Yuva Morcha piles statehood pressure.....GJMM youth activists raise Gorkhaland pitch

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, Darjeeling, July 18: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s youth wing today demanded the dissolution of the GTA on the second anniversary of the signing of the memorandum to bring the autonomous body into being. 

Sources in the hills said the Yuva Morcha’s call was a pressure tactic with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s blessings as the hill party feels a decision on the Telangana statehood issue is imminent in Delhi. 

“We demand dissolution of the GTA as we want Gorkhaland, which is the only means to secure the political identity of the Gorkhas (living in India). The Yuva Morcha has come forward for the cause of Gorkhaland and we will not step back now,” said Priyabardan Rai, general secretary of the Yuva Morcha, at a street-corner meeting at Chowk Bazar in Darjeeling. 

Sources in the party said the Yuva Morcha was taking a stand according to the directive of party president Bimal Gurung. 

“Bimal Gurung held a closed-door meeting at Gorkha Rangamanch Bhavan on Tuesday when he had made it clear to the youths that the party must not sit idle when the positive developments are taking place with regard to creation of a separate state of Telangana,” said a Morcha leader on condition of anonymity. 

Nothing definite on Telangana has emerged from Delhi yet. PTI quoted Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde saying today: “The (Congress) party is discussing the matter. I cannot disclose details. 

But a decision will be taken soon — either this way or that way.” Asked about the Yuva Morcha’s meeting and the party’s stand, Morcha senior leader Roshan Giri said: “We want Gorkhaland to be formed when Telangana is created.” 

He refused to take questions.SNS, GJMM youth activists raise Gorkhaland pitch.

SNS, Darjeeling, 18 July 2013: The slogans for Gorkhaland once again echoed throughout the Darjeeling Hills today, as the youths and students associated with the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha’s affiliates took out a mammoth rally in Darjeeling to mark the second anniversary of the signing of the tripartite Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) agreement. They made it clear that they are against the GTA. They vowed to struggle with everything at their disposal for Gorkhaland ~ their paramount demand.
However, the offices associated with GTA Sabha remained closed to mark the significance of the day.
The observers said that the party chief, Mr Bimal Gurung would bide time before resurrecting the stir in full for separate statehood for the Gorkhas in the Darjeeling Hills and the Terai-Dooars. 
“He will keep waiting for the Telangana trajectory to unfold. It is just a matter of time for the Centre to take a final call on the issue of bifurcating Andhra Pradesh,” an observer said. 
However, the party’s frontal wings involving the youths and the students appeared to be in no mood for waiting.
The pro-Gorkhaland rallies that were taken out in all the three sub-divisions of the Hills are a signal to the party leadership that it would prove difficult for it to cling to the GTA if Telangana is carved out.
The general secretary of the Morcha’s youth wing, Mr Priyabardan Rai, said the Hills have not seen much development since the tripartite agreement had been signed two years ago. 
“The Bengal government is responsible for the lack of development in the Hills. The GTA experiment has failed. We do not want to be suppressed any longer.
 Hence we have taken to the streets to demand Gorkhaland,” he said while addressing the meeting in Darjeeling.