Buddhadeb to take up Sixth Schedule matters in Delhi

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today re-affirmed that he would urge the Centre to confer the Sixth Schedule on the Darjeeling hills at the earliest, 24 hours after Subash Ghisingh warned the Bengal government against “outbursts of frustration”,

If the bill is delayed, there can be outburst of frustration, Ghisingh had said here yesterday.

The chief minister today left for Delhi to attend a meeting of the National Development Council and said he would take up the issue with quarters concerned. He, however, refused to specify whom he would meet. “Ghisingh was here and we discussed the pending bill. As it was not passed in the winter session of Parliament and sent to the Standing Committee instead, we expect it to be passed in the budget session,” Bhattacharjee told reporters at the circuit house here today.

The committee, the chief minister said, will submit its recommendations on the first day of the budget session. “We hope the bill will be placed a couple of days after that.”

Bhattacharjee confirmed that the GNLF leadership is for immediate implementation of the Sixth Schedule and not for a separate state. “I find no change in their stand,” Bhattacharjee said. He was endorsing what Ghisingh had said yesterday: “I was the first to raise the Gorkhaland demand but right now the time is not favourable for a separate state.”

Source: The Telegraph