Gurung set to return as GTA chief

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with GJM chief Bimal Gurung in Kolkata 

ENS, Kolkata, 20 December 2013: Bimal Gurung is set to return to the GTA as the chief executive, ending months of suspense over his joining the "failed" outfit. Gurung announced the decision after meeting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today. 

The GJM president will swear in as the chief executive of the GTA on December 26 at Raj Bhawan. 

Describing the tiff between the state government and the Morcha as 'problem in the family', Gurung said: "If there is a problem in a family, the members have to resolve it... and we are doing just that." 

On his decision to join the GTA, Gurung said: "Mamata Banerjee has requested us to run the GTA. So I have decided to join the GTA for the sake of development in the Hills." When asked about the Gorkhaland issue, he said, "That is not on our agenda now." 

Gurung, who only three months ago, had warned tourists not to come to Darjeeling, Friday pitched the hill station as an ideal tourist destination. 

"We welcome tourists to Darjeeling. There will be no inconvenience for them. Come to Darjeeling and enjoy the snowfall." Gurung also asked the state government to conduct the panchayat polls in Darjeeling after the general elections next year. 

"We want the panchayat election to be held in July. We want the two-tier arrangement to be amended to a three-tier system," he said. 

The Morcha leaders Friday also raised the issue of releasing the arrested GTA members. "We have asked the CM to consider the issue of arrested members. 

She said she will look into it. Since these are legal matters, it will take time. 

We have assured her that the situation in the Hills will be normal and there is no need of arresting people," he added.

TNN, KOLKATA: GJM chief Bimal Gurung met chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday in Kolkata, where Gurung announced his return as head of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). Gurung had quit the post after the Hills outfit went on the warpath against the state government. 
Gurung will take oath at Raj Bhavan on December 26, putting the Gorkhaland demand on the back burner. But Gurung kept silent on the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, though speculation is rife that the GJM might gift it to the Trinamool this time. 
Prior to the meeting, GJM leaders held discussions with the CM and finance minister Amit Mitra, chief secretary Sanjay Mitra and home secretary Basudeb Banerjee in a bid to sort out the niggling problems coming in the way of development in the Hills. 
The CM assured them that the problems of GJM activists in custody would be looked into but said it would take time because of procedural problems. 
Gurung's oath-taking at Raj Bhavan is being viewed as a masterstroke by the CM, three months after Gurung quit the GTA CEO post following differences with the state government. 
Mamata, though, didn't yield to the GTA pressure tactics. Her uncompromising stance against disruption in the Hills forced Gurung to re-join GTA. 
Even the GJM chief agreed that it would take some time to release the arrested GJM activists, "as legal process takes time". 
Several hundred GJM supporters who had joined the agitation after Gurung's resignation and had brought life in the Hills to a standstill had been arrested. Gurung, however, assured that life is now back to normal in the Hills and tourists would face no problem.