Withdraw cases against members, implement autonomous status:

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) today told the state government that the autonomous status given to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) should be implemented immediately and demanded that all cases against members of the hill body be withdrawn.
"The GTA should be allowed to function in a purely autonomous way. All departmental functions should be transferred to it. There should also be a separate committee for districts," Roshan Giri, general secretary of GJM and an executive member of the GTA Sabha, said after a bipartite meeting with the state government at Gorkha Bhavan here.
GJM MLAs Harkabahadur Chhetri and Rohit Sharma were also present at the meeting, and the state was represented by Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra and Home Secretary Basudeb Banerjee and other officials.

Giri said the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere and they had placed their demands before the state government, which included withdrawal of all non-murder cases against GTA members, as per the decision of the tripartite meeting held early this year.
Besides, demands were placed for recruitment of Gorkha youths in the state's police force in line with such appointments made in the Junglemahal, he said.
Stating there were around 4,000 vacancies in the GTA, Giri said they should be filled in immediately for the body to function smoothly.
The GJM general secretary said they have also demanded that the state government accord the status of minister of state to 14 GTA executive members and cabinet rank to its chief executive.

A tripartite meeting would be held with the Centre tomorrow at the state secretariat, Nabanna.