Blame on CM for hill protest

AVIJIT SINHA Siliguri, Jan. 29: The CPM said Mamata Banerjee’s failure to understand the sentiments of the people in the hills and disregard for the GTA in the conduct of the Uttarbanga Utsav triggered the protest at the inauguration of the fest today. “The chief minister’s overconfidence and her pathetic understanding of the sentiments of the people in the hills led to today’s incident. In an unabashed manner, she had ignored the GTA and its representatives, undermined the autonomous body and gone ahead with the Uttarbanga Utsav in Darjeeling,” said former state minister and CPM leader Asok Bhattacharya. He said the festival had been organised in GTA territory without involving the hill body. “Bimal Gurung and others were simply invitees to the event, which has left the people disgruntled. Interestingly, all departments, except north Bengal development, which are partners of the festival, have been transferred to the GTA. We don’t believe Mamata Banerjee was unaware of these facts but it is her overconfidence that has led to the re-emergence of the crisis in the hills,” said Bhattacharya.

The CPM leader said the distribution of secured land pattas, and the opening of a tourist spot at Lamahata in Kalimpong and a minority building in Darjeeling should have been done by the GTA, and not the state, as the departments concerned were run by the hill body. Surjya Kanta Mishra, the leader of Opposition in the Assembly, said in Islampur that the chief minister was surely performing shradh in the name of festivals. “She is using public money of the cash-strapped government to perform the shradh of the common people.” Reacting to the incident in Darjeeling, the Kamtapur People’s Party said the Rajbangshi people in north Bengal were as aggrieved as the hill people. ‘If nothing is done for them by the state government, the chief minister might have to witness similar protests in future,” said KPP president Atul Roy. The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad also said tribal people were becoming restless with the non-fulfilment of commitments by the government and warned of a movement against the rulers. (TT)

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Morcha team meets Advani

New Delhi, Jan. 29: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders will submit three documents on the Gorkhaland struggle to BJP leader L.K. Advani this week to push the party to take a clear stand on the statehood demand. A group of Morcha leaders, along with MLAs from the hills and GTA Sabha members, led by Roshan Giri called on Advani at his residence today. Over the next three days, the Morcha leadership will fine-tune and submit three documents to Advani titled “Case history of Gorkhaland”, “Why Gorkhaland” and “Gorkhaland movement”. “We will submit the three documents so that the BJP can take a clear stand (on the issue),” Giri told The Telegraph today after a 30-minute meeting with the senior BJP leader.

“The BJP has been in favour of smaller states. After all, the party formed Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh,” Giri said. MLAs Trilok Dewan and Rohit Sharma and two GTA Sabha members also met Advani along with Giri today. A bill for the creation of GTA was passed in the Bengal Assembly in 2011, making way for the autonomous hill body. Today, after the meeting with the Morcha leaders, BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Prakash Javadekar said: “It is a case for justice to be done.” Although BJP leaders have time and again said that the statehood issue should be viewed more “sympathetically”, the party has not been clear about its stand on carving out a separate state out of Bengal. The BJP’s election manifesto in 2009 included addressing the long-pending demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland but stopped short of a commitment. “We will sympathetically examine and appropriately consider the long-pending demands of the Gorkhas, the Adivasis and other people of Darjeeling district and Dooars region,” read the BJP manifesto. The party’s leader Jaswant Singh even won the Lok Sabha elections from Darjeeling. The Congress and the CPM are not known to support the statehood demand. While the Congress wants an alternative mechanism, the CPM is opposed to the demand for a separate state. Earlier this month, the Morcha had announced its final battle demanding a separate state after the hill party leadership suspected that the Centre was keen on carving out a separate state of Telangana. Giri had said that it would be a “relentless” struggle and continue till Gorkhaland was achieved. The hill party had organised a dharna in New Delhi last week demanding Gorkhaland. The Morcha had called on Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and urged him to announce the formation of Gorkhaland along with Telangana. But with the UPA government treading cautiously on Telangana, and the Centre toying with idea of proposing a GTA-like model there, the Morcha wants to push the BJP to come clear on the statehood issue. “We hope that in the next two days we will submit the “Case history of Gorkhaland” to Advaniji. Our dharna at Jantar Mantar will continue,” said Giri. He added that the Morcha had been seeking permission for the sit-in protest on a day-to-day basis. The agitators have been granted permission by local authorities in Delhi for a dharna tomorrow, said the Morcha leader.(TT)

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Hills wipe CM’s smile - Mamata livid after slogans greet darjeeling declaration

Darjeeling, Jan. 29: Disbelief and anger washed over Mamata Banerjee today as the chief minister ran into a chorus of “We want Gorkhaland” slogans minutes after declaring that “Darjeeling is a part of Bengal” at Chowrastha Mall. The well-intentioned but ill-timed assertion left a blot on one of the few achievements of the chief minister: peace in Darjeeling, which Mamata tomtoms frequently by saying “the hills are smiling”. The chief minister could have easily steered clear of the thinly concealed references to statehood at a time the Telangana debate is back on the boil. In any case, today’s event in Darjeeling was a festival inauguration where statehood was never on the agenda. So taken aback was Mamata by the backlash from the audience that she left the venue 15 minutes after cultural events commenced. The chief minister, whose partiality to events cultural is well documented, did not wait to listen to even Anjan Dutta singing. The unparalleled events unfolded after Mamata underscored repeatedly during her 10-minute speech that Darjeeling was a part of Bengal.

