Gurung lobby claims promise of

IMRANAHMED SIDDIQUI & VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, 06 Oct 2018, New Delhi/Darjeeling: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders who are aligned with Bimal Gurung claimed on Friday that Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba had assured them that "a fact finding team would be sent to Darjeeling to look into charges of misuse of law and order machinery by the district administration and police".

A 10-member delegation led by Lobsang Lama Yolmo, the new working president by the Bimal camp, called on the home secretary at North Block in Delhi on Friday.

A written statement signed by Yolmo and forwarded by Roshan Giri in the social media states: "The union secretary asserted that a fact finding team would be sent to Darjeeling and other places to look into charges of misuse of law and order machinery by the district administration and police".

The statement says the delegation was assured "that the home ministry would seek to hold a tripartite meeting after the Puja holiday".

The delegation which included Kalimpong MLA Sarita Rai reportedly stressed the need to find "a political solution to the long pending demands of Gorkhas and other people of Darjeeling, Kalimpong districts, Terai and Dooars region at the earliest" and to constitute an expert committee to study economic, administrative and political viability of Gorkhaland state.

"The meeting was fruitful and the home secretary assured us that a tripartite meeting would be convened on our demand for Gorkhaland latest by November," said Rai.

The other issues discussed, according to Lama, were granting tribal status to 11 hill communities, transfer of cases related to last year's statehood agitation to the NIA and dropping of cases within the "next 15 days, so that a peaceful dialogue can begin"