Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to meet Buddha today

Darjeeling/Calcutta, Feb 26: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has agreed to meet chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee tomorrow. Bimal Gurung, the Morcha president, will lead a seven-member delegation to Writers’ Buildings in Calcutta.

The party has also declared a 12-hour relaxation of bandh for tomorrow, starting from 6am.

In line with the Morcha demand for a written invitation, Dipankar Mukhopadhaya, the principal secretary to the chief minister, today sent a letter to Gurung through the Darjeeling district magistrate. “We welcome the invitation. The meeting, we hope, will be fruitful although we will stick to the two demands,” said Gurung.

The Morcha has been demanding the removal of Subash Ghisingh as caretaker administrator of the DGHC and the scrapping of the Sixth Schedule bill. Both the demands had been rejected by the government, following which the Morcha launched a fast-unto-death programme and an indefinite bandh. The protesters also set up road blockades to prevent Ghisingh from entering the hills after his return from Delhi on February 18. The GNLF chief was forced to stay in Pintail, on the outskirts of Siliguri, for four days after which he shifted to Calcutta.

The state today offered Ghisingh adequate security to enable him to return to Darjeeling. The government is likely to urge the Morcha not to obstruct the GNLF chief’s passage to the hills.

Ghisingh met chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb, home secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray and director-general of police A.B. Vohra at Writers’ Buildings. He told them that work in the DGHC has “come to a standstill’’ because of his absence.

“In 2001, there was an attack on Ghisingh and that happens to be a source of worry. The government has decided to make adequate arrangements to ensure his safe journey to the hills,’’ said Deb.

On his part, Ghisingh said: “Going back to the hills was never an issue. It is not a problem at all.’’

Gurung has, however, warned that if the talks fail tomorrow, the Morcha will have no alternative but to “intensify the agitation”.

In Delhi, a meeting between the chief minister and a delegation of six anti-GNLF parties, except the Morcha, could not take place today as Bhattacharjee had to fly back to Calcutta.