By IANS,
Kolkata : West Bengal’s Left Front Monday demanded an all-party meeting on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s recent talks with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and also a statement from her in the assembly on the deliberations on the proposed Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.
The left members raised the demand for Banerjee’s statement in the assembly, prompting Speaker Biman Banerjee to say he would look into the matter.
Later, speaking to media persons, Leader of Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra demanded the government convene an all-party meeting to apprise the parties of Banerjee’s talks with the GJM June 16.
“An all-party meeting is the most vital need now. During our time whenever we held such meetings, we used to apprise all the parties, the assembly,” Mishra said.
He said the situation in the hills was not suitable for peace.
“But we are eternal optimists and hope the situation remains peaceful. The peace prevailing in the hills now is one-sided. The situation should not be such that only one party can campaign.”
After Banerjee’s meeting with the GJM June 16 over the party’s rejection of the recommendations of a high-powered committee on the issue of area demarcation in the proposed GTA, the state government has decided to form a three-member fact verificationpanel to look into the report.
The government also announced the election schedule for the GTA would be announced very soon.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) has demanded 398 additional mouzas (area less than a sub-division) to be included in the GTA in north Bengal hills, but the Justice Shyamal Sen committee said only five mouzas could form a part of it.
The committee was set up July 29, 2011 after the GJM demanded 398 additional mouzas spread over Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts to be included in the GTA — the new hill council that would run the administration in Darjeeling area.
The committee, which considered parameters such as homogeneity (whether over 50 percent of the mouza’s population was Gorkha), geographical continuity, compactness and ground reality, said only five mouzas – two in Jalpaiguri district and three in Darjeeling district – fulfilled all the criteria for being part of the GTA.
Mishra also objected to the government forming a fact verification committee to study the Sen panel’s report.
“The high-powered committee was formed with a former justice as the chairman. But now the committee appointed by the government for verifying facts of the report is headed by a lowly bureaucrat. This is surprising and not legally tenable,” he said.