Kolkata, Jun 30: With the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) agreeing to contest elections to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, the new hill council in Darjeeling, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has welcomed it saying that it would usher in peace.
“Today is a very happy day for all of us, as my brothers and sisters of Darjeeling have decided to participate in the democratic process of elections next month,” Banerjee said in her latest post on Facebook.
“Truly Darjeeling is now smiling. Peace, development and Prosperity will bring new era in Darjeeling. On this happy occasion I congratulate all my brothers and sisters of Darjeeling,” she said.
The GJM, which is unhappy that its demand for inclusion of Gorkha-dominated areas in the plains it wants added to the jurisdiction of the GTA has not been met, however, decided yesterday to take part in the elections on July 29 to the 45 seats in the hill council.
The party will contest the elections on its own. Altogether nine parties, including the Congress and Trinamool Congress, have so far decided to contest the polls.
GJM president Bimal Gurung has not yet decided on whether to contest as he was upset over the state government appointed Justice (retd) Shyamal Sen Committee which went into the inclusion of Gorkha-dominated areas in the plains in the Terai and Dooars in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts.
The Shyamal Sen committee has recommended inclusion of five mouzas or an area less than a sub-division in the plains for inclusion in the GTA's jurisdiction. The GJM had demanded inclusion of 396 mouzas.
The state government has set up another committee which will hear the complaints of the GJM on the report of the Shyamal Sen Committee.
Gurung together with a GJM delegation had chief minister at the state secretariat in Kolkata on June 28 after a meeting with Union Home minister P Chidamabaram in Delhi on the issue. One of the priorities of the Trinamool Congress chief was the restoration of peace in Darjeeling after her party came to power in the state.
On July 18 last year, a tripartite agreement was signed between the GJM, and the West Bengal and central governments for setting up the GTA, which would replace the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) formed in the late 1980s.
Among its salients points were that the central and state governments and the GJM, keeping on record the GJM's demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland, agreed to form an autonomous body—the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration -- through direct elections.
The autonomous self-governing body would administer the region so that the socio-economic infrastructural, educational, cultural and linguistic development was expedited and the ethnic ideas of the Gorkhas established. The GTA Bill was passed in the state assembly on September 2 last year.
