The decision of the panel on GTA shall be binding and accepted by all

Justice (retd) Shyamal Sen, who headed the high-powered committee that recommended allotment of five mouzas of Dooars and Terai region into the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), feels that the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) should abide by the recommendations of the committee as during last year’s tripartite meeting, it was agreed between all the three — the Central government, West Bengal government and the GJM — that “the decision of the panel shall be binding and accepted by all”.

The GJM has expressed unhappiness over the Sen’s recommendation as the party had sought inclusion of 396 mouzas into the GTA.

In an exclusive interview with The Indian Express, Sen said the panel’s recommendation was “unbiased and based only on predetermined factors”. “After looking into all the aspects and weighing all the pros and cons, I came to a conclusion that only five mouzas could be brought under the GTA. Our judgment may not be palatable to all the parties but our decision is not biased,” he said.

“My allegiance is only to consciousness and Constitution of the country, law of the country and law of the land. I am bold enough to face any situation,” Sen added.

According to him, the five mouzas were selected keeping in mind all the conditions. “It might be that a particular mouza has got (Gorkha) population and contiguity, but it lacked homogeneity and that’s why we rejected such mouzas,’’ he said.

Every party can claim as many mouzas but factors like contiguity, compactness, homogeneity, ground level situation and accessibility should be looked into it, he added.

Sen said there was a need for development in the hills, and if GTA is formed after the election next month, there is a chance of all round development of the hills.

Terming his assignment of heading the panel as a “prestigious one”, Sen said when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee personally told him to look into the issue, he could not turn down the request.

He said the delay in finalising the report happened and they had to seek an extension of six months because the office was not allotted to the panel till November last year.

“I used to work from my home. Once we were allotted the office, the committee started functioning in a full-fledged manner. My target was to finish my work within first week of June, and I am now free as I have completed my work,” he added.

According to him the GJM, CPM, Forward Bloc, Bangla Bhasa Raksha Committee and officials of the state government took part in the hearing and made submissions, but they were not part of the decision-making process.

GTA is a classic case showing how skilled are our political leaders in mishandling highly sensitive issues

The time bomb which started ticking on July 18, 2011, the day the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) pact was signed between the Mamata Banerjee government, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and the Centre, can explode any time leading to worse consequences. The continuing outburst in the hills by both the pro-GTA and anti-GTA forces hints at that.

The GTA is a classic case showing how skilled are our political leaders in mishandling highly sensitive issues. Playing fire with them just to gain political or electoral mileage can tear apart the nation’s social fabric, unleashing a cycle of violence.

The very foundation of the GTA is a discriminatory one and unacceptable to most other communities of the region. The northern parts of Bengal are home to people of diverse identities. It’s marked by multiculturalism and pluralism and any attempt to appease a single group at the expense of another is the most foolhardy step one can take here and the Mamata-led government just did that.

Without attempting to study the region, its diversity, multitude of culture and orientation, the new government hastily penned a pact with the GJM, the party which chased away the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) of Subash Ghisingh to become the main instrument behind the Gorkhaland movement. A clear lack of farsightedness prevailed and as many quarters had feared, the celebrations got over shortly and the swords were out again.

If the new government thought it would do with Gurung what the previous left Front regime had done with the GNLF and Ghisingh, it made a miscalculation. This is not the 1980s but 2012. What was then impossible for other smaller groups in the region then is not so today. Democracy has deepened, so has the reach of media. If the government thinks addressing an issue with the GJM only will settle the problem, it is wrong.

The hills and plains of north Bengal are inhabited by diverse groups and including voices of all is necessary to ensure that a dynamic and democratic culture is functional there. Any lopsided approach and exclusive plan will invite disaster and one must not forget that this is a strategic location internationally. The ‘chicken’s neck’ is a vulnerable region and India can not afford it to be destabilized at any cost.

Even the GJM can not be regarded as the sole representation of the hills. There are outfits which are opposed to the Morcha as well, like the CPRM, the AIGL, and a rejuvenating GNLF. Lending ears to their voices are equally important.

The Dooars and Terai region, which are plains, is home to tribes like Ravas, Totos, Limbus, Meches, Koches, Rajbangshis. They are opposed to the GJM’s demand for the inclusion of 395 moujas of the Dooars and Terai in the GTA for according to them it would reduce their status to the Gorkhas. Rightly said, this is an age of democracy and assertion of rights is cherished by all, quantitatively big or small.

