Morcha stirs Darjeeling cauldron

KOLKATA: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri said on Thursday that the agreement between GJM and the state government that was signed last week would provide a "tentative" solution to the Hills problem.

Participating in the debate on the governor's address to the assembly, the MLA said, "While development in the Hills is an important issue, we also have to settle the problem of identity of the Gorkhas," Chhetri, also a central committee member of GJM, said later, explaining the stand of GJM. According to him, the problem of identity could be settled only when the Gorkhas had their own state. "About 75% of the reason why people have supported GJM's agitation is because they want development for the hills. But, the other 25% of the reason is the identity problem."

Chhetri said, however, that GJM wanted to pursue a policy of co-operation with the state government now. This was because they believed that, unlike the previous Left Front government, chief minister Mamata Banerjee was sincere in solving the problem of the hills. "We want to see how long the council arrangement works and where it leads to. In the mean time, we will try to convince the state government of the need for statehood for the Gorkhas."

GJM expected the tripartite meeting for finalizing the council arrangement to be held soon after the completion of the current assembly session. "The chief minister had told us earlier that she would visit Darjeeling between June 18 and 20. But now it is clear that there will have to be a readjustment in the dates as the assembly session was advanced to accommodate the Singur bill."

GJM did not want any constitutional guarantee for the council as such a guarantee, according to Chhetri, would bestow on it the character of permanency. He said GJM president Bimal Gurung had announced that he would not join the council to keep a vigil on its functioning from outside. "This will help keep more checks and balances on the council and it will function better than the former Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council."

Participating in the debate, Chhetri pleaded for setting up of a research centre in bio-diversity in Darjeeling. "Famous botanist Joseph Hooker had described Darjeeling as one of the richest hotspots of biodiversity in the world, but this biodiversity is being lost because of policies of the earlier Left Front government leading to deforestation," he said. 

.indiatimes