Govt told the Gorkha Janmukti(GJM) Morcha that the election process for setting up the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration should start immediately

Govt prod to start poll groundwork

- Morcha agrees not to link panel report to elections 

Darjeeling, Sept. 4: The state government has told the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha that the election process for setting up the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration should start immediately, independent of the report to be filed by the joint verification committee on territory demand.

Earlier, the general perception in the hills was that the process would start after the panel submitted its recommendations, though the Morcha had not made any specific demand on this.

Morcha spokesperson Harka Bahadur Chhetri said the party had no problems if the election process got underway and admitted that the message not to link the two had been had been conveyed to the chief minister in the Assembly on Friday when the GTA bill was passed.

“She (Mamata Banerjee) did make it clear that the election process should be started immediately and it is not to be linked to the report of the committee. That the two are independent processes and can start concurrently is also reflected in the bill and we have no problems if the election process is started,” he said.

Chhetri, however, said this did not mean that the elections to the GTA would be held before the panel submitted its report in February. The Morcha has demanded that some of the Gorkha-dominated areas in the Dooars and the Terai be brought under the jurisdiction of the GTA. The panel is looking into the demand.

As a first step to start the poll process, the delimitation of the existing 28 DGHC constituencies has to begin. According to the GTA bill, the number of constituencies has gone up to 45. Although the delimitation cannot be completed till the territory panel submitted its report, a major part of the job can be done because most of the constituencies are in the hills.

“I think the process of bifurcating the constituencies in the hills will be immediately started by the government,” said a Morcha leader.

With the passing of the bill, the final structure of the autonomous hill body has become clear. A chief executive will head the GTA, unlike the chairperson in the DGHC. He will be assisted by a deputy chief executive.

The GTA Sabha will consist of 45 elected and five nominated members. The chief executive and the deputy chief executive will nominate 14 members from the Sabha to form the “executive sabha”.

The daily proceedings of the GTA Sabha will be conducted by a chairman and a deputy chairman.

Explaining the working of the GTA Sabha, a Morcha leader drew a parallel to the Assembly. “The GTA Sabha will be like an Assembly and the executive sabha is the cabinet. The executive sabha members will be in charge of the different departments.”

The bureaucracy of the GTA will be headed by a principal secretary (also known as principal executive officer) not below the rank of a secretary or commissioner of the state government. While appointments to Group A rank will be through the state public service commission (PSC), recruitment’s to groups B, C and D will be made by the GTA thorough a sub-ordinate service selection board.

Under Section 31 (1) of the bill, the GTA has been given the power to impose, levy and collect taxes and fees like those related to registration of vehicles, licences and water supply. Sub-section 3 of Section 33, however, makes it clear that vehicles already registered with another authority need not re-register again. Under Section 27 of the bill, the state government has also agreed to form a Regional Transport Authority for the GTA area with the district magistrate as chairperson.

-VIVEK CHHETRI/TT