Morcha to run GTA, Bimal to continue GL agitation

‘One lakh Gorkhas will do dharna in Delhi’

DARJEELING, October 28, 2013

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) president Bimal Gurung yesterday said there will be peace in hills and no strikes adding that one group will run the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) while he will continue with the Statehood agitation.

Gurung was making his first public address here at Motor Stand after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee left the hills having convinced the GJM to run the GTA for development and not to call bandhs.

“I just want to tell the Chief Minister that I have not come here to fight with anyone as ever since I started my political career my wish has always been peace in the hills. It should be also remembered that the TMC (Trinamul Congress) are doing their agitation ours. Time and again, she says that this area will stay within Bengal and this should not be done as we have our own problems due to which we want to separate from Bengal,” said Gurung.

“GTA is not bigger than Gorkhaland and the movement for it will go on but it will be a peaceful one with no strikes. A section of people has been deputed for running the GTA and they will do that. But I have come for Gorkhaland and I will continue with the agitation,” said Gurung. He asserted that the Morcha has never left the Gorkhaland demand as it has also been written in the GTA agreement.

“When the GTA was functioning there was a lot of interference from the State government and then the issue of Telangana came up. We then started the agitation to show that the Central government that the demand of Gorkhaland has not been dropped,” said Gurung.

He also spoke about the future activities of the Morcha. “Since many have said that we should concentrate our agitation at Delhi, we will now take more than a lakh people a dharna from December 20 to 22. We request that from each constituency that a minimum of 1,000 people should be made ready to go to Delhi. Apart from that about 15,000 Gorkha people will also go from the Northeast along with more people from places like Sikkim, Kolkata and Dehradun,” said Gurung.

The Morcha president also accused the Chief Minister for dividing different communities in the hills. She comes here not for development but to divide different communities in the hills, he said.

“If the Chief Minister wants to form development boards for all the different communities here then she is welcome to do that. But we do not understand that one side she wants us to run the GTA and on the other side she wants to form these different boards,” said Gurung.

Meanwhile, the TMC Hills has claimed the house of their leader Rajit Sundas was torched at Singbung by the Morcha. The GJM has refuted the allegation.

(Courtesy: Sikkim Express)