Union Home Minister Amit Shah reiterated the commitment of the Centre to find a Permanent Political Solution to the longstanding issues of the Darjeeling hills, saying that a special committee will be constituted to finalise the details of an agreement in the Constitutional context.
He made this statement during a high-level interaction with representatives of political parties and organisations in the hill districts of West Bengal.
A special committee will be constituted under Pankaj Kumar Singh, former Deputy National Security Advisor and the central government’s interlocutor for the hills. The committee will work on the modalities of the final agreement and work out the roadmap to the proposed settlement. The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, central and state government officials, and prominent hill leaders. The hill leaders included BJP MPs Raju Bista and Harshvardhan Singla, GNLF president Mann Ghising, former chairman of the GJM Bimal Gurung, state minister Bishal Lama and several MLAs and representatives of regional organisations.
