Darjeeling, Aug. 29: CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury today said all political parties from the Darjeeling hills should be invited to the next round of talks on the interim set-up for the region and promised to raise the issue in Parliament in the next two days.

“The issue must be collectively taken forward and we would want all the political parties from the hills to be invited for the September 7 talks,” said Yechury while delivering the Ratanlal Brahmin Memorial Lecture at the Darjeeling Gymkhana Club hall.

The CPM had once lorded over the hills because of Ratanlal Brahmin. He was among the first three communist MLAs in Bengal along with Jyoti Basu and Rupnarayan Roy.

On the sidelines of the lecture, Yechury said if “procedural” problems arose in raising the issue in Parliament, he would talk to the Prime Minister. “I will separately take up the matter with the Prime Minister tomorrow itself.”

The CPM leader said he was dissatisfied at the way the Centre was handling the Darjeeling issue. “What should have been the priority (finding a permanent solution to the hill problem) has not been taken up by the government. The people must not be allowed to suffer.”

Yechury made it clear that new states would not “automatically” guarantee development. “We want maximum autonomy for the region under the framework of the state legislature. The local people must be given an opportunity to frame their own policies,” he said.