West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday again wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reiterating her request to the Centre to revoke the appointment of a retired IPS officer as an interlocutor to hold discussions on issues related to the Gorkhas of the Darjeeling hills. In her two-page letter to the PM, Banerjee said the move violates constitutional provisions and the state's jurisdiction under the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Act, 2011. Referring to her earlier communication of October 18, Banerjee wrote that the prime minister's office had acknowledged her concerns and forwarded those to the Union home minister. "It is a matter of grave concern that without any further communication in response to my letter and despite your kind intervention, the office of the interlocutor under the Ministry of Home Affairs has already started functioning," she wrote, calling the development "really shocking." Banerjee described the Centre's decision as "unilateral and arbitrary", stating that it had been undertaken "without any consultation or concurrence of the Government of West Bengal".
In the letter, she said, "This is wholly unconstitutional, without jurisdiction, and devoid of any legal sanctity. The said order has no foundation either in the Constitution of India or in any valid statutory provision." Citing the GTA Act, 2011, which governs Kalimpong and parts of Darjeeling district in north Bengal, the chief minister said the statute "expressly defines the government as the Government of the State of West Bengal", and therefore "the central government has no jurisdictional competence to appoint any representative or interlocutor in matters pertaining to these regions". She said the Centre's appointment of an interlocutor violated the constitutional distribution of powers between the Union and the states. "The appointment of an interlocutor to deal with issues already governed by a valid state law is a blatant encroachment upon the federal structure of the nation and an assault on the autonomy of the state of West Bengal," she wrote. She said the central government had furnished "no explanation or justification" for what she termed an "extraordinary and unwarranted step", adding that peace and administrative stability had prevailed in the region since 2011 under state-led reforms. The Centre's intervention "appears to be a politically motivated attempt to disturb the peace and stability of the region", she alleged. "I once again look forward to your kind intervention and request you to revoke this unconstitutional and arbitrary order," she added.