The Hindu : National : Rallies, celebration in Darjeeling hills

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Wednesday, Oct 03, 2007
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Rallies, celebration in Darjeeling hills

Special Correspondent

Cabinet move on hill council welcomed

Subash Ghising

KOLKATA: Victory rallies were taken out amid celebrations in the Darjeeling hills on Tuesday by supporters of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) — the principal party in the region — as news spread of the Union Cabinet’s decision to create an autonomous Gorkha Hill Council with greater powers under the Sixth Schedule that is to replace the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC).

The GNLF leadership, which had first raised the demand of Sixth Schedule status for the region in 2005, hailed the decision. Party supremo Subash Ghising reportedly described the move as a welcome development that would “fulfil the aspirations and protect the identity of the Gorkha people.”

Mr. Ghising was on his way back to Darjeeling after returning to the country on Monday after a visit to Indonesia to attend a tourism festival there.

“The decision is a step forward in realising our political demand. It will now have to be ratified by Parliament”, Shanta Chettri, a senior GNLF leader and a representative of the party in the West Bengal Assembly, told The Hindu here.

“The issue of granting Sixth Schedule status to the Darjeeling hills has been the brain-child of Subash Ghising and we are thankful to the West Bengal Chief Minister for taking the demand forward,” Ms. Chettri added.

While the local Communist Party of India (Marxist) welcomed the Centre’s decision, the leadership of the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL), a major Opposition party in the hills, rejected the decision.

“It is only a ploy to defuse the movement for a separate state of Gorkhaland” ABGL chairman Madan Tamang said in Darjeeling.

A Bill is to be brought in the winter session of Parliament for the necessary amendments, which will pave the way for the setting up of the new council in the hills areas of Darjeeling district.

The West Bengal Government had signed a Memorandum of Settlement with Mr. Ghisingh for the formation of the new body.

The DGHC had virtually ceased to exist after 27 out of the 28 existing elected councillors resigned their posts at the instance of the GNLF leadership in March 2005, claiming that the council they were representing had turned “redundant”.

This was followed by the State Government nominating Mr. Ghising as a “caretaker” DGHC chairman till the setting up of a new council for the Darjeeling hills under the Sixth Schedule.

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