Amid buzz about a Sikkim-Darjeeling merger from politicians from different parties, Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang has denied all such claims as false. After the legislative assembly session today, the Chief Minister said Sikkim’s special status under Article 371F of the Indian Constitution would continue to protect its autonomy.
“This is known to everyone, every Sikkimese. Even those spreading those rumours have been asked about the merger and they have claimed the merger will never happen. It is not possible. They (the opposition) do not have issues to pursue, so sometimes they spread these rumours,” he said.
On Tuesday, during the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha party foundation day, Mr Tamang had said, “There is no merger happening between Sikkim and Darjeeling. We are protected by Article 371F. Neither can any state take over Sikkim nor can any other region be a part of Sikkim… Sikkim has its own identity, Darjeeling has its own identity”.
The Chief Minister added that the delegation heading to New Delhi on February 10 with the demand for tribal status for 12 left out communities, will not include representatives from Darjeeling hills.
Previous delegations for Limboo Tamang communities tribal status demand (early 2000s) did include representatives from Darjeeling Hills, he said.
“The meeting was scheduled to take place in Kolkata, as the chairman of the committee is from Kolkata. The first of such meetings has taken place in Samman Bhawan (Gangtok). But then we changed the venue from Kolkata to New Delhi as we have our own infrastructure there (Sikkim House). We have members in the committee from Delhi as well. This was decided in the Legislative meeting which did not have representation from Darjeeling. Our representation will be only for Sikkimese communities who will be submitting their draft to the concerned ministry in the meeting,” he added.
Mr Tamang, however, said the representatives from two states will collectively pursue the tribal status demand for 12 communities.
“It will be a good pressure collectively on the central government to pursue the tribal status demand. Hence, we had held a meeting in Siliguri as the demand is same for both Sikkim and Darjeeling, with their demand being for 11 communities and ours being for 12 communities. But the high-level committee is only for Sikkim not for Darjeeling,” he said.
The opposition Citizen Action Party had earlier questioned the state government about liaisoning with Darjeeling MP, the BJP’s Raju Bista, for tribal status demand for 12 left out communities and not with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
