CM bid to ally fears over GTA area(Dooars News)

JALPAIGURI/KOLKATA: The process of bringing parts of the Dooars and Terai under the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) faces two hurdles - the population composition of the area is heavily in favour of tribals and the protections that tribal land enjoy.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee sought to overcome the first hurdle on Saturday by assuring the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad that the interest of the adivasis would be protected. She succeeded in dissuading ABAVP leaders from going to Delhi to meet Union home minister P Chidambaram with the demand that the proposed survey of the Dooars and Terai for inclusion in GTA be scrapped.

The CM assured ABAVP members that they need not feel threatened by the formation of a high-power committee to identify areas in the Dooars and Terai which could be included in GTA. A 17-member delegation led by ABAVP state president Birsa Tirkey met the CM for more than an hour at Writers' Buildings on the issue of GTA's jurisdiction.

"The CM has assured us that her government would do nothing detrimental to the interest of the people of Dooars and Terai. We would be a party to any decision-making on the inclusion or exclusion of the plains in GTA. The job of the four representatives from the government in this nine-member committee is to hear our views and convey them to the government," Tirkey said.

"After meeting the CM, we don't feel the need to meet the home minister. She told us not to panic. The 330 moujas being claimed by GJM will not be transferred to GTA. The CM told us today her government is very much on our side," ABAVP general secretary Tej Kumar Toppo added. ABAVP had called a bandh in the Dooars last Monday when the GTA accord was being signed because it was not aware of the contents of the accord. "Now the CM has given us a copy of the agreement."

Promising to "flood the area with development activity," the CM also asked ABAVP to drop the demand for a sixth scheduled status to the Dooars-Terai region, much more than VIth Schedule would ever bring. "The CM said it would become irrelevant once development activity starts," Toppo said.

Tirkey said, however, that adivasis have been living in the Dooars for the past 200 years and they would resist the inclusion of their land in GTA. And, going by research, figures are with the adivasis. The population of Oraons alone in the Dooars tea belt is much higher than the total Nepali population in Jalpaiguri district. There are 39 other tribal communities there, like Munda, Santhal, Ho and Kheria. "So, you see, the experts' committee cannot just suggest inclusion of Dooars and Terai under GTA," a researcher said.

Besides, 315 moujas in the Dooars and 250 in Terai are included in Integrated Tribal Development Project. Their status cannot be altered without the concurrence of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. The areas in the tea belt come under assembly constituencies reserved for scheduled tribes." It is going to be a difficult task for the experts' committee to recommend inclusion of these moujas under the GTA," an expert said.

Adivasis, however, have a problem. Tribals living in the North Bengal tea belt do not have the title on the land they have their quarters on. If the survey is done on the basis of holdings the assessment could be wrong, feel observers. "It should be done on the basis of linguistic and ethnic majority. The percentage of population has to be checked as well," one said.

Eminent researcher on tribes Bimalendu Mazumdar said the government should formulate suitable developmental packages for the area. "Every separatist movement is a result of underdevelopment and continuous deprivation. This cannot be solved by meeting the separatist demands. Groups will keep on forming if deprivation and underdevelopment reigns. This needs to be confronted with developmental works," he said.
~TOI