Appointment of an interlocutor for talks on the Gorkhaland issue — as also over the Jammu and Kashmir and Nagaland problems — is understood to have been put off for the time being, with the Centre having second thoughts on the utility of having such a mechanism.

After talks with Gorkha leaders last month, the government had announced that it would appoint an interlocutor to facilitate tripartite discussion between leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the state government and the Centre. The Gorkhas have been demanding a separate hill state carved out of West Bengal.

However, the decision not to extend the term of former home secretary K Padmanabhaiah as the Centre's interlocutor for Nagaland was taken earlier this month. Padmanabhaiah had been talking to various factions of Naga rebel groups for more than a decade. In the case of Jammu and Kashmir, the post of interlocutor has been lying vacant since N N Vohra was moved and made the state's governor last year.

Sources said the government earlier planned to appoint the interlocutors by the end of August and had even shortlisted a few candidates, most of them retired bureaucrats, for the jobs. However, there has been a rethink in the Home Ministry since over what could be achieved by the interlocutors. There is a feeling now that talks involving interlocutors have succeeded more in buying time than achieving any real breakthrough.

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram is said to be more in favour of having the Home Ministry directly involved in any dialogue process with political groups in these states. A final decision on the matter would be taken after consultation with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, sources said.