Siliguri: The hills of Darjeeling are set to see a historic tripartite pact on Monday between the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), the West Bengal government and New Delhi. But the Left Front is against it.
“The people of Darjeeling are eagerly waiting for the agreement. This treaty will bring development in the hills,” GJM spokesman and legislator Harka Bhadur Chetri said.
Apart from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will also attend the event at the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) resort in Sukna in Kurseong sub-division.
After ending the Left Front’s 34-year rule, Banerjee opened a dialogue with the GJM to resolve the long pending problem of the hills.
Last month, after a series of meetings with the GJM leadership, Banerjee claimed the Darjeeling issue has been resolved.
The GJM, however, said it has not gone back on its demand for Gorkhaland and called the pact the “foundation of a separate state”.
There is speculation that GJM chief Bimal Gurung opted out of signing the treaty due to resentment among a section of hill people that he had scaled down his demand for statehood.
“It is a decision taken by the president that GJM general secretary Roshan Giri will sign the pact,” Chetri said.
Meanwhile, the Left Front said the proposed agreement will only aggravate the problem of the hills. Leader of the opposition in the West Bengal assembly Surjya Kanta Mishra said he would stay away from the function.
North Bengal, particularly the plains of Darjeeling, saw several shutdowns this week called by political and social groups to protest the proposed pact.
These organisations, which include Amra Bangalee and Rashtriya Shiv Sena, plans to organise protest rallies on Monday.
The demand for Gorkhaland covering parts of northern Bengal gained momentum in the 1980s under the leadership of Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) supremo Subash Ghising.
But the reins of the movement were later taken over by the Bimal Gurung-led GJM. (IANS)
