SILIGURI: National Gorkhaland Committee (NGC), a non-political organisation of the Gorkhas, has demanded the demerging of Gorkhaland region from West Bengal and formation of a separate state with the same name.
Dr Manish Tamang, Secretary, NGC said at a meeting, "We had a meeting and discussed many agendas. The committee has adopted a three-point resolution where the first point mentioned is about demerging from West Bengal and keeping with the poll promises made in 2014 and 2019 for finding a permanent solution by the NDA government."
"The second resolution is calling all stakeholders to find out a constitutional solution and third is the political will in case of Gorkhaland which was demonstrated in the case of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. They will also appeal to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to help them to get their constitutional right," Tamang added.
Neraz Zimba, MLA from Darjeeling, who was present at the meeting said, "The only political solution is demerging from West Bengal. We are not saying separation as Darjeeling was never a part of West Bengal."
The 16-member NGC committee was formed on September 14, 2017, with the intellectuals, Gorkha experts, journalists, academicians, retired Army officials, and lawyers.
In 2017, several people had lost their lives in the hills of Darjeeling region during the 104-day-long strike in support of the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state.