The Hindu : National : GNLF threatens agitation if Bills are not passed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 10, 2007
ePaper

National

National

GNLF threatens agitation if Bills are not passed

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: Subash Ghisingh’s Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) will launch an agitation for a separate Gorkhaland State to be carved out of West Bengal’s Darjeeling hills and its contiguous areas unless the Bills pertaining to the granting of Sixth Schedule status to the region are passed “three months from now in the next session of Parliament.”

The rival political grouping – the Gorkha Janamukta Morcha (GJM) – has already launched a movement for Statehood in the hills. The agitation to break away from West Bengal is expected to get a major impetus if the GNLF – the principal party in the region – pitches in, compounding matters for the State government. “Sixth Schedule status to the region has already been delayed and we will wait till the start of the next session for the Bills to be passed. If they are not then we have no alternative but to start an indefinite agitation for Gorkhaland state,” Dipak Gurung, president of the GNLF’s Darjeeling branch committee, told The Hindu over telephone on Sunday.

Resolutions to this effect were passed unanimously by party’s three branch committees — Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong — on December 7, he said. The move to grant Sixth Schedule to the region suffered a setback when the Bharatiya Janata Party demanded in the Lok Sabha last week that the two Bills be referred to the standing committee before discussions. The Bills envisage the setting up of the Gorkha Hill Council, Darjeeling – a body with considerably greater powers than the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC).

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee met the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, L.K. Advani, in Delhi last week and sought the BJP’s support in helping the Centre pass the Bills.

The latter had reportedly told him that his party had nothing against the content of the Bills but objected to the hurried manner in which they were placed in Parliament.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National