Delhi call to Morcha team

Darjeeling, March 28: A Gorkha Janmukti Morcha team left for Delhi today following a sudden invitation from the Union home ministry, which possibly wants to tie up the loose ends of a deal on an interim set-up for the hills before the next round of talks in May.

At the meeting with central officials tomorrow, the Morcha will convey the “revisions” it wants in the “secret proposal” — it had submitted to home minister P. Chidambaram earlier — and discuss the territory it wants under the interim set-up.

The hill party wants the interim arrangement to remain in place till December 2011.

“We will also place a demand that the interim authority be given legislative powers over 124 subjects,” Morcha president Bimal Gurung told a public meeting in Kurseong today.

In its “secret” document, the Morcha had demanded legislative powers over 102 subjects.

In the amended proposal, the Morcha will also ask the Centre not to convert the Schedule Castes in the hills to Scheduled Tribes, a demand made in the “secret” document.

On March 22, Gurung had said the secret proposal would be amended so that the interests of the Scheduled Castes were not hurt. “We will write to the Centre to safeguard the privileges they are currently enjoying,” Gurung had said.

Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri is leading the delegation to Delhi.

Sources said the home ministry letter was written by joint secretary N.S. Kalsi. “It is a preparatory dialogue before the next tripartite meeting (scheduled to be held before May 14). The state officials will also be present,” said Gurung.

State minister and Siliguri MLA Asok Bhattacharya, however, said in Calcutta that he had no information about tomorrow’s meeting. “We have not received any letter from the Centre and I have no further information,” said Bhattacharya, one of the two ministers who represented the Bengal government in the last round of talks on March 18.

Source: The Telegraph