Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, West Bengal government, Centre should sit to end hill stalemate: Biman Bose

KOLKATA/DARJEELING: The Left Front urged the West Bengal government, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the Centre to hold talks to end the stalemate in the Darjeeling hills and find a realistic solution.

"A stalemate prevails in the hills as the GJM and the state government have taken contrary stands. To end the impasse as well as to to find a realistic solution, the three should sit immediately," Front chairman Biman Bose said.

He said that they should not adopt a rigid attitude and immediately sit on the negotiation table.

Meanwhile, a large number of school students today gathered at Chowk Bazar in Darjeeling town in response to GJM president Bimal Gurung's call for student rallies in the hills for five days starting from today.

However, the other constituents of the Gorkhaland Joint Action Committee, the nodal body of eight political parties, have decided in principle to keep schools and colleges out of the ambit of the agitation.

Nearly 5,000 students held demonstration at Chowk Bazar shouting slogans in support of a separate state.

GJM general secretary Roshan Giri had yesterday said his party would not attend the meeting of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration on September 4 till all 800 party members were released

The GTA meeting has been called by the administration to select a successor to Bimal Gurung who had resigned from the CEO's post on July 31 after the proposal to create a Telangana state was announced by the UPA government.