Carrot & stick to bring back straying lot - Morcha unit sets return-to-fold deadline for party deserters

Darjeeling, April 20(TT): The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has warned its members to come back into the party fold by setting a deadline, realising that a section of its supporters had deserted the outfit after many of them were seen at GNLF meetings before the elections.

The first frontal organisation of the Morcha to start the drive to bring back the straying lot is the Janmukti Astai Karmachari Sangathan (JAKS), whose members are contractual workers of the DGHC. The move is expected to be started by other Morcha affiliates too in the coming days.

The JAKS today held a meeting at Darjeeling Gymkhana Club where it set a May 13 deadline for all those members who had left the party to return to the organisation.

“We are setting a deadline for May 13 for the return of those members who have left us. After the deadline, we will not be in a position to take back any of you,” said Machendra Subba, the president of the JAKS.

Subba’s statement was aimed at a number of contractual workers who had deserted the party and were seen supporting the GNLF during the election campaign. Earlier Morcha chief Bimal Gurung had warned the GNLF president to leave the hills once the elections were over.

Dangling a carrot with the stick, Subba said: “A new government is likely to come to Bengal and we need to stand united and be ready to further our cause.” Taking a dig at the GNLF, Subba, said: “The state government had given the green signal to Subash Ghisingh (the then chairman of the DGHC) to start the regularisation process. He never followed the order and our present fate is solely because of Ghisingh.”

Since the Morcha was formed in 2007, the workers have been agitating under JAKS for the regularisation of their jobs.

Following an indefinite hunger strike by the workers, the state government had on September 17, 2009, given a written assurance to start the process to make them permanent. The fax sent by then home secretary, Ardhendu Sen, had stated: “The government has authorised the DGHC to start the regularisation process against the sanctioned vacancies in all categories which it is authorised to do as per the existing act and the recruitment rules.”

The fax had prompted the Morcha workers to break their hunger strike. The fax essentially meant that 3,472 contractual workers of the DGHC were to be made permanent while the fate of the remaining staff was to be decided later.

Subba today said: “We are demanding that the entire 6,321 workers in the Group C and D categories in the council should be regularised (in one go).”

When even after Sen’s assurance the workers had renewed their agitation, then DGHC administrator B.L. Meena had given in writing to the JAKS on October 30, 2009 that the regularisation process would start from November 17 the same year. But the state government later maintained that the frequent closure of government offices was delaying the process. Meena, on his part, claimed he had given the written assurance under duress.

Morcha sources said the party would also start a drive to consolidate its support base in certain areas.

“During the election campaigns we were able to identify pockets, especially in the Kurseong-Mirik-Soureni belt where people who had once supported us had switched to other parties. In most cases, the switch was prompted by the differences with the local leadership. We will try and get them back into the party fold.”