The Bengal government has scheduled an administrative meeting with the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) on January 31.
The event comes at a time when the BJP allies from Darjeeling are pressing for a tripartite meeting — Centre, state and the GTA — over the region’s issues.
“The meeting will be held with the chief secretary. We will be discussing issues
related to the GTA involving departments like health, education and backward classes welfare department among others,” Anit Thapa, the chief executive of the GTA told this newspaper on Saturday.
The timing of the meeting has raised questions as Darjeeling MP Raju Bista had said that the Centre is keen to hold a meeting to discuss issues related to the region after recently meeting the Union home minister Amit Shah.
There has, however, been no official correspondence regarding the tripartite meeting, said sources.
The last tripartite meeting on “issues related to the Gorkhas” was held on October 12, 2021, in Delhi.
The next meeting was scheduled in November that same year, but has not yet been held in the past three years.
Binay Tamang, the elected GTA Sabha member and former head of the GTA, on Saturday wondered aloud over the timing of the bipartite (state-GTA) meeting.
“I am not opposing the (state-GTA) meeting but as someone who has had an inside view of how things work at that level, questions do arise on its timing,” said Tamang.
The GTA Sabha member also added that if the purpose of this state-GTA meeting “is to derail the proposed meeting of the Centre”, then elected GTA members should not
attend it.
Tamang, on behalf of the GTA, had filed a case at the Supreme Court in September 2016 against the state government and Centre for “failing” to fulfill the provisions of the GTA memorandum of agreement.
The Supreme Court had referred the case to the Calcutta High Court but neither Tamang nor the GTA has followed up on this case since then.
“The GTA must make public issues that it plans to raise with the state government and the subsequent decisions taken in the (January 31) meeting,” said Tamang.