(Reopens CAL 9)

State's North Bengal Development Affairs Minister Goutam Deb held a meeting with Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat here along with the leaders of Adivasi Bikas Parishad (ABP) but later declined to make any comment on the bandh called by the GJM. Noting that he was unaware of the latest development in the hills, Deb told reporters, "Let me review the situation first going back to North Bengal. We are for unity, harmony and peace both in the plains and hills. "We can't make happy those persons who want to see the hills crying." The nine-member delegation of the ABP's Progressive Tea Workers' Union led by its chairman Sukra Munda and president John Barla accompanied Deb to a meeting with the CM to expedite development programmes in Terrai and Dooars. Munda said they urged the chief minister to immediately undertake development programmes in the fields of education, industries, tea-gardens, health and electricity, while demanded 'pattas' of land for tea-garden workers. Besides developing tea-gardens, facilities for the workers should also be improved through rapid electrification, health and education programmes for the workers in and around various gardens, Munda said. Barla described the meeting with Banerjee as fruitful one, and hoped it would yield them result soon. Both Munda and Barla, however, refrained from commenting on the GJM-sponsored 12-hour shutdown, saying, "We are concerned about Dooars and Terrai." Meanwhile, Bharati Tamang, wife of the slain All India Gorkha League leader Madan Tamang, also called on the chief minister at the state secretariat.