JOIN USGJM steps up demand for separate Gorkhaland
As a Telangana state seems to be moving closer to fruition, its ripples are being felt in West Bengal. The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), which has been spearheading the movement for a separate Gorkhaland, scaled up its demand on Sunday.
Talking to reporters at Kalimpong, around 50 km from the Raj-era hill station of Darjeeling, GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said that his party has already written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, urging them to dissolve the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA), an autonomous administrative body which was formed last year following a tripartite agreement between GJM, the Centre and the West Bengal government.
“We have asked them to dissolve the GTA immediately because it has failed to protect the rights of the Hill people. We want the immediate formation of Gorkhaland,” said Giri at Kalimpong, around 640 km north from Kolkata. He agreed that the progress towards the formation of Telangana state has bolstered the confidence of the people from the Darjeeling Hills.
Giri also iterated the thoughts GJM president Bimal Gurung, who had said at a party meeting on Saturday that the demand for Gorkhaland would be scaled up, with the first step in that direction being a 72-hour strike at the Hills from July 29. “The Centre has not been paying enough attention or giving importance to our cause for a separate Gorkhaland like it has been doing with Telengana,” he said.
Even though West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said during Saturday’s Budget session in the state Assembly that the Centre is trying to instigate trouble in the Darjeeling Hills, the GJM did not seem ready to budge from its position or lose sight of its goal.
The demand for Gorkhaland has existed since 1907, which is much older than that of Telengana, said Giri.
He added that their duty would be to impress that upon the Centre.
The separate state of Gorkhaland has been demanded for decades on the basis of the Gorkha ethnic identity, which includes the Hills of Darjeeling and some parts of the plains in Terai-Dooars region in the foothills of the Himalayas.