“Darjeeling hamara hissa hai. GTA kaam kar raha hai, (Darjeeling is part of us. GTA is doing its job),” Mamata said. GTA stands for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, the autonomous body that runs the hills. “Darjeeling should remain peaceful. Anything that can stop the development of Darjeeling should not happen. We have reached here after much hardship. I have been hearing certain things for the last few days. I want Darjeeling to remain peaceful,” she added. As soon as she finished, the slogans rent the air and at least two persons raised placards with references to Gorkhaland. Turning livid, Mamata grabbed the microphone and chided the 2,000-strong audience: “This is a government programme. It will send a wrong message that Darjeeling is going for something else. This is not your party programme, this is not my party programme. I am rough and tough.” Few can contest Mamata’s — or the overzealous state police’s — skills at “crowd management”. Shiladitya Chowdhury, the villager who was arrested in West Midnapore for asking the chief minister uncomfortable questions last August, should know. But in Darjeeling this afternoon, the slogans didn’t die down as more people joined the chorus with some holding aloft posters and waving the green-white-yellow flag of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM). Mamata looked stunned initially. Then she tried to calm the audience of GTA office-bearers, members and the general public. “This is a political slogan. You have the right to raise it in your party programme. Not here,” she said. Mamata turned towards Bimal Gurung, the GJM leader and GTA chief executive. Gurung tried to control the crowd and Mamata took the microphone again but didn’t get the desired result, following which she stepped off the dais. Trinamul insiders said the situation could have spun out of control had the chief minister not controlled herself and left the dais. “In Darjeeling, it is the GJM which calls the shots. We had no way out but to leave the matter there despite the sloganeering,” said a senior Trinamul leader. Sources close to Mamata said the episode was the most embarrassing moment for her after she became chief minister. “She was very upset… she has supported the GJM and co-operated with them at all levels. This was not expected,” said another Trinamul leader. After stepping off the dais, Mamata took a seat to watch cultural programmes arranged for the seven-day festival. Fifteen minutes into the events, she got up, bid goodbye to Gurung and other GTA functionaries and headed to Algara in Kalimpong. Later, Gurung said Mamata should have been “sensitive to the hill people’s aspiration” in spite of her “political compulsions”. “When the chief minister says Bengal will not be divided, sentiments of the people in the hills are hurt,” Gurung said. He said Mamata should have restrained herself. “She told our people not to raise the Gorkhaland issue since it was not a political programme. By that logic, she should not have talked about no division of Bengal as that is a political issue,” Gurung said. (TT)

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Hands off land, GTA told Sabha fumes at govt order

Calcutta, Jan. 6: The Mamata Banerjee government has instructed the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) through an order to follow the state’s hands-off land policy that GTA Sabha members have said is “unacceptable”. The order (picture on on top), issued by principal secretary of the land and land reforms department, R.D. Meena, on December 28, categorically states “in no circumstances there will be any forcible acquisition of land and the land policy of the State Government shall be strictly followed by the GTA in dealing with any case….” The GTA Sabha is yet to receive the order. But several Sabha members said the order was passed unilaterally and will be opposed by the hill body when it reaches the hills from Writers’ Buildings.

“We are coming to know of this from you (The Telegraph). You possess a copy of the order and we don’t. If the state government had to pass such an important order, directly affecting the GTA, we ought to have been consulted,” said GTA Sabha member and Kalimpong MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri. The order has raised questions over development projects being planned for the area as, according to Sabha members such as Chhetri, “substantial” of land would be required for implementing the projects. Chhetri said the GTA Sabha has been working on plans for colleges, universities, tourist resorts and allied facilities, roads and other infrastructure projects, worth “at least half” of the Rs 200 crore grant from the Centre. “If this government’s land policy is to be followed in letter and spirit, it would be difficult to get any land. Moreover, if the state government tries to impose restrictions on the GTA in every key area of functioning, where is the greater autonomy that was promised to us? How will the GTA then be different from the DGHC?” Chhetri asked. A section of bureaucrats echoed the GTA’s concerns, apprehending “rough weather” for major development projects if the hills body is forced to follow the state’s policy. “Land is an integral part of development infrastructure. Most development projects in the plains are stuck in a limbo because of the land issue. If those in the hills meet the same consequences, then the agitation there could resurface,” said a senior official this evening. Mamata’s aversion to land acquisition has already put several projects such as the widening of highways NH34 and NH31D in north Bengal under threat. Besides, two thermal power plants — a 1,000MW Larsen & Toubro plant and a 1,600MW NTPC plant at Burdwan’s Katwa — are yet to take off because of the government’s persistent refusal to acquire land even for such key infrastructure facilities. In the order, the state has also refused the GTA the authority to carry out land settlements for residential, non-agricultural and tea garden purposes. The order states that in such cases, the GTA could send recommendations to the state government but the final settlement would be done by the latter. “The order is in violation of the provisions of the tripartite agreement and the GTA Act that was passed last year on the basis of those provisions. The state is apparently trying to restrict the powers promised to us in the agreement and the Act, in concurrence with the Centre,” Chhetri said. “We will take this up within the GTA and with the government. We will bring it to the notice of the Assembly. We are not going to take this lying down,” he said. However, one of the government’s seniormost bureaucrats contradicted Chhetri’s claim, saying neither the agreement nor the GTA Act had any provision contrary to the order. “The GTA is a part of the state’s administration. A single state cannot have two land policies. The discussion ends there,” the official said. “The government has not taken a single step so far outside the provisions of the agreement or the Act. Outside of tauzi related matters, taking final decisions on land was never a part of the autonomy that the Sabha was promised. The Sabha could make minor additions to the policy, according to its own needs, but none that is in contradiction to it (the state’s policy),” he added.(TT)

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