Terai Dooars: Adivasis seek GTA berth for Barla

July 30.TT: The adivasis from the plains who had joined hands with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to demand the inclusion of the Dooars and the Terai in the GTA have started raising the pitch for the nomination of their leader John Barla to the GTA Sabha.

If the Morcha agrees to the proposal and Barla is nominated, it could be a win-win situation for both Bimal Gurung’s party and the adivasis who have recently joined the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.

The Barla group is desperate to retain its support base in the plains ahead of the panchayat polls as Justice Shyamal Sen committee recommended the inclusion of only five plains mouzas in the GTA.

The Barla faction and the Morcha had demanded that 396 mouzas in the Terai and the Dooars be brought under the jurisdiction of the GTA.

The tribal leaders proposed Barla’s nomination at a meeting in Birpara yesterday. They said Barla could be the nominee of the adivasis from the Dooars in the GTA, while the tribal people in the Terai could be represented by Champa Bivar, a JMM leader who contested the polls to the GTA Sabha on the Morcha ticket in Panighata.

“She (Bivar) will be an elected representative from the Terai, while Barla would be the nominated representative from the Dooars. Both are from our community and it would largely help us show before our supporters that we have also presence in the GTA,” Binod Tigga, an executive member of the north Bengal regional committee of the JMM, said today.

“We (Morcha and adivasis led by Barla) had fought together for the inclusion of the Terai and Dooars in the GTA. The nomination of Barla and election of Bivar would substantiate our claim that Morcha leaders have not abandoned us but are accommodating tribal people in the new autonomous body,” said Tigga.

Asked about the JMM’s demand for Barla’s nomination to the GTA Sabha, Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said: “We haven’t received any written proposal from any camp. We have not yet decided on the nominations of members as of now.”

The GTA Act says five members could be nominated to the GTA Sabha by governor on the recommendation of the chief minister.

However, there are clear indications that Mamata Banerjee will propose the names to the governor as per the Morcha’s recommendations.

“It is probably because of this reason that Gurung has already announced the name of two nominated members in Darjeeling recently,” said an observer.

The demand for Barla’s nomination to the GTA Sabha has been backed by Morcha leaders in the Dooars.

“As the GTA would comprise our key leaders, we don’t feel there is a need to nominate any Morcha member from the Terai and the Dooars to the GTA Sabha. It is always important to include Barla in the GTA as we fought together for the inclusion of the plains in the administrative set-up,” said Madhukar Thapa, a central committee member of the Morcha from the Dooars.

Padam Lama, the president of the Morcha’s Dooars unit, also said he wouldn’t oppose Barla’s nomination.

“As I have been out of station for the past one week, I am not aware of any developments. We will, however, abide by any decision our party president takes on the issue. We have no objection to Barla’s nomination.”

Morcha president Bimal Gurung, general secretary Roshan Giri and central committee member Jyoti Kumar Rai today left for Calcutta.

Giri said they had “legal issues” to address in Calcutta and refused to explain further.