In a significant political development in the Hills, the President of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), Mann Ghisingh, has stepped down as the chairman of the Hill Area Development Committee (HADC) and other ‘prestigious posts’ given by the state government.

Mr Ghisingh has also called upon everyone to come forward for a ‘permanent solution’ to the Hill issue. Addressing the 83rd birth anniversary function of his father and founder of the GNLF, the Late Subhas Ghisingh, at the GDNS Hall here, Mann Ghisingh said that he had accepted the HADC by considering the needs of the people and to do something for the Hills.

“However, due to various reasons, nothing positive was done by them through the HADC. It instead brought in dispute and groupism in the party. Not only this, people have made different comments on the HADC. Moreover, I now believe that such kind of small arrangements and small ministership, cannot solve the long-pending issue of the Hill people permanently. Hence, keeping in mind all these things, I have decided to quit from the HADC and other prestigious posts of the state government,” Mr Ghisingh said.

According to him, he, along with the party’s two other portfolio holders in the HADC, sent his resignation letter to the principal secretary of the state government today.

“I have nothing to say to the state government, and I have no direct dispute with the it, but considering the aspirations of the Hill people and a permanent solution to the Hill issue, I want to appeal to the state government to revive and continue bipartite talks, by taking all small and big parties of the Hills, and not selected ones, in finding a permanent solution to the Hill issue,” he said.

Mr Ghisingh further said that ever since the formation of the GNLF, the party has done several things for the Gorkha Community and that it has always supported the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland. “As such, if Gorkhaland happens, it is definitely a good thing, but given the present scenario, the Sixth Schedule status for Darjeeling Hills under the Indian Constitution is one of the best alternatives that can solve the long-pending problems of the Hills,” he said.

With a view to strengthening and “purifying” his party, Mr Ghisingh also dissolved all frontal wings, branch committees, and the central committee of the party today, except for the party’s trade union and ex-armymen wings.

In a notification it issued on 13 November last year, the state government formed the HADC under Mr Ghisingh, and said that the body would supervise development work in “specific sectors” in the Hills. The government said that the supplementary development body would work in areas and subjects as the state government assigns it from time to time.

The HADC had GNLF general secretary Mahendra Chhetri as the vice-chairman and party leader Ajay Edwards and Trinamul Hill leader Subhomoy Chaterjee as members. Very recently, the government had given Mr Ghisingh a rank equivalent to that of a minister of state.