Centre delayed talks: LF

SILIGURI, Nov. 28: The principal constituents of the Left Front flayed the Centre for “delaying” the second round of tripartite negotiation on Gorkhaland scheduled to be held in New Delhi in November. “The Centre has been delaying the talks deliberately for political gains,” said the leaders of the CPI, Forward Bloc and the RSP.
It may be mentioned that the GJMM leadership criticised the Centre and the state government yesterday for delaying the talks. The hill party's secretary Mr Roshan Giri said that the crucial second round of talks scheduled to be held in the third week of November was being deliberately delayed as part of a political conspiracy to derail the ongoing people's movement.
The Darjeeling district CPI secretary, Mr Ujjwal Chowdhury, said that the GJMM leadership had developed the practice to make the state government a scapegoat for any adverse condition in the hills. “The hill-based party should resist this temptation. All know that the tripartite negotiation has started exclusively because of the sincere initiatives of the chief minister. The Centre is, however, deliberate dithering,” the CPI leader said.
Echoing the same view the Darjeeling district FB secretary, Mr Smritish Bhattacharya, said that the seemingly inveterate habit of the GJMM leadership to raise accusing fingers at the state government should change. “The state government and the Left Front are as much eager as the GJMM for the resolution of the protracted tangle. The ruling Congress, given its track record, is not enthusiastic to resolve the issue for narrow political dividends,” the FB leader said.
Taking a slightly different stand the RSP Darjeeling district secretary Mr Benoy Chakravarty said that both the Centre and the state government were somehow responsible for the deepening of the crisis. “Both have been milking the issue to strengthen their respective constituencies,” he added.