Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to visit Darjeeling hills in the first week of August to witness the formation of the first body of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). It has been learnt that governor M.K. Narayanan may also visit Darjeeling at the same time. The GTA elections will be held on July 29 and the results will be declared on August 2.
According to the GTA elections notification issued by the state government, August 10 is the deadline for completion of poll process and formation of the GTA Sabha. However, the state government is planning to complete the entire process by first week of August. Chief secretary Samar Ghosh and home secretary Basudeb Banerjee are scheduled to visit Darjeeling this week to finalise the date for the formation of the GTA Sabha.
In the 45-seat GTA, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) has “already won” 28 seats uncontested. Hence, only the remaining 17 constituencies will go to polls on July 29. “Since the GJM is all set to come to power in GTA, the chief minister wants to form the GTA Sabha soon after the announcement of the poll results. Primarily, it has been decided that GTA Sabha will be formed on August 4. However, the final date will be announced after the chief secretary and home secretary visit Darjeeling this week,” highly-placed sources in the Writers’ Buildings said.
Meanwhile, the chief minister is likely to inaugurate the police commissionerate at Siliguri during her visit to the hills. It may be recalled that the chief secretary had raised serious objections to the formation of this police commissionerate at Siliguri, calling it totally unjustified. He had said that it will create serious problems because of the topography and logistics issues relating to the two districts of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri. It also does not meet the criterion for setting up of the commissionerate.
But the chief secretary’s objection was overruled by the chief minister.