The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP) has refused to entertain the GJM’s ambition right away. It even expelled some of its members for trying to accommodate GJM supremo Bimal Gurung’s plan in some way. Then there are the various Kamtapuri outfits. Meeting any demand even close to Gorkhaland will fuel their assertion of a separate Kamtapur state.

It is indeed an easier job to oversimplify problems before trying to solve them. At least, that is our leaders have been doing all along.

Acknowledging a single group without any basis is an incomprehensible act carried out by the Trinamool-led government. It should have prepared the base first by taking diverse groups and communities of the region into confidence. It should have reviewed their social status, the demographic challenges, socio-economic prospects and other relevant parameters before making its first move towards a regional administrative set-up. Instead, the chief minister opted for a shortcut and put the cart before the horse by signing the controversial GTA.

Now, given the deteriorating situation in the hills, forget execution of the GTA, protecting life and property will be a herculean challenge for the administration and no one but the government of the Maa, Mati, Manush, will be responsible for that.

-Shubham Ghosh



Police fired six rounds in the air and lobbed teargas shells to disperse GJMM & Jon Barla groups indulging in arson and stone-throwing

Police fired six rounds in the air and lobbed teargas shells to disperse GJMM & Jon Barla groups indulging in arson and stone-throwing in which two persons were injured during a bandh in the Terai-Dooars region in Jalpaiguri district today, official sources said. District Magistrate Smarki Mahapatra said, “Six rounds of bullets were fired in the air to disperse the mob. The situation was under control in most of the places. Tension was prevailing in a few places where police have gone to maintain peace”. Trouble started in Banarhat when GJMM and Barla Group trying to enforce the bandh were opposed by local businessmen..

Pro-bandh activists set ablaze nine shops at Banarhat and several shops at Chamurchi near Banarhat, police said. Police fired six rounds in the air and lobbed teargas squibs to disperse the mob at Banarhat, sources said. The bandh supporters also set fire to a truck at Red Bank tea garden near Banarhat. In Odlabari, cars and other vehicles were damaged in stone throwing by the bandh supporters.

Two persons were injured in the stone-throwing at Odlabari market, police said. A large contingent of police had rushed to the spot to control the situation, sources added. An indefinite bandh has been called in the Terai-Dooars region by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) . GJMM has demanded inclusion of several mouzas (local land revenue areas) in the proposed Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) from Terai and Dooars regions of northern West Bengal.



State Congress is against the inclusion of any mouza of Terai and Dooars in the GTA

The Intuc today asked the Bengal government to put on hold the formation of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration till a decision was reached on the territorial jurisdiction of the hill body.

The trade union of the Congress wanted the dissolution of the high power committee formed to look into the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s demand to bring the Terai and Dooars under the GTA. The Intuc also demanded that 13 mouzas that had been added to the DGHC be again brought under the Siliguri subdivision.

“The state Congress president has already made it clear that the party is against the inclusion of any mouza (in the Terai and Dooars) in the GTA. A memorandum addressed to the chief minister was submitted to the subdivisional officer here today by the Intuc, requesting her to put on hold the formation of the GTA till a permanent decision is reached on the area to be brought under the body,” said Aloke Chakravorty, the Darjeeling district president of the Intuc.

“We will vehemently oppose the inclusion of any mouza in the plains in the GTA. We also want all 13 mouzas annexed to the DGHC earlier to be merged with corresponding blocks in the Siliguri subdivision again. Tribal people form a majority in all the 13 mouzas.”

The memorandum was enclosed with documents which purportedly showed that adivasis are in majority in several mouzas in the Terai and the Dooars. The data were originally a part of a survey conducted by the Water and Power Consultancy (India) Ltd (WAPCOS) in September 2010 for the implementation of minor irrigation projects in the state. The WAPCOS is a central government organisation.

“The report prepared by WAPCOS clearly shows that there are more than 40 per cent tribal people in 125 mouzas in 10 blocks in Darjeeling district and 205 mouzas in 11 blocks in Jalpaiguri district. So, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s claim that Gorkhas are in majority in 398 mouzas in the plains is wrong. Any attempt to add a single mouza in the plains to the GTA will have serious repercussions in the Terai and Dooars,” said Chakravorty, who is also the state general secretary of the Intuc.

He added that the Intuc would oppose any such move by the state tooth and nail and had already started organising tea garden workers.

The trade union has considerable clout in the tea gardens of the Terai and Dooars.

After a meeting with chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Calcutta on March 24, Morcha president Bimal Gurung had declared that they would abide by whatever decision the high power committee would take on the inclusion of the Dooars and Terai in the GTA.

