KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has said he is hopeful that the deadlock over the future of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council will be resolved at a meeting convened by the Union Home Ministry in New Delhi on Friday with officials of the State Government and the caretaker chairman of DGHC, Subhash Ghising.

"I am hopeful that the problem will be resolved and elections to the DGHC will be held within the scheduled period," Mr. Bhattacharjee said here on Wednesday.

Mr. Ghisingh and his associates left Darjeeling for New Delhi earlier in the day.

At a meeting with the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, in New Delhi earlier this week, Mr. Bhattacharjee had reiterated the need to hold elections to the DGHC — already more than a year overdue — by September. The elections that were to have been held earlier this year had to be deferred in view of Mr. Ghisingh's demand that the powers of the DGHC be reviewed by the Centre and the West Bengal Government.

In deference to Mr. Ghisingh's wishes, the State Government, after introducing the necessary legislation in the West Bengal Assembly, decided on setting up an interim administrative arrangement with Mr. Ghisingh as caretaker till elections are held in September. The Chief Minister had then pointed out that the arrangement should not last more than six months.

In a bid to break the stalemate following Mr. Ghisingh's demands for greater powers to the DGHC the West Bengal Government has prepared a draft proposal which provides Constitutional guarantee to the Council under Article 371.

The Gorkha National Liberation Front [GNLF] led by Mr Ghisingh, however, has rejected the proposal and has been demanding that the council be brought under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution that would accord areas under the DGHC tribal status. Mr. Bhattacharjee is said to have told Mr. Patil that the State Government was not averse to revising the draft proposal if required.

The GNLF leadership has also threatened to revive the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state to be carved out of the Darjeeling hills if their demand for bringing the Council under the Sixth Schedule is not met. The State Government will not entertain any talk on the division of West Bengal, Mr. Bhattacharjee has insisted. It is also against declaring Nepalese living in the three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling as tribals.

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