Morcha’s land faith in govt - Govt to consider territory demand, not Parishad: Gurung

Alipurduar, July 3: Bimal Gurung today said it was up to the state — and not the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad — to consider his party’s demand to bring some plains mouzas under the proposed administrative unit for the hills, indicating his faith in the state government for the first time.

“It does not matter what the Parishad wants. Who is the Parishad to give us (or not give us)? A high-level government committee is doing the survey. We made our demands to the state government. The committee will look into our demand,” Gurung said.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief also said had the committee been formed earlier, the Sibchu firing could have been avoided. On February 8, police opened fire when Morcha supporters camping under Gurung in Sibchu broke through a barricade and attacked a woman constable. Three Morcha supporters were killed in the firing.

The Morcha president repeatedly praised the Mamata Banerjee-led government, which had given him permission to hold a rally in the Dooars today, the first since the Sibchu incident.

Gurung assured the Adivasis, the dominant population in the Dooars, that the new administrative set-up would bring peace. Around 5,000 people had assembled at Gopi Mohan Ground to listen to Gurung. Earlier, more than 2000 Morcha supporters took out a procession to celebrate the victory of Wilson Chompromary, the Independent MLA from Kalchini. The Morcha had backed Chompromary during the Assembly election.

Later Gurung told reporters: “After the Sibchu firing, this is my first Dooars visit because the earlier CPM government did not allow me to enter the region apprehending violence. But our party had always been in favour of peace. We have a lot of expectation from the new government. The Centre has given us Rs 43 crore but it is not sufficient to make the hills Switzerland. We have already appealed to the state government for more.”

During her visit to Darjeeling in September, Mamata, who was then the railway minister, had said she would transform the hills into Switzerland if she came to power in Bengal.

The Morcha chief said there was a difference in the functioning of the CID under the two governments. “We had earlier demanded a CBI inquiry. But Madam (Mamata) promised us that the CID would do its job well. We have complete faith in her. A CID under this government will be different from the CID under the Left government,” he said.

“Here, the daily wage of garden workers is only Rs 67. In the hills, they get Rs 90. I have asked the trade unions here to organise a strong movement. I had also requested the food minister to provide rice at the rate of Rs 2 per kg to the poor people of the Dooars just like in the hills.”

John Barla, the president of the Dooars Terai Co-Ordination Committee of the Parishad, said not “an inch of land” would be allowed to be brought under the hill set-up. “If the chief minister does not meet us, we will appeal to the Centre,” he said.

-The Telegraph