However, the Intuc today wondered if the recommendations of the committee would be without bias as the panel had Morcha representatives among its members.

“People across the state, particularly in north Bengal, have started raising questions over the impartiality of the committee which has four Morcha representatives. It has to be noted that the committee doesn’t have a single member representing other communities in the Terai and the Dooars,” said Prabhat Mukherjee, the general secretary of the National Union of Plantation Workers, an affiliate of the Intuc.

“For unknown reasons, the state government has ignored the interests of the people in the Terai and Dooars. We doubt how impartial the recommendations will be.”

He also said the condition of tea garden workers in the plains might be aggravated if the Terai and Dooars joined the GTA.

Do-or-Die Movement Against GTA

The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad today said it would organise a movement from April 1, demanding immediate dissolution of the territory committee. It will also launch a “do-or-die” movement, if necessary, to prevent inclusion of even an inch of land from the plains in the hill set-up.


“We will write to the government on March 27, demanding dissolution of the committee,” said Atul Roy, the president of the Kamtapur Progressive Party, one of the 19 organisations that held a meeting with the Parishad today.

Parishad leader Rajesh Lakra said: “If any decision is thrust on us, we will launch a do-or-die movement across the Terai and Dooars and Siliguri and will never give an inch of land.”

AIGL apprehends corruption in GTA

The All India Gorkha League (AIGL) leadership has sounded apprehensive that corruption would scale new heights in the Darjeeling Hills after the GTA is constituted.


“The portents are ominous. It is an open secret across the Hills that the GJMM satraps and the party’s rank and file have embezzled a greater portion of the Centre-allocated funds meant for the Aila victims. The former Left Front government and the DGHC administration connived with the GJMM in the embezzlement game. Now things are far worse, as the Trinamul Congress-led state government looks desperate to humour the principal party in the Hills,” said the AIGL secretary, Mr Laxman Pradhan.

“The state government’s desperation to keep the GJMM in good humour has become evident through its callousness vis-à-vis the Madan Tamang assassination case. We appealed to the chief minister several times since the new government was sworn in, praying for an appointment. But the CM has been maintaining a studied silence all through. We wonder whether the state government has decided to keep the matter under the carpet to keep alive its bonhomie with the GJMM. The inaction on the part of the CBI on the matter is even more bizarre. Perhaps all are linked in an invisible chain-to keep the existing Hill applecart intact by shielding the criminals from the purview of justice,” he said.

The AIGL leader said that his party would fight the GTA tooth and nail. “A majority of the common people across the Hills are not favourably inclined to the autonomous body. They are not expressing their real feeling because of the reign of terror the GJMM has let loose in the Hills. The GJMM swept the Assembly polls in the Hills because of the same fear psychosis,” Mr Pradhan said.

Bengal land tussle derails India-Bhutan link plans

Land acquisition politics in poll-bound West Bengal is derailing the first India-Bhutan rail link project. The project, laced with strategic, business and symbolic underpinnings, was expected to be completed in 2013. With a host issues plaguing the project — announced by Prime Minister M anmohan Singh while addressing the Bhutan parliament in May 2008 — New Delhi is mulling the over an alternative route.

The 17.5-km railway line starting from Hasimara in West Bengal going through Satali, Bharna Bari and Dalsingpara to Toribari in Bhutan was named to mark the golden jubilee of the visit of India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru to the Himalayan kingdom in 1958.

The rail link, which was keeping in mind China’s push to rail network in South Asia, is now stuck in a web of land acquisition politics.

Technical and feasibility studies by the Railways estimated around 3,000 families will have to be resettled for the link. Tea estate owners and workers in the area protested the project.

The state government also expressed concerns as the railway line has to pass through the elephant corridor of North Bengal, like Dalsingpara, near Jaigaon forests.

The land acquisition agitation started by Mamataa Banerjee is affecting the project too, as the Bengal government is not keen on getting into issues involving land. “Unless we sort out the land issue forward movement is not possible. We have updated all these developments to the Bhutan side,” said a government official.

Since 2005 feasibility studies for various links to Bhutan have been studied — Hasimara (West Bengal) to Phuentsholing; Kokrajhar (Assam) to Gelephu; Pathsala (Assam) to Nanglam; Rangiya (Assam) to Samdrupjongkhar; and Banarhat (West Bengal) to Samtse.

Some officials say an alternate plan will only lead to more resettlements. “Toribari is close to Phuentsholing, the major trade point. Phuentsholing was the original plan, and Toribar was found on Bhutan government’s request. We are keen on alternative route to get the project off,” said an official.