Mamata and Chidambaram to be at GTA oath-taking ceremony

SNS, KOLKATA, 17 JULY: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has invited the Union home minister, Mr P Chidambaram to Darjeeling for the oath-taking ceremony on 4 August following the formation of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). Miss Banerjee revealed that she had also spoken to the Governor, Mr MK Narayanan so that he can swear-in the GTA members that day. Miss Banerjee also said that the MLAs from the Hills would be voting in the Presidential election in the Legislative Assembly and the GJMM would also participate in the Trinamul rally to be held on 21 July.
KalimNews: Gorkhaland Territorial Administration is a semi-autonomous administrative body for the Darjeeling hills in West Bengal, India. The GTA will replace the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, which was formed in 1988 and administered the Darjeeling hills for 23 years. GTA presently has three hill subdivisions Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and Kurseong and some areas of Siliguri subdivision under its authority.
After three years of agitation for a state of Gorkhaland led by GJM, the GJM reached an agreement with the state government to form a semi-autonomous body to administer the Darjeeling hills.A bill for the creation of GTA was passed in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on 2 September 2011.The GTA will have administrative, executive and financial powers but no legislative powers. A 10-member joint verification committee headed by a retired High Court judge would examine the demand to bring the Gorkha-inhabited pockets of the Dooars and the Terai under the GTA.
The Memorandum of Agreement for GTA was signed on 18 July 2011 at Pintail Village near Siliguri in the presence of Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders. The agreement was signed by West Bengal Home Secretary G.D. Gautama, Union Home Ministry Joint Secretary K.K. Pathak and GJM general secretary Roshan Giri.
The West Bengal government announced that the election for the GTA would be held on July 29, 2012. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha announced that it would contest the GTA polls, which it had earlier threatened to boycott over the Justice Sen-headed committee recommendations on territorial inclusion of the Dooars and Terai that it had rejected. After a period of silence, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha announced the names of its GTA election nominees. Parties that formed the Gorkhaland Task Force (CPRM, ABGL, Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh, GNLF(C), Gorkhaland Rajya Nirman Morcha and others) decided not contest the GTA elections. Both CPI(M) and Trinamool Congress fielded candidates in the election.The GNLF decided to boycott the elections and its chairman filed a case in the Kolkata High Court challenging the GTA. The CPI(M) withdrew the nominations of all its 13 candidates from the GTA elections, alleging threats and intimidation by the GJM and the GJM bagged 28 seats of the GTA uncontested. Of the uncontested winners Bimal Gurung, his wife Asha Gurung, Roshan Giri, Binay Tamang and others like Ramesh Allay the GLP Chief.(Wikipedia)