The meeting convened by labour minister Moloy Ghatak to resolve the bonus issue for tea workers in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) area ended inconclusively.
Hundreds of people staged a dharna (demonstration) in Kurseong since morning, protesting the death of a 15-year-old girl, who was hit by a toy train.
Amid ongoing protests by a section of tea workers in Darjeeling Hills, who have halted plucking of green leaves over pending bonus payments, labour minister Moloy Ghatak has stepped in to resolve the crisis. He has called for a meeting on 3 April in Siliguri to address the issue.
The Gorkha Youth Activist Network (GYAN), a group actively researching land rights for tea garden workers in the Darjeeling hills, today released a crucial Right to Information (RTI) response that clarifies long-standing confusion over land allotment policies in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) region.
Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) chief Anit Thapa on Saturday reaffirmed his commitment to holistic development in the Hills, citing multiple infrastructural projects initiated in ward 45 under GTA’s jurisdiction.
Mr Thapa was addressing the audience during the foundation stone laying ceremony for an IT Park in Kurseong in Darjeeling today.
The Chief Executive of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), Mr Anit Thapa, on Sunday held a meeting at Kurseong with the leaders of all trade unions operating in tea plantations in the area on the issue of land survey and execution of the proposed plan to distribute deed of land rights (Patta) among tea workers in the Hills.
The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) has taken an in-principle decision not to allow setting up of fresh hydropower projects in the hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong.
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.
"The economy has gone down, and we should lift it up," she said, reiterating that elections to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), panchayat and the three other hill municipalities would be held, and that the elected representatives should do good work.
