 |
Calcutta, May 26: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung will meet chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday, a decision taken after a party delegation met her this evening in what was described as a “courtesy” call.
The Morcha, which steered clear of Gorkhaland in today’s meeting, repeated what it had said earlier: that it wanted to give the new government time to settle down before it broached the statehood demand.
“Bimal Gurung has spoken to me over the phone. He will come to meet me on Monday,” said Mamata after the meeting with the delegation led by Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri.
Three hill MLAs — Trilok Kumar Dewan, Harka Bahadur Chhetri and Rohit Sharma — were part of the delegation as was the party backed Independent MLA from Kalchini Wilson Chompromary.
“We love Darjeeling and its people. We want a solution to the ongoing problems in the hills and the Jungle Mahal at the earliest. Today’s meeting, however, was a courtesy call,” said the chief minister, adding: “I have asked the chief secretary (Samar Ghosh) to set up a date for talks with the Morcha.”
Giri said the delegation had “primarily” come to congratulate Mamata for her “prolonged struggle” which unseated the Left Front after 34 years in Bengal.
The delegation, however, raised five specific issues with the new chief minister. “We demanded regularisation of the jobs of the DGHC casual workers, a CBI inquiry into the Sibchu firing that killed three of our supporters, release of political prisoners like Chhatrey Subba, end to police harassment of our workers and withdrawal of Subash Ghisingh’s Z-category security,” Giri told The Telegraph over the phone.
Chhatrey Subba, a prime accused in the assassination attempt on GNLF chief Ghisingh on February 10, 2001, has been languishing in jail since then.
The issue of DGHC casual workers is of prime importance to the Morcha as a section of them had walked out of the party recently alleging that Gurung’s outfit had failed to get them permanent job status.
Asked if the demand for Gorkhaland featured in the discussion, Giri said: “The demand for Gorkhaland is always there in the hearts of the people of Darjeeling. But I’m informing you of only what we discussed with the chief minister today.”
Later Giri told The Telegraph: “Even the chief minister’s office is under renovation, let them settle down. The issue of statehood needs serious discussion with the participation of our party president and today's meeting was after all a courtesy visit.”
The Morcha leadership had earlier declared that their MLAs would resign if their demand for statehood was not met. The Morcha had threatened to contest and win every election and bye-election from the three constituencies and keep resigning till the government succumbed to their demands for statehood. Today, Giri said it was “too early” to contemplate such “drastic” action.
“Our MLAs were just sworn in. The new government promises to talk to us. Our demands might be considered. It is too early to think of such drastic measures right away,” Giri said. Asked if statehood seemed more likely following the change at the helm of the state, Giri said: “That, time will tell.”
Sources in the government said that the Morcha would be heard and they would receive all co-operation but statehood would remain out of the question.
“We will talk to the Morcha and listen to the other voices from the hills as well. We are open to offering greater autonomy to the hills, but a separate state remains out of the question,” said a Writers’ source today.
After the meeting with Mamata, the Morcha delegation also met planning and development minister Manish Gupta separately for 30 minutes in his chamber.-- TT
Post a Comment
We love to hear from you! What's on your mind?