New Delhi: The Home Ministry on Tuesday held
detailed discussions to decide the broad contours of the fifth
round of tripartite talks on Gorkhaland issue starting from
March 18, where Gorkha Janmukti Morcha may bargain hard for
regional authority having powers similar to that of a state.
The talks will be held at a political level with Minister
of State for Home Affairs Ajay Maken representing the Centre
as well as Congress, while Dinesh Trivedi will be from
Trinamool Congress and CPI-M will have two representatives in
it.
Maken, who will lead the Home Ministry, had detailed
meeting with the Home Secretary today to discuss the issue.
The meeting of the duo was followed by another round of
deliberations with Home Minister P Chidambaram to decide on
the issues which could be raised by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha
(GJM) in the fifth round of talks, official sources said.
The GJM is demanding a "regional authority" within West
Bengal with powers similar to that of a state, they said.
It has also agreed to leave some of plains from the
proposed authority, they said.
According to plan mooted by the GJM, the regional
authority should have no interference from West Bengal state
government besides having powers on law and order and a body
like a state assembly, they said.
The regional authority may be named either the
Gorkhaland
Regional Authority or the Darjeeling and Dooars Regional
Authority, the sources said.
During the fourth round of tripartite talks in Darjeeling
on December 21, the GJM had demanded that the next round be
held in Delhi at the political level.
The Centre agreed to the GJM demand and Chidambaram had
said the tripartite meeting will be held on March 18 among the
Central government, the West Bengal government and the Gorkha
Janmukti Morcha to find a solution which will be "held at a
political level".
"We are happy that the government has agreed to hold
tripartite talks at the political level as demanded by us,"
GJM general secretary Roshan Giri had said.
Stating that the demand for Gorkhaland was a political
one and has to be solved politically, he said, "We want that
the talks to be solely on Gorkhaland."
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, March 16, 2010, 18:49