The Hindu : National : Bipartite talks soon with GJM on Gorkhaland issue

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Bipartite talks soon with GJM on Gorkhaland issue

Special Correspondent

Kolkata: The West Bengal government is keen on bi-partite talks with the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) leadership to discuss ways to restore normality in the Darjeeling hills and a meeting is likely to be held later this week.

Bimal Gurung, GJM president will, however, not be accompanying his colleagues who are expected here on Tuesday to seek a meeting with Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. They will be asking for Mr. Bhattacharjee’s cooperation in facilitating tripartite discussions on the GJM’s demand for a separate State.

No formal communication for talks had reached the State Government as yet but a meeting with the Chief Minister could be arranged if the GJM leaders ask for it, the Home Secretary, Ashok Mohan Chakravarty, said.

The State Government’s view is that tripartite discussions involving the Centre can be held only after bilateral talks — several, if required — fail to resolve the deadlock.

The GJM leadership had earlier ruled out bi-partite talks with the State Government and turned down offers made to it by the Chief Minister for talks “without any condition.” Its change in stand on the issue is being viewed as significant.

Another GJM delegation led by its general secretary, Roshan Giri, left Darjeeling for New Delhi on Monday.

It will be seeking meetings with the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, senior leaders of the Congress and the Leader of the Opposition, L.K. Advani to take forward the GJM’s demand for a separate State, GJM spokesperson, Benoy Tamang, told The Hindu over telephone from Darjeeling.

Meanwhile the Union Home Secretary and the Defence Secretary will be holding talks with officials of the Sikkim government in Gangtok on Tuesday following repeated requests by the latter to the Centre to ensure that the national highway 31 A — the lifeline to the State — is kept open during bandhs called by the GJM in the Darjeeling hills.

“Sikkim has been suffering owing to the bandh calls and the loss to the State exchequer is estimated at nearly Rs. 6 crore a day during the recent spell of the GJM stir that virtually cut off the State from the rest of the country,” an official of the Chief Minister’s secretariat said over telephone from Gangtok.

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