By IANS
Kolkata : Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) leader Subhas Ghising was not asked to resign from the post of caretaker administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), West Bengal Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy said Thursday.
“No one was asked to quit in the meeting. Discussions are on with both parties – Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) and GNLF – and the government is now trying to bring normalcy in the hills,” Roy said.
GJM has crippled life in the three sub-divisions of Darjeeling district since Feb 20 along with an economic blockade since Feb 17 demanding a separate statehood and immediate sacking of Ghising as DGHC caretaker administrator.
Roy said the GNLF chief was not summoned to the state secretariat Thursday but he came to meet Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on his own.
The GNLF supremo again met Bhattacharjee Thursday at the Writers’ Buildings and discussed the political situation in the hills.
The state’s Chief Secretary Amit Kiran Deb and the home secretary were also present in the meeting.
“I can’t say anything more unless the discussions are over. If I comment everything in public now there will be no point in continuing discussion,” Roy said.
Ghising’s rival GJM is opposed to the constitution’s Sixth Schedule status for Darjeeling – which envisages greater autonomy – and instead demands a separate state.
The GNLF leader was forced to knock on the chief minister’s door after hundreds of GJM supporters confined him at Pintail village, a resort three km from Siliguri, for five days since his return from the national capital Feb 18 after holding talks with the central government over inclusion of Darjeeling in the Sixth Schedule.
Earlier, Ghising described his meeting with Bhattacharjee on Feb 23 as “positive”.
GJM chief Bimal Gurung also met the chief minister at his office here Wednesday night but he stuck to his demands.