GJM to skip June 18 meet; Strike relaxed till Monday

Darjeeling, Jun 13 (UNI) The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), demanding a separate state of Gorkhaland, today ruled out taking part in the June 18 meeting, called by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Mr Bhattacharhee had invited GJM president Bimal Gurung for talks at the Writers' Building on June 18.

State Secretariat sources said the Chief Minister had invited the GJM president and his representatives to discuss the problems in Darjeeling hills.

After the GJM's central committee meeting here this evening to decide whether to participate in the meeting, Mr Gurung and GJM publicity secretary Binay Tamang said, '' We will not participate in meeting. We advocated for a tripartite meeting involving the Centre, the state government and the GJM.

Since, it is not a tripartite meeting, the question of taking part does not arise. '' Mr Gurung further said, '' However, we are relaxing the indefinite strike period till Monday in a bid to ease the situation.'' Earlier, the GJM relaxed the period from 1800 hours on Wednesday to 0600 hours tomorrow to enable tourists to return their destinations.

UNI XC SJC ATI BST1841