Stage set for Darjeeling accord

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday arrived here and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram is scheduled to arrive on Monday to sign the treaty which will pave the way for setting up a new hill council Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA).

On the eve of the signing of the agreement, Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxist (CPRM), a prominent voice in the hills, accused the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha of reneging on its promise to create Gorkhaland by agreeing to be a party of the accord.

CPRM spokesman Gobinda Chhetri said the Morcha had betrayed the cause of Gorkhaland on whose promise it had fought the last Assembly election and won.

Plains-based organisations like Amra Bangali, Jana Jagaran and Jana Chetana have called a 48-hour north Bengal bundh to protest against the treaty. The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad, which opposes inclusion of areas of Dooars and Terai regions in the GTA, has given the moral support to the bandh, its Terai unit president Nicodene Minj said.

ABAVP secretary Birsa Tirkey said: “We are not against the tripartite agreement, but against the inclusion of areas of Dooars and Terai in the GTA.”