Sikkim favours Gorkhaland - Assembly bats for hill people

 OUR CORRESPONDENT

CRPF jawans guard NH31A during a strike called by the Morcha. A file picture

Gangtok(the telegraph), March 29: The Sikkim Assembly today passed a resolution in favour of the creation of Gorkhaland, saying the separate state was a “genuine and legitimate” demand of the people of Darjeeling hills.

The motion proposed by chief minister Pawan Chamling also said Gorkhaland was needed to ensure peace and development of Sikkim and uninterrupted traffic on NH31A.

The resolution was passed three weeks after Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung had met the chief minister in Gangtok.

“The people of Darjeeling have been demanding Gorkhaland state…. The demand of the people of Darjeeling for formation of state is genuine, legitimate, legally justified and within the parameters of the Constitution of India. The Central Government may kindly consider the legitimate demands of the people of Darjeeling for statehood and take necessary steps as required under the Constitution,” reads the resolution.

Chamling said Gorkhaland was the “ultimate and permanent solution to ensure peace, security and development of Sikkim and the region and free movement on National Highway 31A”.

“Our government has given peace, communal harmony and security to the state and its people… In this peaceful atmosphere prevailing in the state, disturbances with no signs of normalcy and decrease taking place for so many years in the neighbouring areas of Darjeeling in West Bengal affecting our lifeline National Highway 31A clearly indicates that only a permanent solution is the remedy,” said the chief minister while moving the motion.

Without any rail link or an airport, the 96km long NH31A is the only communication link between Sikkim and the rest of India. The highway is frequently blocked whenever pro and anti-Gorkhaland parties call strikes in the Darjeeling hills and the plains. More than 50km of the road passes through the Kalimpong subdivision.

Chamling, who has led the Sikkim Democratic Front to victory in four successive polls, said smaller states like Gorkhaland would be well equipped to meet the aspirations of the people.

“Experience of past few decades has clearly suggested that smaller states are more conducive and better governed… Sikkim as a small state is a shining example of success in the entire country. My experience in the administration of the state for all these years corroborates this fact,” said the chief minister in the motion.

By getting the resolution endorsed by the House, Chamling has delivered on a long-pending promise. In 2004, he had offered to move a resolution in the Assembly, demanding that a separate state be created for the people of Darjeeling.

However, the chief minister did not take any initiative to propose the motion, citing the talks between the GNLF and the Centre on the conferment of the Sixth Schedule status on the hills.

Subsequently, the GNLF was reduced to a non-entity in the hills and the Morcha was formed in 2007. NH31A was disrupted frequently during the strikes called by the Morcha and the relationship between the hills and Sikkim became strained.

But Gurung’s talks with Chamling on March 2 smoothened the ruffled feathers and paved the way for the passage of the motion.