Siliguri, Sept. 13: The Centre will soon hold a special meeting to discuss the issues pertaining to the Darjeeling hills, the Dooars and the Terai.
An assurance to the effect is understood to have been given by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to a delegation of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha led by its president Bimal Gurung in New Delhi on Thursday. The delegation, which called on Shah, also included Bharatiya Janata Party’s Darjeeling MP Raju Bista.
In a release issued to the media, Gurung said the 35-minute-long meeting with the Home Minister discussed a host of issues, during the course of which, Shah mentioned about the Centre’s plan to hold a special meeting on the hills, the Dooars and the Terai. Gurung, however, didn’t reveal what would be the main agenda of the proposed talks.
The Morcha team, Gurung said, also took the opportunity to remind Shah of the BJP’s promise to grant Scheduled Tribe status to 11 Gorkha communities and find a permanent political solution bearing in mind the long-pending demand of the Gorkhas for a separate state by carving out Bengal.
Yesterday’s meeting is being seen as a clear indication of the improving relationship between the Morcha and BJP, which had suffered a setback after Gurung decided to side with the Trinamul Congress in the lead up to the 2021 Bengal Asssembly election. However, the ties between the two parties have been on the mend since the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year.
