Mamata highlights the importance of peace in Darjeeling hills 

KALIMPONG: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today highlighted the importance of maintaining peace in Darjeeling Hills, which saw a record 104 day-long strike last year, and stressed on the development of tourism in this area.

"We want peace here. Peace helps in achieving targets and when there is no peacen it affects even that work which is about to achieve success," she said while addressing an administrative meeting here at Dr Graham's Home Ground this afternoon.

"I want more and more tourists to come here. For that we should be looking into the scopes of development of tourism sector here. Darjeeling is very popular among the people of the country," she said.

Banerjee said a detailed discussion on improving tourism and on unemployment would be held in tomorrow's meeting with the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA).

Hailing the performance of the current GTA under Binay Tamang, she said, "I want the GTA to perform well. I want it to carry out its audit because it is important to maintain a financial position. This is the money of the common people.

" The Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal had in September last year announced a nine-member 'board of administrators' to run the GTA in the hills and had appointed GJM leader Binay Tamang as its chairman in an attempt to end the deadlock in Darjeeling hills arising of the strike.

Following unrest in the Hills over the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland last year, all 45 elected members of the then GTA, including its chief executive Bimal Gurung, had resigned from the administrative body in June, when the agitation broke out.