Hill Council demarcation divides Bengal govt and Gorkha leaders

KOLKATA 1st JULY:  The contours of a new autonomous Gorkha Hill Council territory, which the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) sees as a steppingstone to Gorkhaland, remain a contentious issue in negotiations between the GJM and the state government.
In a draft memorandum of understanding that it sent to the GJM, the government restricted the terms of reference to the three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong and parts of Siliguri. The territory is largely the same as that covered under the old Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, now without elected representatives.
The GJM is looking at parts of the Dooars and Terai regions, too, having identified the areas with a sizeable Nepali-speaking population. The draft made no mention of these areas and this led to protests at a meeting that GJM chief Bimal Gurung held with central committee members.
The GJM leadership took up this “omission” with the state government, which then sent a revised draft. The new draft did not add the areas demanded but included an extra clause, saying the demarcation would be based on the recommendations of a joint committee. The committee, yet to be formed, would comprise nine members, four each from the GJM and the state government besides a chairman.

Many GJM central committee members were already unhappy that the basic demand, Gorkhaland, had been dropped. Gurung and other top leaders had been calling the council a temporary phase, but the non-inclusion of key areas once again upset GJM unit heads.
Now, Adivasi leaders are upset about the proposed committee for the rationalisation of territory. “The committee does not include any representative from the Adivasis of the Terai and the Dooars,” said Birsha Tirkey, president of the Akhil Bhartiya Adivasi Bikash Parisahad.  

General secretary Tejkumar Toppo said, “We will not allow an inch of these regions to be included in the Gorkha territory. Adivasi labourers in tea gardens are being lured to sell their jobs to Gorkhas at about Rs 20,000-50,000. The state government is pampering the Gorkhas.”
In the Terai and Dooars regions, both in Jaipaiguri district, the GJM has demanded a total of 421 mouzas, sources from both sides said. These mouzas, 191 in the Terai and 230 in the Dooars, cover most of Jalpaiguri district, including more than 250 tea gardens.
“A large Gorkha population lives in these areas, which would have to be brought under the map if the agreement is to be signed,” a Gorkha leader said. He said a number of Gorkhas live in Bagrakot, Kalchini, Birpara, Rajabhatkhaoa. District officials say this is because of migration from areas such as the Northeast and Bhutan.  

The regions have 42 tribal communities of which four are Gorkha tribes — Tamang, Limbu, Sherpa and Galmo — and four are non-Gorkha tribes of Mongoloid stock: Bhutia, Drukpa, Tibetan and Lepcha. The rest, Adivasis working in tea gardens, are either from Chhotonagpur or originally hail from these regions. The GJM is pushing for constitutional status for Gorkha tribes so that they have the same rights Scheduled Castes and Tribes.
How much powers the proposed council will have, too, is worrying the Gorkha camp. “It will never have full legislative powers as it does not have a constitutional guarantee like the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council. It will be a quasi-government body which can only frame small bylaws for handling funds,” a senior advocate of Darjeeling said. “These powers were vested with the DGHC too. But Subhash Ghising, its caretaker administrator for many years, never submitted financial statements. It was a clandestine understanding with the government.”

Courtesy:  indianexpress