Mamata to submit report to PM on Hills, skirts statehood issue

DARJEELING: Seeking to give a healing touch in Darjeeling, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee today said she would submit a report to Prime Minister for a special Hills package, but skirted the Gorkhaland demand.

"I understand you have suffered a lot and have been neglected over the years for lack of development. What you require is a special package which I would like to request Prime Minister to announce for you," Banerjee said addressing people at Darjeeling railway station.

"You are very much part and parcel of our motherland. Love your mother. Have faith on me and come to us and allow us to come to you. There is no barrier between the plains and the Hills and it is time that all of us should dedicate ourselves for the betterment of the people of Darjeeling.

"It is my fervent appeal to maintain the bond of brotherhood between the people of the Hills and the plains who should live in peace and tranquillity," Banerjee said.

Starting her speech in Nepali to wide applause, she said that such special packages were also needed for the people of Telengana, Bundelkhand and Junglemahal to dispel poverty and underdevelopment.

In an apparent rejection of the Gorkhaland demand by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), Banerjee said, "You are asking something. May be I have a difference of opinion, which I do not agree to."

Lining up priorities for development in the Hills, she said "what you are agitating I think is for employment, education, health and for peace and democratic rights."

The Railway Minister said that she would return to Darjeeling in two to three months. "I hope to see your smiling face like the face of the Kanchenjungha."