GTA Bill

With a drubbing in the recent assembly polls, the Congress moved quickly to placate a miffed Mamata Banerjee with President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday giving her assent to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Bill – the delay of which was seen as major embarrassment for the Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal CM. The pending bill ––passed by the state assembly in September last year––had provoked angry reactions from Banerjee with questions whether the Centre was playing a spoiler in her management of the restive Darjeeling hills. She had even taken up the issue with PM Manmohan Singh when she met him on February 22. “President Pratibha Patil gave her assent to the bill on Wednesday. West Bengal government has been informed about this by the Union home ministry,” said a senior official. The President’s assent will now pave the way for formation of the GTA, a semi-autonomous administrative body for the Darjeeling hills. The assent to the bill comes at a time when the Congress’s hopes of tying up SP have been dashed.