Giri flies to Delhi for talks

VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, July 19: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri left for Delhi to meet Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde over Gorkhaland on a day its youth wing decided to start collecting donations from people to renew the statehood agitation.

Priyabardan Rai, general secretary of the Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha, today said: “An emergency meeting of the Yuva Morcha was held in Darjeeling today and we have… decided to start collecting donations from the public from tomorrow. We will accept any amount the public donates for the cause.”

The fund is being collected as the Yuva Morcha has decided to start a series of agitations, including a public meeting at Kurseong on July 23.

In the past, the Morcha had done such fundraising rounds.

“During the meeting we decided to form teams of Yuva Morcha leaders for Mirik, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong that will oversee our future programmes,” Rai said.

The Yuva Morcha had yesterday demanded the dissolution of the GTA and a renewed agitation for statehood, on which it plans to write to Morcha chief Bimal Gurung.

“We will write a letter to our party president telling him that we do not want GTA and that our struggle for Gorkhaland must carry on,” Rai said.

Sources said yesterday the Yuva Morcha had upped the pitch for statehood with the blessings of Gurung.

The Morcha has tied its movement to the statehood demand for Telangana.

Yesterday, home minister Shide said a decision on Telangana would be reached “soon”.

Giri’s visit to Delhi to meet Shide is being seen in this light in the hills.

The six-member team led by Giri consists of the three hill MLAs — Trilok Dewan, Rohit Sharma and Harka Bahadur Chhetri — along with Darjeeling civic chief Amar Singh Rai and central committee member D.K. Pradhan.

Giri said: “Union home minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde had given us an appointment at 1pm on Thursday. We, however, could not make it yesterday and once we reach Delhi we will try and meet the home minister as early as possible.”

The Morcha believes that the Centre is on the verge of creating a separate state of Telangana.