Light at the end of Darjeeling tunnel

On Wednesday,a delegation from Gorkha Janmukti Morcha led by its president Bimal Gurung,accepted a Central proposal on elected local body.

The meeting,held in Delhi,was attended by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and the parliamentarian from Darjeeling,Jaswant Singh.

According to the formula,elections will be held for all panchayats and municipalities of Darjeeling. The elected representatives will then elect the people who will comprise the Gorkhaland Regional Authority. “It will be the way the Rajya Sabha is constituted,” said Harka Bahadur Chhetri,Morcha spokesman,who was part of the 5-member team that met Chidambaram.

Now that the proposal has been accepted by the GJM,it will be placed at a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security,which will be convened soon. Thereafter the election for the local bodies will be started.

It was the issue of nomination or election of members of the interim council that had been the stumbling block. The Morcha had been insisting on nominated members. But at a rally in Kolkata last week,Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee made it clear that the state would never accept a council with nominated members.

The same proposal was mooted earlier by the state government,said Ashok Bhattacharya,Minister for Urban Development,who represents the state in the talks.

“At first we asked why a temporary body should have elected members. But then we realised that the state government was using this ploy to defer the interim council,” said Chhetri. “So we accepted elections because we knew will win elections hands down.”

Chidambaram said he has already had a talk with the chief minister and the MHA has prepared a proposal,said Chhetri.

Regarding two other issues ¿ inclusion of Terai and Dooars in the Council ¿ the Morcha leaders said this would be sorted out through talks. The state was guarded in its reaction. Bhattacharya,who claimed the breakthrough was his idea,said he was waiting for full reports. “I have heard from the media about today’s developments and I will convey my reaction when I get the full report,” the minister said.