The Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) may face a setback following differences of opinion among party leaders over the Hill Area Development Committee (HADC) that the party has accepted from the state government.

The party’s Kurseong branch committee leader, Daya Dewan, was also suspended for three months for alleged anti-party activities when he spoke against the HADC. Mr Dewan had told media persons that the party should not have accepted the HADC “without clear authentication of its set-up, structure and power of functioning.”

After he received the suspension notice, Mr Dewan has started campaigning against a section of the GNLF leaders, including the party’s general secretary and central committee member, Mahendra Chhetri. Asked to comment, Mr Chhetri said that the party’s Kurseong branch leadership, seeking consent from the central committee, suspended Mr Dewan because of his “anti-party activities.”

“The decision to suspend a branch leader will not affect the party and its organization in the Hills. The party’s organizational strength is increasing by the day. The Hill people, who were associated with the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha, are joining my party,” he said.

However, Mr Dewan came down heavily on Mr Chhetri on the HADC issue. “Mahendra Chhetri, being the general secretary, unilaterally decided to suspend me with the help of the president of the party’s Kurseong branch committee.

However, a majority of the members of the executive committee of the branch did not adopt a resolution to suspend me,” Mr Dewan said. “More than 70 percent GNLF central committee members are against the HADC.

They have adopted a resolution against the party’s decision to accept the HADC. They will meet party president Mann Ghishing and request him to give up the panel and step down from the post of the chairman of the committee, because the party has been demanding the Sixth Schedule status, which would be a permanent political solution for the development of the Hills,” Mr Dewan told The Statesman.

GNLF party sources also said that chief minister Mamata Banerjee has not yet allotted funds for the HADC. Mr Chhetri, who is also the vice-chairman of the HADC, said: “The HADC is under the control of the Home and Hill Affairs Department.

The CM has asked us to carry out development work, and that there will be no scarcity of funds. There are many scopes for work. We plan to renovate several guest houses, which were built during the tenure of the Late Subash Ghishing, for the development of tourism in the Hills.

” However, Mr Dewan said: “How can the HADC function without its specific operational system, at a time when the GJMM leadership has raised questions on its efficacy and has said that the ‘small’ committee needs permission from the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA)?” “As we do not believe in the GTA, how can we accept such a set-up? We will request our party president to give up the same.

If Mahendra Chhetri wants to become the chairman of the HADC, he can, but he would have to step down from his party post,” he added. With CM Mamata Banerjee elevating rebel GJMM leader Binoy Tamang to the post of the chairman of the board of administrators for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration after the Hill unrest ended in September last year, the CM also formed the separate HADC under the chairmanship of Mr Ghisingh. The state government has said that the body would supervise progress work in specific sectors in the Hills.