Kolkata: The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha on Wednesday stuck to its threat to pull out of the tripartite agreement for setting up the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA), the new hill council in Darjeeling, saying that this was being demanded by the people of the hills.
"We are being pressurised by the people to come out of the GTA agreement," GJM General Secretary Roshan Giri said from Darjeeling.
"We will be compelled to think about rejecting the GTA if the state government does not allow us to hold meetings in the Terai and Dooars," Giri said.
The GJM had not been given permission to hold a public meeting at Nagrakata in Jalpaiguri district on Sunday, which had led to a bandh being called leading to violence and arson. The shutdown was "relaxed" for two days yesterday.
The GJM wanted inclusion of Gorkha-dominated pockets in the Dooars and Terai in the plains in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts to be included in the jurisdiction of the GTA, which has been opposed by organisations in the plains.
Giri contended that public meetings were necessary to explain to the people who were not fully aware of the details of the GTA.
"We want to hold rallies to explain the GTA because people are not aware of it," he said.
When told that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at a rally at Lalgarh yesterday had ruled out division of West Bengal, Giri said, "The CM will say that.
"But we stick to the demand (for creation of Gorkhaland)," he said referring to the tripartite agreement where the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland was not dropped.
He said that GJM president Bimal Gurung had already stated that the party would `boycott` any programme of the chief minister and North Bengal Development minister Gautam Deb in the hills.
Giri alleged that it was the the Adivasi Vikash Parishad led by Rajesh Lakra which was opposed to the inclusion of 398 mouzas in the GTA and was responsible for the violence in the Dooars.
PTI
