CPI-M calls for tripartite meeting over Gorkha protest

New Delhi, July 13 (SURYAA): CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday urged Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to urgently convene a tripartite meeting of the central and Bengal governments and the leaders of the Gorkha Territorial Administration, who have been protesting for a separate Gorkhaland.

Calling the situation in West Bengal's Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts "grave" as eight people have died in the ongoing protest, the Communist Party of India-Marxist chief said that urgent intervention is required. 

"It is clear that the restoration of peace and normalcy in the area can happen only through a dialogue for which the process of talks between the three parties that created the GTA must immediately begin," said Yechury in the letter to Singh.

He said: "Under these circumstances I am urging you to urgently convene a tripartite meeting of representatives of the Central government, the state government and the leaders of the movement to restore peace and normalcy in the region."