Talks begin on new hill council

KOLKATA: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the West Bengal government on Monday took the first steps towards formation of a new hill council for Darjeeling, replacing the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council that had been formed in 1988. It is expected that a new council would pave the way for return of normality in the Hills.
A GJM delegation led by its general secretary Roshan Giri and including four MLAs of the party had a meeting with state government officials led by chief secretary Samar Ghosh where the details about the formation of a new council were discussed. The meeting would continue on Tuesday to thrash out the the issues that needed to be settled before a council could be formed.
Giri said the talks focused on two main issues — the territorial jurisdiction of the proposed council and the transfer of the office of land (locally called "tauji") under the jurisdiction of the council. "Today's meeting was held under a cordial atmosphere. Our points are on the way to be solved," he said. The delegation raised seven points, he said. The GJM general secretary made it clear that while they were not giving up the Gorkhaland demand, they were not pressing the issue either.

GJM wanted inclusion of areas in the Terai and the Dooars, besides the three Hills subdivsions of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong. If the discussion progresses satisfactorily, the formula worked out would be taken up in a tripartite discussion at the political level in which representatives of the Centre would also be present.

The state government would have to take into account the feelings of adivasis living in the Dooars and the Terai before a deal is concluded.

Earlier, in negotiations with the Left Front government, GJM had demanded that the whole of the Terai and the Dooars be included in the proposed interim council, but had later scaled down the demand to only the Gorkha-majority areas in these places.

According to sources, however, identification of the mouzas in the Terai and the Dooars where Gorkhas are in a majority would take some time. On an earlier occasion, it had been planned that a committee would be set up to do this identification.

The territory of the earlier DGHC formed in an agreement between the Jyoti Basu government and the GNLF comprised the three hills subdivisions and 14 mouzas in the Siliguri subdivision. Following the rise of GJM in the hills and the marginalization of GNLF, however, DGHC has practically ceased functioning.

Since the formation of GJM, the Hills have been in a state of almost continuous paralysis because of bandhs and agitations.
...TNN

GJM-West Bengal talks remain inconclusive 


Kolkata: (The Hindu):The secretary-level talks between the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) leadership and the West Bengal Government on, among other issues, the territorial jurisdiction of a new regional set-up for the Darjeeling hills ended inconclusively here yesterday. They will be resumed on Tuesday.
The GJM has been demanding the inclusion of those areas in the Terai and the Dooars where the Gorkhas are predominant within the jurisdiction of the new set-up. This is arguably the most contentious of the outstanding issues, one which the GJM leadership has described as involving the “question of identity”.
“The issue of territorial jurisdiction is the most important demand at this stage”, GJM general secretary, Roshan Giri told The Hindu after the meeting.
“We have already scaled down our demand on the territorial issue. Unlike earlier times when we had been demanding the entire Dooars and Terai areas be brought within the purview of any new body being considered for the region, what we are now looking at is the inclusion of 196 mouzas in the Dooars and 106 in Terai”, senior GJM leader, Harka Bahadur Chettri, said.
“Let the government set up a neutral commission to verify and check our stand (that these mouzas have a predominantly Gorkha population). Let the jurisdiction be finally demarcated. The matter of nomenclature can be discussed later”, Dr. Chettri added.
The GJM leadership last week called on the Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram to inform him of the points that it intended to take up with the State Government. Mr. Chidambaram had then suggested that it try to “find as much common ground possible” and “be cooperative” in the course of its meeting with the State Government.
That the GJM has not given up its demand for a separate state but only set it aside for now, was once again evident. While Mr. Giri, on the subject, said that “the demand is always there”, another GJM leader pointed out that the setting up of a regional setup for the Darjeeling hills and the Gorkha-dominated areas in the Dooars and the Terai could be “a penultimate stage of the movement (for statehood)”.
Chief Secretary Samar Ghosh and Home Secretary G D Gautama were among those present at the talks.