GJM suggests Darjeeling split

KOLKATA: At the all-party meeting held in Kolkata on Wednesday to discuss the reorganization of districts of West Bengal, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) suggested the bifurcation of Darjeeling.

The GJM also recorded its objection against the proposal of the state government to bifurcate Jalpaiguri district till the formation of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), with the apparent aim to bring the areas in Dooars the GJM wants to be included in GTA under the administrative jurisdiction of a new district.

GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said later that he had suggested at the meeting that the population of Darjeeling district had grown much and it would help in better administration if the district was bifurcated. Being a hill area, districts of smaller size were preferable, he argued. The GJM delegates, including Kalimpong MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri, wanted one district to comprise Darjeeling and Kurseong subdivisions on the western part of the Teesta and the Terai areas included in the present Darjeeling district and the second district to comprise the Kalimpong subdivision on the eastern part of the Teesta and parts of Dooars. Both the districts should be placed under GTA, Giri argued. He did not mention anything about the parts of Siliguri subdivision not strictly under Terai.

Giri said Jalpaiguri should not be bifurcated and Alipurduar be constituted into a new district, as suggested by the state government, till the survey of Dooars was completed to finalize the territorial reorganization and GTA was constituted. "Among the 196 mouzas we have demanded in Dooars for inclusion in GTA, some are in Alipurduar subdivision," Giri said. Three other moujas are in the Rajganj area, adjoining Siliguri town.

GJM president Bimal Gurung did not attend the meeting, but met chief minister Mamata Banerjee later in the day. He said he had discussed with her the issue of reserve forests. GJM wants reserve forests to be brought under the control of GTA. In the memorandum of agreement signed between GJM and the state government, "it was agreed that the state government will make a reference to the Centre on the issue of reserve forests as the power delegated to the state government under the central statute cannot be delegated to any other authority straightaway".

The Times of India