Gorkhaland strikes a chord with other NE states
As the stir over the demand for Gorkhaland crippled the hills of Darjeeling for the 11th day on Sunday, support for a separate state continued to come in from various states of the Northeast. In Tripura, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) has declared that it will block the National Highway 8 for an indefinite period from July 10 in support of Gorkhaland.
The IPFT, which has been agitating for the creation of a separate state from the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), carried out massive rallies and protests in over 29 locations around the state within the TTAADC. Much like the Gorkhaland Territorial Area (GTA), the TTAADC was formed as per the principles of the Sixth Schedule in 1987 to safeguard the ethnic and cultural identity of the tribals, who constitute over 12 lakh of 36 lakh of the state’s population.
“The demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland is justified. The West Bengal government cannot continue to dominate the local Gorkha population in the state,” said its president Narendra Chandra Debbarma.
On Saturday, as part of the National Federation of New States (NFNS), which held a news conference in Delhi to come out in support of the Gorkhaland …read more