The Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh chaired a meeting with the delegation of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) here today. TheMinister for Tribal Affairs JualOram, the MoS for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and Parliamentary Affairs, S. S. Ahluwalia and senior officers of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Panchayati Raj were present in the meeting.During the meeting, it was decided to sympathetically examine and appropriately consider the long pending demands of the Gorkhas, the Adivasis and other people of Darjeeling district and the Dooars region. In respect of granting ST Status to 11 Gorkha communities, the Ministerfor Tribal Affairs informed that the committee constituted for preparing a report for this purpose has been recently granted extension for a further period of four months.
The Committee will be asked to try to give its report as per the schedule.Regarding setting up of a Central University in GTA region, it was discussed that there is a general mandate for having a Central University in each State. However, there can be an exception to this and accordingly it was decided that the demand of setting up the Central University in GTA region would be considered. With respect to the restoring of three-tier Panchayati Raj System in the GTA region, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj is examining the matter. With respect to the Central financial assistance of Rs 600 crores, Rs 465 crores has already been released to the GTA and for the balance amount of Rs 135 crores, allocation has already been made and it will be released in this financial year itself.