Darjeeling: Govt will not go outside law on GJM's demand over GTA polls

Kolkata, Mar 20 (PTI) West Bengal government today said it would not step outside the law on the issue of holding elections to Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, despite demands by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha for deferring the elections until some areas of Terai and Dooars are brought under the new Council. "(The GJM) can give its views but the government will not do anything outside the law," Minister for North Bengal Development Goutam Deb told newsmen at the state secretariat. President Pratibha Patil recently gave her assent to the GTA Bill, paving the way for holding the elections to the body formed on the basis of a tripartite agreement among the Centre, the state government and GJM. Governor M K Narayanan, while delivering his speech on the opening day of the budget session of the Assembly, had said that with the President having given her assent to the Bill, the process of formation of the GTA would now begin. GJM general secretary Roshan Giri had recently met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with a party delegation and demanded that the GTA elections be deferred till the question of inclusion of some areas of Terai and Dooars, which was being looked into by Justice Shyamal Sen Committee, was settled. Meanwhile, Left Front Chief Whip Anisur Rahman, while participating in the debate today on the Governor's address, dismissed the state government's claim that peace had returned to the Darjeeling Hills after signing of the GTA agreement. He said fresh trouble was brewing in the hills with GJM not agreeing to holding of the GTA elections till the issue of some Terai and Dooars area was settled.