Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) leader Mr Binay Tamang, and chairman of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) on Saturday said that he would meet Sikkim chief minister Mr Pawan Chamling on 27 March at Gangtok to further strengthen the relationship of the Hills with the Sikkim government.

This meeting comes soon after the recent meeting of the West Bengal chief minister Mamta Banerjee and Mr Chamling at Uttarkanya on 16 March where both talked about maintaining a cordial relationship between the two states.

“The good relationship with Sikkim started after the recent meeting of the two CMs. Last year, during the strike period there had been misunderstandings which were cleared. I am thankful for the same. The meeting was important looking at the issues of the Darjeeling hills and the incident of the 2017 agitation. The meeting between me and the Sikkim CM could be said to be a follow up progress of the earlier meeting of the two CMs. That meeting paved the way and the 27th meeting will further better the way,” said Mr. Tamang who also maintained that the Morcha leader and GTA vice chairman Anit Thapa will also be present in the meeting.

“The GTA has not given a objection certificate (NOC) for railway lines as we had made three demands. The 63 km of road stretch falls under the GTA but when a tunnel is being made about 43 km is being used. One of our demands was that when there is an underground rail line we should have stations over the ground for our people in different places like they have one at Ramphu from where they can straight away go to different cities while our people have to go to NJP.”

“We had demanded for three railway stations but recently it was agreed that four stations would be given to us at Kalijohra, Rambhi and Malli where the stations will be over the ground while at Teesta it will be an underground station,” said Mr. Tamang.

“I also thank the CM and Sikkim government for giving us time. We should forget whatever has happened in the past and we have a relationship of brothers and should continue it. We should keep aside the misunderstandings that took place earlier,” said Mr. Tamang maintaining there were issues like the railway lines to be laid between Siliguri to Ramphu which would be one of the issues discussed.

The other two demands included that explosives not be used for making the tunnel and instead drilling are used with the area being an earthquake prone and also a landslide area.

The third demand was to have a social welfare project for the people from Sevoke to Ramphu where things like schools, hospitals, and community halls be made along with providing water and ambulances.