Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday assured the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) that the process for implementing the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, the new hill council in Darjeeling, would be completed within 10 to 12 days.
“The chief minister has assured us that the process for implementing the GTA will be completed within ten to 12 days,” GJM General Secretary Roshan Giri told reporters here after a meeting with the chief minister.
Banerjee had taken up the GTA issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on February 22 in New Delhi as she had promised the GJM, which had threatened to burn copies of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Bill if it did not receive presidential assent by March 27.
Earlier on February 11, the chief minister on a visit to Darjeeling had blamed the Centre for the delay in implementation of the GTA and said that New Delhi had sought certain clarifications which had also been sent.
On February 28, a GJM delegation led by its president, Bimal Gurung, had met Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in Delhi and had given him an ultimatum. Chidambaram had told the GJM that the formalities for the bill were in process.
The GTA Bill was passed in the West Bengal Assembly on September two last year.
The tripartite agreement was signed on July 18 last year in the presence of Chidambaram, Banerjee and Gurung at Pintail village, about 8 km from Siliguri.
Banerjee also announced Rs 2 lakh for the family members of the three killed in police firing at Siphu on February 8 last year, the GJM general secretary said.
The chief minister said that she would take up the issue of electricity bills not paid by hill residents between August 2007 and August 2011 when the GJM agitation was in full swing, with the power minister.
A committee headed by the Home secretary would be formed to look into the cases against GJM workers and supporters was another assurance given by the chief minister.
