GTA seeks autonomy, wants members freed

The GTA delegation led by Roshan Giri and Harka Bahadur Chhetri Wednesday sought "absolute autonomy" in the first bipartite meeting held between GTA and the state government after the indefinite strike was called off by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) in Darjeeling. "We want absolute autonomy. We were given autonomy according to the agreement, but we face difficulty in implementing it. Two years have passed since the agreement was signed, but the departments are yet to be transferred. We have requested the government to accelerate the process, " said Roshan Giri. "We also want the backward region grant fund," he said. The GTA delegation also want the release of GJM men and GTA executive members who are behind bars. "Ten of the GTA members are in jail and atleast 2,000 GJM men were arrested during the indefinite strike,"said Harka Bahadur Chhetri, adding GTA executive members who enjoy the status of secretary must be awarded the status of minister of state. Wednesday's meeting was attended by chief secretary Sanjay Mitra, home secretary Basudeb Banerjee, DGP, GNP Reddy, R D Meena, principal secretary to the GTA. Demand for a fact-verification committee to start field verification on the issue of determining the territory of the GTA has also been raised. Chhetri said: "We have demanded that some of the mouzas of the Terai and Dooras be included in GTA territory. A commission led by Justice Shyamal Sen had submitted a report that said five mouzas be included in the GTA. We have rejected the report and the CM must set up a fact verification committee." The GJM delegation also urged the state government to release the funds of DGHC. "Before the DGHC was scrapped, there was corpus of Rs 119 crore with the DGHC. We want the funds to be released to GTA," said Roshan Giri. According to sources, Rs 70 crore have already been released by the state government.