GJM delegation hands over resignation from GTA to Governor

A three-member delegation of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) met Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi here on Monday to formally submit their resignation letters from the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), the developmental board in the northern West Bengal hills.

"MLA from Darjeeling Amar Singh Rai, ex-GTA chairman Roshan Lama and Deputy Chairman Rabindra Lama were in Kolkata today to hand over their resignation letters to the Governor of West Bengal," Binay Tamang, GJM's Assistant General Secretary, told IANS.

Tamang said the delegation, led by Amar Singh Rai, also handed over the resignation letters of 43 GJM leaders, including party chief Bimal Gurung, who resigned en masse from the board on June 23.

"The other GTA member Satish Pokhrel, who is in judicial custody, had handed over the resignation letter to Roshan Lama," he added.

The GJM, spearheading the movement for a separate state of Gorkhaland in the Darjeeling hills, announced it would resign from the GTA over its differences with the Mamata Banerjee government.

The GJM chief, who had been in hiding since a police raid at his residence in Darjeeling's Patlebas locality on June 15, had resurfaced on Friday and vowed to burn the GTA Regulation Act documents before the public on June 27 as a symbolic protest against the board.

--IANS

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