As initiatives have started for another round of meetings for a permanent political solution in the hills of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and Kurseong in north West Bengal
A court in Mumbai has directed Shenpenn Khymsar, a Darjeeling-based filmmaker, to repay more than Rs 3 crore that he had allegedly borrowed from a person in Portugal for making a film.
A former GNLF (Gorkha National Liberation Front) activist Bhawesh Bhujel, resident of Kalimpong, has informed the President of India Droupadi Murmu that a group of Gorkhas will start 'fast unto death' under Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) area demanding a separate state of Gorkhaland from 22 August. Mr Bhujel has written a letter to the President Droupadi Murmu seeking her intervention in resolving the issue amicably.
After facing a disaster in the hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong in the recently concluded panchayat polls in West Bengal, the BJP seems to be heading for yet another complication with Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) supremo Bimal Gurung hinting at distancing his party with the saffron camp unless the latter announces its definite standpoint on the issue of separate 'Gorkhaland' state.
Notably, Mr Sharma had met the Joint Director of the CBI in Kolkata on 16 June, and appealed him to investigate the alleged illegal appointment of teachers in governmentaided schools under the GTA.
"We welcome Bimal Gurung's commitment to peace and decision to withdraw support from NDA, while reposing faith in Mamata Banerjee's leadership. BJP's attempts to use Gorkhaland issue for petty politics and teir untrustworthy nature now lay fully exposed before people of Bengal," the party said in its official Twitter handle.
The leader of the other faction of the Morcha, Anit Thapa, said that today's development had showed how Mr Gurung had misled the people.
Another state BJP leader says PPS does not mean Gorkhaland; Raju Bista says Centre talks on 7 Oct were just the beginning
Darjeeling District Trinamul Congress president Ranjan Sarkar also said it was a ploy of the BJP to bring the 'Gorkhaland' issue to the forefront when the Mamata Banerjeel ed state government had been carrying out development work in the Hills and when peace had prevailed there.
Addressing the press in his office here, he said that the decision of the central government to call a tripartite meeting and issue letters to officials directly without informing the state government is totally against the system of parliamentary democracy, the country's federal structure and as such, objectionable.
