GTA territorial panel banks on language survey to reach a decision

Justice Shyamal Sen Committee,set up to determine the territory of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration,on Friday took a U-turn saying the final decision will be taken on basis of the language census report of 2001 in the Terai and the Dooars area. Nearly a month,the panel had decided that the final decision on chalking out the territory will be taken after a physical survey of the two regions.

The committee today decided that a physical survey of the area is not now required for determining the GTA’s territory. After the meeting,Justice Sen said: “We have asked for 2001census data on the mother tongue of the population living in the mouzas of Terai and the Dooars region. The two regions that are being demanded by the GJM to be included into the GTA. Since the mouza level data are not published by the census directorate,we have asked the state government to write to the census directorate. The state government has accordingly written to the census directorate and the census directorate has sought for the permission of the Union Home Ministry for publishing the data from the main frame of the census. We are waiting for the data at present.”

“If we get the required data,we can finally decide on the territory of the GTA based on it. We might not need to conduct a physical survey as the process might be time taking,” added Sen.

On March 17,the panel gave green signal for physical survey in 398 mouzas of Terai and Dooars regions. The district magistrates of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri were given the responsibility to conduct the survey and submit a report to the committee. However,the joint action committee including 19 non-GJM outfits protested against any such survey in the area.