The parties to the agreement are the West Bengal and central governments, and the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM).
Claiming that the government has kept people in the dark about the agreement, Mishra opposed the provision that a nine-member committee would be formed to study the GJM’s demand for extending the jurisdiction of the proposed new development council – Gorkhaland Territorial Administration – beyond the three hill sub-divisions of Darjeeling district.
‘We don’t know anything about the details of the agreement. I was invited by Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee. But we have taken a decision that we will not attend the meeting,’ Mishra told a media conference here.
‘We are sceptical that this agreement will aggravate the problem rather than solving it. Because at various discussions during the Left Front regime, we had said that the hill authority needs to be an elected one, and second, that the jurisdiction of the hill authority should remain within three sub-divisions of the hills,’ he said.
He said his party favoured the area under the hill authority being the same as that of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), set up in the late 1980s, which will be succeeded by the GTA.
‘We have never agreed to discuss the issue of including areas of Dooars and Terai, because we are against division of Bengal. We were apprehensive that inclusion of new areas under the hill authority, which the proposed treaty will consider, will create lot of tension and anarchy,’ said Mishra.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday announced that the Darjeeling tripartite agreement will be signed on July 18 and union Home Minister P. Chidambaram will attend the function.
The demand for Gorkhaland covering parts of northern Bengal gained momentum during the 1980s under the leadership of Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) supremo Subash Ghising.
But the reins of the movement were later taken over by the Bimal Gurung-led GJM which forced Ghising out of the hills.
CPI(M) rejects Mamata’s invitation to signing of treaty
PTI Kolkata, July 16, 2011: CPI(M) on Saturday rejected West Bengal government’s invitation to Leader of Opposition Suryakanta Mishra to attend the signing ceremony of the tripartite agreement that will pave the way for establishment of a new elected administrative body for Darjeeling.
The agreement will be signed on Monday at Pintel village.
“We reject the State government’s invitation to attend the agreement signing ceremony since nothing has been conveyed to us about its content as well as the basis on which the treaty is going to be signed,” Mr. Mishra told reporters at the CPI(M) headquarter after the party’s state committee meeting.
The CPI(M) leader said the proposed name of the new hill council ‘Gorkhaland Territorial Administration’ was “highly misleading, confusing and bound to create disunity in the Darjeeling hills”.
Alleging that the State government did not bother to discuss the issue with the Opposition parties before inviting him to attend the signing ceremony, Mr. Mishra said, “We think there cannot be any breaking point regarding the nomenclature of the council.”
“Not only Opposition parties, common people are also totally kept in dark about the content of the agreement which is bound to create more problems and confusion in the Hills.”
He said that the inclusion of areas like Dooars and Terai in the new Council “will complicate the already complex situation in Darjeeling Hills.”
The leader also claimed that the agreement would only create a division in the Hills.
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