Dooars News>>Adivasis to meet minister tomorrow over GTA inclusion

Jalpaiguri (WB), Jul 22 (PTI) Leaders of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad, an anti-Gorkhaland outfit, would meet a key minister for north Bengal tomorrow for talks over inclusion of Terai and Dooars region in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA).

John Berla, ABAVP''s Terai Dooars committee president, today said North Bengal Development Minister Gautam Deb has invited them for talks and they would meet him tomorrow at the state secretariat tomorrow.

"I will talk to the Adivasi leaders to know their demands in detail and inform the chief minister," Deb said.

A 15-member team, including Berla and ABAVP state president Birsa Tirkey, would reach Kolkata tomorrow morning and the meeting was scheduled to be held at 1 pm, Berla said.

The ABAVP was opposed to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha''s (GJM) demand for Gorkha dominated 199 mouzas of Terai and Dooars region in the territory of the GTA.

Dooars lies in the foothills of the eastern Himalayas around Bhutan while Terai is the area near the Siwalik range, the lowest outer foothills of the Himalayas.

A committee -- comprising representatives of the GJM, state government and the Centre -- would recommend to the government whether the Gorkha dominated parts of Terai and Dooars would come under the jurisdiction of the GTA.

Birsa Tirkey said it was strange that none from the advasis, the largest population in Dooras and Terai, was included in the committee that would decide whether the areas would be included in the GTA.
~msn.