West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she will never agree to a division of the state even as the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha insisted that it has not given up its demand for separate Gorkhaland.
"Peace prevailed in the hills after signing of the tripartite agreement...As long as I live, I will help Darjeeling and the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration but will not allow it to separate from West Bengal," Banerjee said after inaugurating a tourism festival in Darjeeling.
"Darjeeling's economy is greatly dependent on tourism and a master plan for tourism development is under preparation which will come off shortly," she said, flanked by GJM chief Bimal Gurung and general secretary Roshan Giri.
Stressing on the need to remain together, Banerjee said, "Darjeeling is my darling. If I am with you, why won't you be with me?...If Kashmir is the heaven of India, Darjeeling is the heaven of Bengal."
"Mu Pahar lai pura mon porachu (my whole heart is for the hills)," she said in Nepalese.
Meanwhile, Giri told PTI, "For the time being we have accepted the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration but we have not given up the demand for Gorkhaland."
"The MoU also mentions that we have agreed to the setting up of an autonomous body, while not dropping the demand for a separate state," he said.
