Most of the shops in Darjeeling town were open on Tuesday. Picture by Suman Tamang

Sept. 7: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today claimed “victory”, with the Centre and the state “tentatively” agreeing to hand over excise, the regional transport authority and the management of forests and the cinchona plantation to the proposed interim authority for the Darjeeling hills. All three subjects had so far been outside the purview of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, which the new set-up will replace.

However, contentious issues like the territorial jurisdiction of the new arrangement, its composition and the mode of appointing its members were not part of today’s official-level tripartite talks and have been left to be sorted out at the political round. Another point that remains to be thrashed out is the tenure of the interim set-up. While the Morcha wants it to end by December 31, 2011, the state government has been insisting that it should be stretched to five years.

Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri, who had led the party’s talks delegation, said: “They have agreed upon most of our demands . It has been a very fruitful visit. We now need to work out the issue of territory, its composition and the mode of selection, which will be taken up during the political round.”

A triumphant Harka Bahadur Chhetri, the Morcha spokesperson, said: “The beginning of the final break-up with Writers’ Buildings has began.”

The next official-level talks are scheduled for September 30. This meeting is expected to prepare the ground for the political round.

Giri said today’s meeting had also decided that the interim body would be able to generate, distribute and transmit electricity and that it will get a share of the 12 per cent free power that the state government is entitled to from major hydel projects. However, there was no confirmation on this from Delhi or the state government.

The Morcha said even colleges would come up under the interim set-up, but officials in Calcutta said the state government’s higher education department would have overall academic control.

The mood at the Centre is to accede to most of the Morcha’s demands, Union home ministry sources said. “We are positively inclined to delegating many of the subjects that the Morcha wants in case there are no constitutional or legal hurdles,” an official said in Delhi.

However, sources said, reserve forests cannot be handed over to the new authority because it is a central subject. It is also unlikely that tauzi, or tea garden land, would be handed over to the new body.

The development functions of the district magistrate — for example handling MLA and MP local area development funds — would, however, be handed over to the new authority. But the district magistrate would continue to oversee magisterial functions, like law and order.

At the same time, funds meant for the Border Area Development Project (BADP) is unlikely to be given over to the new authority as it is directly under the Union home ministry.

The Morcha has demanded that the DGHC workers must be regularised before the new set-up is put in place. “The state government, which was represented by the home secretary has agreed to look into the matter,” said Giri. The council currently has 6,321 casual workers.

The hill party today told the state and the Centre that if peace was to be restored in the region “at least the Gorkha-dominated areas of the Terai and Dooars” must be included in the interim set-up. “Detailed discussion on this would be taken up only at the political level,” said Giri.

Sources in Delhi said it had been agreed that the new body would be called Gorkhaland Regional Authority.