Include only 5 mouzas in plains in GTA: Panel

The GJM while rejecting the Justice (retd) Shyamal Sen Committee report termed it as ‘biased and insulting’ and threatened a renewed stir in the hills.

Of the five mouzas recommended for inclusion,two were Samsing and Chalouni in Jalpaiguri district and three– M M Terai,Gulmakhari and East Kalaibari– in Darjeeling district,Chief Secretary Samar Ghosh said. A mouza is an area less than a sub-division.

The hill council runs the administration in the three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling district – Darjeeling,Kalimpong and Kurseong.

Making public the report of the committee,Ghosh told reporters that the recommendations have been made on the basis of “homogeneity,contiguity,compactness and ground- level situation of the mouzas.”

The 10-member committee was set up after the signing of the tripartite agreemment by the Centre,the state government and GJM on July 18 last year for setting up a new hill council GTA to replace the existing Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.

During the signing of the agreement,Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had made it clear that there could not be a further division of Bengal.

“We are not accepting the report of Justice Shyamal Sen Committee. This is insulting and biased. We will take recourse to agitation,” GJM General Secretary Roshan Giri said.

GJM had demanded that 398 Gorkha-dominated areas in the adjoining plains in the Terai and Dooars in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts should also be included under the jurisdiction of GTA.