Chakrabarti with the players before the tournament in Siliguri on Tuesday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, Nov. 10: Chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti has asked the Darjeeling district administration to hold talks with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on the banning of liquor in the hills and writing “Gorkhaland” on signboards ahead of the tripartite talks scheduled for December 21.

“I have instructed the district magistrate and the district police chief to hold dialogues with those who are organising the movements like banning licit liquor and writing ‘Gorkhaland’ replacing the name of the state,” Chakrabarti told journalists here on the Morcha’s latest agitation programme in the hills.

Earlier, the chief secretary inaugurated the Friendship Cup Football Tournament at the Mallaguri police line, which was organised to strengthen the police-public relationship.

Chakrabarti said the government was always against setting up liquor shops in slums or tribal areas where most of the people were underprivileged. “But it is true that those who are engaged in selling illicit liquor will always try to get the licit liquor shops closed, which will encourage the illegal trade and increase the health hazards.”

The chief secretary said replacing “West Bengal” with “Gorkhaland” on signboards of shops and establishments was “meaningless”.

“I think installing a signboard with ‘Gorkhaland’ on it is meaningless, as we are all living in India and the name of the state is West Bengal. This is not going to establish anything,” he said.

Chakrabarti said a similar situation had arisen in the hills earlier when number plates of vehicles were replaced. “It was also not acceptable. If a driver of a vehicle, which has a proper number plate, meets with an accident, the vehicle can be easily identified and action can be taken. But tracing out a vehicle with an inappropriate number plate is difficult.”

The chief secretary denied that the state was not taking any action against the Morcha’s agitation in the hills.

“The government is always in favour of avoiding any confrontation with people and favours holding dialogues with them. When a process has been initiated to sort out a problem by holding a tripartite meeting, it is the responsibility of everybody to create a proper atmosphere for dialogues,” he said.