The Mamata Banerjee-government is going slow on setting up the proposed police commissionerate at Siliguri.
This decision has been taken to pacify the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which has threatened to go back to the warpath after Justice (retired) Shyamal Kumar Sen committee recommended the inclusion of only 5 mouzas to the GTA against a demand of 396 by GJM. Moreover, the state government has also withheld the decision to create a new Alipurdooars district, bifurcating Jalpaiguri district.
Meanwhile, the meeting between Ms Banerjee and the GJM was on Tuesday deferred to June 16 after she received an urgent message from Congress president Sonia Gandhi to meet her for talks in New Delhi on the presidential polls. “The GJM had raised serious objections to both the plans: setting up of Siliguri police commissionerate and creating Alipurdooars district. Hence, we have decided to go slow on both,” highly-placed sources in the Writers’ Buildings conversant with the development informed.
On being contacted, state home secretary Basudeb Banerjee admitted that the state administration was going slow on setting up the Siliguri police commissionerate. He, however, refused to admit that the decision was taken to placate the agitating GJM. “It is not linked with the present development in the hills. Setting up a police commissionerate involves huge funds and that’s why we are going slow on this,” he said. Chief secretary Samar Ghosh had earlier vehemently opposed the setting up of commissionarate in Siliguri saying there was no basis for the plan.
At the same time, the ruling TMC has adopted a separate strategy to take on the GJM politically. On Monday, over a 1000 GJM workers joined the Trinamul Congress which is trying to make inroads in the hills to weaken the GJM’s virtually monopolistic stronghold there. “The TMC is following the same policy that was once adopted by the CPI(M). Earlier, the CPI(M) also had encouraged some organisations in the plains to launch movement against the GJM’s demand to include some areas of Terai and Dooars into the DGHC (Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council).