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Ghising has said he will quit in 10 days: Buddhadeb

KOLKATA: Subash Ghising, administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) — a body he has headed ever since it was set up in August 1988 — is apparently set to resign.

“He has said that he will do so within the next ten days,” Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said in a statement here on Friday.

The statement was issued shortly after Mr. Bhattacharjee had talks with Bimal Gurung, president of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) that has been demanding, among other things, the immediate removal of Mr. Ghising from the post of administrator of the DGHC. Prior to being appointed administrator in March 2005, he was chairman of the body.

“We have won,” Mr. Gurung said, emerging from a meeting with the Chief Minister. Mr. Bhattacharjee had assured Mr. Gurung and his colleagues at a meeting here on Wednesday that he would be getting back to them shortly over the demands they had placed before him.

This was followed by talks between the Chief Minister and Mr. Ghising on Thursday.

The GJM leadership had called for an indefinite bandh that entered its tenth day in the three hill sub-divisions of Darjeeling district in support of the demand as well as the scrapping of the move for granting Sixth Schedule status to region. It is also behind the call for a separate State of Gorkhaland to be carved out of the Darjeeling hills and certain areas contiguous to it.

“In view of the current developments I urge all concerned to call off the agitation and hunger strike and help restore normal conditions in Darjeeling,” the Chief Minister’s statement said.

The bandh was withdrawn from 5 p.m., as was the hunger strike by some GJM activists, for the next ten days by when Mr. Ghising is expected to be resigning from his post.

The agitation will be resumed if he is not removed by then.

There were celebrations by GJM supporters in the streets of the hill towns as word spread that Mr. Ghising’s resignation was imminent.

“The Chief Minister has assured us that in the event of Mr .Ghising not resigning within ten days he will be sacked,” Mr. Gurung said.

“We have accepted the Chief Minister’s request to grant him [Mr. Ghising] ten days’ time which he will need to move out his belongings [from Lal Kuthi — the DGHC headquarters],” he added.

The future of the amendment bills that are to facilitate granting Sixth Schedule status to the Darjeeling hills is now uncertain with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs recommending to the Union Home Ministry on Thursday that the ground realities be reassessed before proceeding with the legislation.

The Chief Minister’s statement had a reference to the standing committee’s proposal while Mr. Gurung said: “We [the GJM leadership] will be consulted on maters related to the bills in future.”

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