Mukesh Sharma

Kalimpong, April 07:

Hundreds of people mostly from Block-II and Block-III of the Kalimpong Sub Division joined hands with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) during a meeting of the party held today. The new supporters also included the founding members and the Central Committee members of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), the Gorkha Janmukti Naari Morcha (GJNM) and the Sub Divisional Committee Morcha members.

The meeting held under the presidentship of Chewang Bhutia, Kalimpong TMC President was attended by Mukul Roy, TMC General Secretary, Gautam Deb, North Bengal Development Minister and also the TMC District President.

Addressing the gathering Mukul Roy advocated that the West Bengal state Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee who is also the TMC Chief has always been concerned about solving the issues pertaining in the hills. In order to bring peace in the hills the CM settled for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) agreement, which is a historic decision, he said.

Roy blamed the Left Front, the former WB government for not developing the hills during their 35 years of rule. He said that the present government unlike the former has always aspired that the hills will remain peaceful and develop gradually. The state government till date has given 800 crores of funds for the development of the hills, he informed.

Gautam Deb in his turn assured that the state government is striving hard towards overall development in the hills. He notified that the state government has taken steps to improve various sectors like tourism, health, education, employment, etc. in the hills. Adding to this Deb highlighted the works done by the TMC government during its 22 months of rule.

Senior office bearers of the TMC from Siliguri and Kolkata, Wilson Champamari, MLA of Kalchini, former office bearers of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) of Dooars area and numerous TMC supporters from Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Dooars and Terai also gathered in the meeting.

Nanita Gautam, the former founding member of the GJNM was made the President of the TMC Darjeeling Hill and Praveen Rahpal, the former party founder member was made the General Secretary. Those who joined the TMC today were also presented the TMC party flag.