By Archisman Dinda, CorrespondentPublished: 00:00 October 11, 2011
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited Darjeeling district Monday to inaugurate a tourism festival.
She was also slated to visit the Dooars region in Jalpaiguri district, where people are worried about their possible inclusion in the jurisdiction of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, a body the chief minister brought into effect on a previous visit by signing an accord with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM).
Mamata will arrive in the Dooars Wednesday and attend a programme by the area's tribal inhabitants.
On the eve of her Darjeeling visit, the GJM leadership demanded a special package of at least Rs10 billion (Dh751 million) for restoration work and resettlement of those affected in the region's earthquake last month.
"The devastation in the Darjeeling Hills in last month's earthquake near the Sikkim-Nepal border has been largely ignored by both the [state and central] governments," Harka Bahadur Chettri, senior GJM leader and the party's MLA from Kalimpong, told Gulf News. "We would try to convince Banerjee and ask her for a relief package."
GJM leaders met the chief minister and gave her a memorandum.
"We expect that since her Trinamool party is the largest ally in the central government, she would be able to force them to look into the devastation and provide adequate relief," said Chettri.
Though the death toll in Darjeeling was not high, there was widespread destruction of property.
Source: http://gulfnews.com/news/world/india/quake-relief-fund-sought-for-darjeeling-district-1.889350