Spurt in activity to humour ranks

Darjeeling, May 3 TT: The dissent among a section of DGHC workers, who have accused the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha of doing nothing for them, has triggered a flurry of activity among the frontal organisations of the party that is determined to prevent its flock from straying.

The formation of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Karmachari Sangathan recently not only prompted party president Bimal Gurung to announce that the Morcha’s top priority was to pursue the regularisation of the jobs of the 6,000-DGHC workers, but also stirred other party organisations into action.

Today, members of the Gorkha Primary Teachers’ Organisation started a three-day dharna in front of the office of the council’s education secretary, demanding that its 11-point charter of demands be fulfilled. The list of demands includes the appointment of 4,000 teachers, the posts for which have been lying vacant.

The Janmukti Secondary Teachers’ Organisation (JSTO), too, met DGHC administrator Anil Verma to demand that ad-hoc secondary teachers be made permanent. A nine-member delegation of the JSTO has demanded that the process of regularisation of the 478 ad-hoc teachers and 78 non-teaching staff should be immediately started.

“The administrator has assured us that he will take up the issue once the election results are announced. We have also raised the issue of the 145 ad-hoc teachers in non-recognised schools,” said Binay Dewan, the president of the JSTO (Darjeeling sub-divisional committee).

Last week, a section of casual workers broke away from the Morcha-affiliated Janmukti Asthahi Karmachari Sangatan (JAKS), alleging that the hill party had only used them as political “tools” and had done nothing for them in the past few years.

Following the allegation, a rattled Morcha leadership arranged for a series of meetings. One of them was between the JAKS and the party’s three candidates for the Assembly elections. A strategy to address the demands of the casual workers if the Morcha representative were elected to the Assembly was worked out.

This was followed by a meeting with administrator Verma on Saturday and two media conferences within three days to highlight the achievement of the JAKS.

The primary teachers said they would call a strike in schools if the government fails to fulfil their demands after their three-day dharna.

They may even shut down the hills, the teachers’ association has said.

The sudden spurt in activities has raised a few eyebrows. “One cannot help but think that the Morcha seems to have been rattled by the formation of a breakaway faction. The various frontal organisations have been raising demands in the past but not in the same degree as is being seen now,” said an observer.

JSTO president Dewan, however, refused to endorse the observer’s view: “We have always been working for our members. We could not do much because of the elections, but now we are carrying on with our work.”