All 45 elected members of GTA resign

Darjeeling, June 23

All the 45 elected members of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), including its Chief Executive Bimal Gurung, on Friday resigned from the administrative body.

The elected members belonged to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), which is spearheading the ongoing movement in the hills for a separate Gorkhaland state.

GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said that the resignations would be forwarded to the GTA principal secretary.

Giri had said on Thursday: “We have decided to resign from the GTA”.

GTA has been turned into a "farce" by the West Bengal government, he alleged and said that GJM and the people of the hills would fight for the single agenda of a separate Gorkhaland state.

The GJM's decision to resign from GTA comes after an all-party meeting in the hills where it was decided that the party would withdraw from the tripartite GTA Accord.

In the June 20 meeting, all political parties and public organisations in the hills had unanimously declared their support to the longstanding demand for a separate Gorkhaland state in north Bengal.

The GJM has been ruling GTA since 2012 and its five-year term is set to expire this month.

A tripartite agreement paving the way for the setting up of the GTA, an elected body for the Darjeeling hills, was signed in 2011. The parties to the agreement were the union home ministry, the state government and the GJM.

The GTA administers Darjeeling, Kurseong, Mirik, some areas of Siliguri subdivision of Darjeeling district and the whole of Kalimpong district. — PTI