The Telegraph

Siliguri, Feb. 8: Urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya has urged the chief minister to talk to the Centre and announce the date of the fifth round of tripartite talks with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

“I have talked to the chief minister this morning over the phone. He has told me that he will discuss the issue with Union home minister P. Chidambaram, who will meet the chief ministers of Maoist-affected states in Calcutta tomorrow. I have also apprised him of the present situation in the hills and conveyed the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s demand for a tripartite meeting at the earliest,” Bhattacharya told reporters here today.

The minister, the CPM MLA of Siliguri, was reacting to the claim made by Morcha president Bimal Gurung that the date of the next round of talks would be announced by February 10.

Sources in the Union home ministry today hinted that an agreement with the Morcha might be reached at the fifth round of talks, the date for which will be announced after a cabinet committee meeting in Delhi on Wednesday.

Bhattacharya welcomed the Morcha’s proposal of an “interim arrangement” till the Assembly election in 2011. “I have come to know about their (Morcha’s) latest stand through the media and I welcome the move that they have agreed to an interim arrangement. I feel it is a positive response from their side,” he said.

Sources in the home ministry, however, said a “separate Gorkha state was out of question”.

In Darjeeling, however, Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said yesterday that the “secret” proposal sent by Gurung to the Centre pertained to an “interim arrangement” for the area the party wants as Gorkhaland till the Assembly election in 2011. “Every point in our proposal will have to be accepted. However, there will be no compromise on Gorkhaland,” he said.

The minister, however, refrained from commenting on the areas that the Morcha wants as Gorkhaland. “It will be too hypothetical to comment on the issue as nothing has been decided and the dialogue is going on,” Bhattacharya said.

The CPM leader reacted sharply to the Morcha president’s remark at a public meeting in Kalimpong yesterday. Gurung had warned that he would not accept someone like Bhattacharya representing the state government at the talks.

Bhattacharya said: “In that case, I, too, can adopt a similar stand of not participating in any meeting where he (Gurung) is present. However, I am not going into any confrontation with them as the representative of the state government will be decided by the chief minister.”

On the Morcha’s threat to chase out the civil and police officials of the district if the fifth round of talks failed, the minister said any move like this would only affect the congenial environment necessary for dialogue. Morcha leaders should try to understand that peace is the pre-condition to hold any dialogue, he said.

Earlier, the minister handed over a cheque of Rs 12,500 to each of the 162 families of Matangini Colony as a financial assistance from the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority. The families had become homeless after a fire broke out in the slum in October.

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