Terai Dooars - Govt not consider to extend the jurisdiction of the GTA

Siliguri, Nov. 28: The state government is not considering the tribal demand to extend the jurisdiction of the GTA over the entire Dooars and the Terai.

It has held up the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration bill to counter the Adivasi plea, saying that the GTA was a tripartite agreement reached with the Centre and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha for an administrative set-up meant for the Darjeeling hills.

North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb today said the GTA bill had been passed and the administrative set-up would be formed soon and no new proposals were being considered. He also said a government committee was looking into the demand of the Morcha, which wanted the Gorkha-dominated areas of the Dooars and Terai to be made part of the GTA.

“We will stick to the decision to form the GTA which was taken in consensus with the Morcha and the Centre. We are not considering any fresh proposal like the GATA (the Gorkhaland Adivasi Territorial Administration) which has come from some quarters,” he said.

A section of Adivasis in the Dooars and Terai has been demanding the formation of the GATA, though no formal proposal had been sent to the government.

Led by dissident leaders of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad, which has considerable clout in the region, the tribals want the entire Dooars and the Terai to be brought under the GTA, in which case they want it renamed GATA (one of the options). They had even signed a deal with the Morcha, promising to agitate for the extension of the GTA powers over the entire Dooars and the Terai.

Deb’s assertion comes a day after the Morcha and the Adivasis shared the dais for the second time in a month and announced that they would take their demand to the Centre and to the chief minister.

Tribal leader John Barla refused to react to Deb’s statement. “We will meet the chief minister earlier next month,” he said.

Referring to the committee formed to look into the Morcha demand, Deb today said: “Regarding the inclusion of the Terai and Dooars, an expert committee under the chairmanship of former Justice Shyamal Sen has been formed and people across the region have deposed before it. The committee was also formed on consensus with the Morcha. As the chief minister has said, the state would act on the basis of recommendations made by the committee.”

The minister was talking to journalists at the PWD inspection bungalow.

Although Morcha president Bimal Gurung and the Parishad leaders led by John Barla had announced a joint movement on October 30, the state was silent for almost a month.

Barla and four other regional leaders had been showcaused, too, by the state leadership of the Parishad for daring to go with the Morcha.

While four of them were exonerated, the decision on Barla had been kept pending. But even then, the five rebel leaders stuck to their stand that the region would benefit if the hill arrangement’s jurisdiction were extended.

The state leaders of the Parishad today said another meeting would be held on December 17, the same date on which Barla’s fate would be decided. “We are vehemently against such a tie-up (with the Morcha) and have already made our submission before the territory committee (led by Justice Sen) on October 24. We had put on record our dissent about the inclusion of the Terai and the Dooars and have demanded separate autonomy for tribals under the Sixth Schedule,” said Birsa Tirkey, the state president of the Parishad.

A tribal leader from the region said the state committee’s decision to drop charges against the four rebels indicated its weakness. “The state committee is aware that if these leaders are expelled from the outfit, it would only obliterate Parishad from north Bengal.”

TT