Statehood call

TT, Siliguri, Nov. 13: The Gorkha Jan Kalyan Manch, a newly formed organisation, will start its movement over the demand of the separate state Gorkhaland from November 15.

Krishna Chhetri, its president, today said: "Our only aim is to get Gorkhaland for development of the residents of the hills, and particularly the Gorkha communities in the region. Keeping this in mind, we have decided to launch our movement in Siliguri from next Tuesday. We will organise our movement, keeping in mind the Indian Constitution."

When asked to elaborate on the movement, he said: "We will disclose the nature of our movement on Tuesday here. It will be non-violent and democratic."

Chhetri, once a member of Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League, has resigned from the organisation last month.

He claimed the outfit had already sent a memorandum to Union home minister Rajnath Singh about their demand for a separate state and on their upcoming agitation programmes. "Our members have held a public-contact programme across the region from November 3. It ended today. The idea was to garner support in favour of our organisation and the demand," Chhetri said.

He ruled out any possibilities for joining hands with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha as the hill party has also raised the same demand of statehood since 2007, when it was formed. The Manch, he said, will also abstain from the participating at the ensuing civic and panchayat elections likely to be held across the hills early next year.

"Leaders like Subhash Ghisingh and the Morcha president Bimal Gurung have raised their voices for Gorkhaland. But people have seen results of the movements for that they had launched. Now we have decided to start a fresh movement for our statehood demand. Though we have our support base in the hills, we will not contest the civic body and rural body polls. Our aim is to get separate state and we will go for it," he added.