Darjeeling hill authority tripartite pact to be inked

Tripartite agreement on the Darjeeling hill authority among the Centre, West Bengal government and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha would be signed on Monday."The tripartite agreement will be signed on July 18 and Home Minister P Chidambaram will be present on the occasion," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat in Kolkata.She said that in view of the uncertain weather conditions in the Darjeeling hills, the pact would be signed at Sukna within Darjeeling's jurisdiction.The chief minister said that the Leader of Opposition Surya Kanta Mishra would also be invited, besides members of the North Bengal Development Council.Banerjee hoped the signing of the pact would usher in peace in the hills and said a few vested interests were spreading a false campaign to disrupt the process. Gurkha Janmukti Morcha will sign the tripartite agreement for the formation of the Gurkha Land territorial administration.This autonomous authority for the Darjeeling hills will replace the existing Darjeeling-Gurkha Hill Council. It is learnt that the Centre will provide a 600 crore rupees economic package to the proposed Gurkha Land Territorial Administration in Darjeeling for development work under each jurisdiction. The fund will be released by the Centre over 3 years, starting from 2011.