The Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha(Binoy Tamang camp) has decided to move ahead with different issues in the coming days which, leaders said,they will be taking up with the central and the state governments,along with the Election Commission.

A decision to this effect was taken in their party meeting held at Soureni in Mirik yesterday. Some of the important issues the party would take up include the parja-patta (land rights documents) and Block bifurcation.

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“There are different issues which we will take forward with some of them being related to the state government, some with the Centre and one with the Election Commission. We will communicate with them regarding these agendas,” Morcha leader, Mr Tamang,said.

According to leaders, the issues they will take up with the state government include parja-patta for residents of tea gardens, cinchona plantation,forest villagers, DI Fund and Development areas, and lease lands in Municipality areas, and also registration of Dalil Patra which was done during the period of the Left Front.

“The Bengal government had started distributing TitleDeeds for forest villagers in2018, and now we have to speed up the process. A parjapatta committee had also been formed with a survey to be done by the government,but all government work has stopped due to the Covid pandemic. The survey has to be done fast after the situation improves. We wSill do what needs to be done with Nabbana regarding this matter, apart from which, awareness programmes will also be conducted for this,” Mr Tamang said.

Other issues which will betaken up with the state government on a war footing will include increase in the number of blocks in the GTA area from 8 to 15 and 112 gram panchayats to 173 or more, upgradation of the Darjeeling Municipality to a Corporation and converting Mirik Municipalityto a full-fledged one with it presently a notified area.

“We will also write to thePrime minister and home minister regarding the issue of identity, safety and security of the Gorkhas in the country,along with letters to theExternal Affairs Ministry for the amendment of the Indo-NepalFriendship Treaty and the removal of clause 7 in it. One of the issues we will take up with the Centre will also be the tribal status for 11 left outGorkha communities,” MrTamang added.

According to him, GTA chairman Anit Thapa will also write to the Centre, asking that the GTA area be declared a “tax holiday zone” and GTA brought under the Development OfNorth Eastern Region (DONER).

Speaking on the MinimumWages in tea gardens, he said,”The tea gardens are running on state lease-hold lands and apart from that the LabourMinistry and the Tea AdvisoryCouncil is under the state government. However, the tea industry is under theIndustry and Commerce ministry,which is under the Centre,along with the Tea Board of India and the Tea AdvisoryBoard, which has done nothing regarding this matter even though the state government is interested in this issue. The GTA will write to these three bodies under theCentre regarding this issue.”

Maintaining that no delimitation would be done of Assembly Segments till 2026,he said that they would, however,start demanding that the present three MLA constituencies in the GTA area be increased to six. He said that they were proposing new segments be made of Jore bunglow, Mirik and Gorubathan areas.

“With six MLA constituencies,a separate parliamentary segment should be made. We will write to both theElection Commissions regarding this,” he said.