All India Gurung Tamu Buddhist Association submits memorandum to CM for ST status

SNS, Sukna, 24 January 2014: All India Gurung Tamu Buddhist Association served a memorandum to the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee at Sukna, demanding Scheduled Tribe (ST) status today. The CM did not personally receive the memorandum, though someone took it on her behalf, it is learnt. The memorandum was served at Sukna as the CM was staying at Sukna Forest Bungalow since last evening before leaving for Kolkata today.

The association’s secretary, Mr Anand Gurung, said since the inception of the organisation in 1992, they kept running from pillar to post to get ST status for the tribal community from the Centre. “We served a number of memorandums to the Centre and also to the erstwhile Bengal chief ministers ~ Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee ~ asking them to take up the matter, but to no avail. Now we are looking up to the present chief minister who we accept as a true friend of the Hills. Things would happen if the CM takes the demand up with the Centre," Mr Gurung said. “If we would get the ST status a development board would naturally follow. So we are concerned about it,” he said.

Arguing for the status, he said the demand is justified, given the sad plight of the community in terms of development. “We are lagging behind in every sphere despite the fact that its present population in the Hills is over 1 lakh,” he added.

Another member, Mani Gurung said they had great hope of the CM taking things up on their behalf.

Meanwhile, GJMM chief, Bimal Gurung said demands for development councils by ethnic and sub-ethnic groups in the Hills are justified ~ a u-turn from his previous stance of the matter. He had dubbed the state government’s strategy vis-à-vis the matter as one of driving wedges among the communities when state and GTA were sparring.

“However, as long as I am at the helm of Hill politics I will not allow any divisive game to succeed,” he said.