Feelers on lips, Deb bound for hills - Gurung appeals to Lepchas to end hunger strike

Siliguri, Feb. 8: North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb today said he would be in Darjeeling during the strike tomorrow to stand by the people in the hills when they “need the state government beside them”. However, Deb suggested that he was willing to hold talks with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), which declined to comment on the minister’s statement. But Morcha leader Bimal Gurung appealed to “our Lepcha brothers” to withdraw their...

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Quit speech catches Morcha unawares

Darjeeling, Feb. 6: GTA Sabha chief executive Bimal Gurung had not consulted even senior leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha before announcing his decision to quit the post at a meeting here on Monday, revealed insiders in the party. The senior leaders said they were in the dark about Gurung’s intention and were stunned by his announcement at the meeting of the leaders of the Morcha’s subdivisional, block and village committees. A senior Morcha...

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Lepchas hail nod for board

RAJEEV RAVIDAS Kalimpong, Feb. 6: Around 40 Lepchas gathered at Damber Chowk near here this afternoon and burst fire crackers to express their happiness over the state cabinet’s decision to set up the Mayel Lyang Lepcha Development Board. Parties opposed to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha have welcomed the proposal of setting up the board but have expressed reservation over the name of the body. Today, the Lepchas shouted slogans praising chief minister...

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Cabinet clears Lepcha board

Feb. 5: The state cabinet today cleared a proposal to set up a Lepcha development board under the backward classes welfare department, setting up a fresh point of confrontation with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in the hills. The Morcha is opposed to the formation of any hill body outside the purview of the GTA Sabha and Bimal Gurung, the party chief and the chief executive of the GTA Sabha, had made it clear that any development board of the Lepchas...

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Golay party launched

NIRMAL MANGAR Gangtok, Feb. 4: P.S. Golay floated a new political party Sikkim Krantikari Morcha in West Sikkim today. Around 10,000 people attended the event at Soreng, Golay’s native place. Most of the members on the ad hoc committee of the new party are retired bureaucrats and dissident SDF workers. “Our leader (without naming Golay) has envisaged a vision of building a new Sikkim opposing rampant corruption. The dream has eventually come true and we are his crusaders,” said the party’s publicity secretary M.N. Dahal. “A meeting of the...

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Gurung threatens to quit GTA

VIVEK CHHETRI Darjeeling, Feb. 4: Bimal Gurung today said he would soon resign from the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Sabha, the council that runs the Darjeeling hills, so that he can devote himself fully to the statehood movement. “I will resign from the GTA in a few days. The Sabha (the 45-member elected body formed under the GTA Act) will sit for a meeting after which I will resign so that I can be fully involved in the next phase of the Gorkhaland agitation,” Gurung told a party meeting at the Darjeeling Gymkhana Club. The...

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Council caution by Morcha rivals

RAJEEV RAVIDAS Kalimpong, Feb. 3: The CPRM and the ABGL have expressed qualified support to the demand for the formation of the proposed Lepcha Development Council. The CPRM said it would support the formation of the council if the state government didn’t have the ulterior motive of dividing the hill population. The ABGL backed the move saying any arrangement that would ensure development of Lepcha culture and language would be welcome even if it was under the state’s control. Tara Mani Rai, the CPRM secretary, said: “We have started a discussion...

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