Mamata Urges PM to Withdraw Order on Appointing Interlocutor on Gorkhas' Issues Yet Again

PTI, KOLKATA, NOV 17, 2025 : Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday again wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reiterating her request to the Centre to revoke the appointment of a retired IPS officer as an interlocutor to hold discussions on issues related to the Gorkhas of the Darjeeling hills.

In her two-page letter to the Prime Minister, Mamata said the move violates constitutional provisions and the state's jurisdiction under the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Act, 2011. Referring to her earlier communication of October 18, Banerjee wrote that the Prime Minister's office had acknowledged her concerns and forwarded those to the Union Home Minister. "It is a matter of grave concern that without any further communication in response to my letter and despite your kind intervention, the office of the interlocutor under the Ministry of Home Affairs has already started functioning," she wrote, calling the development "really shocking."

Mamata described the Centre's decision as "unilateral and arbitrary," stating that it had been undertaken "without any consultation or concurrence of the Government of West Bengal." In the letter, she said: "This is wholly unconstitutional, without jurisdiction, and devoid of any legal sanctity. The said order has no foundation either in the Constitution of India or in any valid statutory provision."

Citing the GTA Act, 2011, which governs Kalimpong and parts of Darjeeling district in north Bengal, the Chief Minister said the statute "expressly defines the government as the government of the state of West Bengal," and therefore "the Central government has no jurisdictional competence to appoint any representative or interlocutor in matters pertaining to these regions."