposed the inclusion of the Dooars and Terai in any administrative unit envisaged for the hill people. He, however, made a U-turn and decided to support the Morcha’s demand to bring 397 plains mouzas under the GTA.

Although Barla had fought alongside the Morcha, he could not be nominated to the GTA Sabha as the Dooars and Terai do not fall in the GTA area.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee blocked Gurung’s effort to nominate Barla to the GTA when she nominated three Trinamul hill faces in the Sabha.

The GTA Sabha recently passed a resolution making him an “invitee” member to the Sabha. The state government has not spoken out clearly on whether it has accepted the “invitee” members.

It is likely that Barla is being felicitated by one of Morcha’s frontal organisations to keep the adivasi leader in good humour.

The Morcha’s Darjeeling subdivisional committee said it would organise a victory celebration on August 18 for winning all 45 seats in the GTA elections.