Rs 1500cr wish for hills - ‘Full & final consensus’ reached on all issues except finances

Darjeeling, July 12:  The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has asked for a special package of around Rs 1,500 crore for the new hill set-up as part of the tripartite agreement expected to be signed by the party, the state and the Centre in Darjeeling later this month.

Morcha sources said though a “full and final consensus” had been reached on the formation of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration with the state government on July 8, the issue of finances — the quantum that the GTA would receive as well as the pattern of funding — would be finalised only after the Centre studied the draft of the agreement.

“Since Delhi would be a major source of funding for the new body, a final decision on the financial issues can only be arrived at after the Centre studies the draft agreement,” a Morcha leader said. “We have asked for something between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1500 crore to be given under the special package to the GTA over a period of five years.”

This package would exclude the annual budgetary allocations under central assistance, the state’s matching grant, plan and non-plan funds and allocations under other central projects like the central job scheme.

However, the Morcha leader said both the state and the central governments had agreed “in principle” to development schemes like setting up of a super-speciality hospital along with a medical college and a central technical university in the region.

The leader said it had been agreed upon that the GTA would have 45 elected members and five nominated members. The proceedings of a secretariat, which would be created for the GTA, would be conducted by a speaker, much like the chairman of a municipal corporation.

The school service commission, college service commission and provident fund department, regional transport authority and tauzi department, that deals with land leased to the tea gardens, would be brought under the new body. “It (the new body) will have 59 departments,” the leader added.

The GTA will also have jurisdiction over the cinchona plantation, the biggest public sector undertaking in the hills. The cinchona plantation is spread over 24,000 hectares in Mungpoo, Latpanchar, Rongpo and Munsong and employs around 5,000 workers besides providing indirect subsistence to over 40,000 hill people.

The new body will also have the power to recruit Group D, C and B employees.

The three-tier panchayat system would also be revived under the new agreement. “There will be a three–tier panchayat system but the GTA would be above the zilla parishad. It will also supervise the functioning of the zilla parishad,” the leader added.

At the moment, there are no functional panchayats in the hills. A system comprising gram panchayats and panchayat samitis was in place in Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council areas, but no election has been held since 2000. Till then, polls were held only to the gram panchayats as the GNLF that ran the DGHC felt the powers of the panchayat samitis would overlap with the council’s.

“We shall have a properly functioning panchayati raj in Darjeeling soon,” the leader said. “Let us hope the region now prospers.”

-The telegraph