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Darjeeling, Sept. 5: The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration has been assured of enough sources to raise funds to meet its various needs, including the payment of salaries for more than 6,000 employees.
The promise of the unhindered funds flow to the GTA is in sharp contrast to the cash-strapped Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council which could not even pay salaries to the employees.
The DGHC had to deduct the salaries of the 6,000 employees in 2003 to tide over a financial crisis.
However, a provision in the GTA bill sates that “the government shall provide non-plan grant, including provisions for bearing the additional non-plan expenditure for existing employees payable in two instalments in respect of the offices or departments transferred to the GTA”.
The provision will help the GTA administration immensely as the salaries of the employees come around Rs 102 crore per annum.
Apart from this provision, the memorandum of agreement signed on July 18 states that the Centre would provide a special assistance of Rs 200 crore per annum to the GTA for a period of three years.
The state has also to give a part of the plan funds to the GTA based on a formula to execute developments works. This money, too, will be released in two equal installments every year.
Another provision in the bill ensures a share of royalties accruing from forests, fees for grant of licence or lease (for extracting minerals which would include sands and stones) and land revenue for the new body. Section 56 of the bill says the percentage of the share has to be worked out by the government and the GTA once the body is made functional.
All amounts realised by the GTA and sent by the Centre and state have to be credited to the “Sabha fund”. The Sabha fund can be operated only according to the estimates given in the budget.
The new body has also been given the right to raise loans after opening a sinking fund and promised a share of electricity “subject to evolving a mutually agreeable formula with the state government”.
Bureaucrats, who had worked in the DGHC, said “financial provisions” granted to the GTA were strong. “The DGHC could not function properly because it had to depend solely on the grants that used to come from the state and Centre. Besides, the funds were often less than what had been promised and released late,” said an official.
The DGHC used to receive a central assistance of Rs 26 crore a year and the same amount was released by the state. The money was apart from the funds granted for various central and state government schemes.
K.B. Wattar, the Darjeeling district secretary of the CPM, said autonomy in its true sense had not yet been given to the GTA. “We welcome the idea of the GTA as it is on the lines of providing autonomy to the hill people. However, despite a lot of provisions, the ultimate control still lies with the state. We also think that both the state and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha were in a hurry to ink the deal,” said Wattar.
Victory rally
The Morcha has decided to hold a victory rally at Chowk Bazar in Darjeeling tomorrow to celebrate the GTA bill’s passing in the Assembly.
A poster pasted in town by the party has requested all government employees, including those in banks and post offices, to attend the rally by keeping their offices closed.
Similar appeal has also been made to the educational institutions and many schools have already declared a holiday tomorrow.
-VIVEK CHHETRI/TT
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