Darjeeling News | Hill land panel term extended by 6 months

Darjeeling, Jan. 27.TT: The government today extended by six months the tenure of the high-powered committee looking into the territory demands of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which had announced that it would not accept the new arrangement for the hills if it was formed after March 27.

But the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) for the hills cannot be formed if the committee does not send its recommendations to the government on the Morcha demand to bring the Gorkha-dominated mouzas of the Dooars and the Terai under the jurisdiction of the new set-up.

The decision on the extension was conveyed to Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri who had been summoned by the 10-member territory committee headed by Justice (retd) Shyamal Sen to hear the party’s submission on the demand.

“The government has extended the tenure of the committee by six more months. We made a submission before the committee demanding the inclusion of the Gorkha dominated areas of the plains — 199 mouzas from the Terai, 196 from the Dooars and three mouzas from the Rajgung block of Jalpaiguri district,” said Giri.

Justice Sen told The Telegraph after the meeting that the term of the committee had been extended till July 28. “The present tenure was to have ended on January 28. However, we are getting submissions on the issue on a regular basis. Today, we received submissions from the CPM and Citu. On February 24, we will hear all the parties concerned,” Sen said.

The extension comes when Morcha chief Bimal Gurung is in no mood to wait beyond March 27 for the formation of the GTA for the hills. “We will not wait beyond March 27,” Gurung had said on January 17.

The GTA cannot be formed before the committee submits its report on the territorial jurisdiction of the set-up.

The current autonomous administrative arrangement, the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, does not have territory jurisdiction beyond the three hill sub-divisions of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong of the Darjeeling district.

Asked about the implication of the extension, Giri said: “This is the state government’s decision but then we also had made our stand public earlier.”

Although the Morcha had been complaining about the slow pace of work of the territory panel, Giri today said he was hopeful that the process of submitting the recommendations would be expedited. “I made a submission today and the committee has decided to hear all the parties who are in favour and those opposed to the inclusion of the plains area in the GTA on February 24. The meeting will be held in Calcutta from noon till 5pm,” said Giri.

The committee consists of four Morcha representatives, the district magistrates of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri, a representative of the state home department, the director of census (representing the Centre) and the administrator of the DGHC, apart from Justice Sen. The committee was supposed to submit its report within six months of its formation in July.

Till now, the panel has received 719 public submissions of which 696 are in favour of being part of the GTA.

Among the rest of the applications which are against inclusion of the plains mouzas in the hill administrative body, eight are from various political parties.