Calcutta High Court has accepted an apolitical organisation's PIL
seeking the dissolution of development boards for different communities
in the hills, saying they discriminated against citizens based on caste
and creed and no yardstick was followed in the formation of the bodies.
Mamata Banerjee had announced boards for five communities, but the
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha had alleged that the chief minister was adopting a
"divide and rule policy" in the hills by doing this.
The PIL was filed by Pravin Gurung, the general secretary of the Darjeeling Tarai Dooars Gorkhali Adhiwashi Welfare Society.
Speaking over phone from Calcutta, Anand Bhandari, the lawyer for the
petitioner, said: "The divisional bench consisting of Chief Justice
Manjula Chellur and Justice Arijit Banerjee is hearing the PIL and has
directed the state government to file an affidavit-in-opposition in
three weeks. The next hearing will take place after four weeks."
The order to the government to file the affidavit was passed by the division bench on February 19.
The court refused to pass an interim order stopping the distribution
of funds to the development boards as demanded by the petitioner.
State law minister Chandima Bhattacharya declined comment on the PIL.
She said: "The matter is sub-judice. I cannot make any comment on the
issue. But I can say what the chief minister is trying to do is for the
welfare of Limbu and Rai communities."
Pravin Gurung today said: "We believe the state government has
discriminated against many communities. While some communities are
getting benefits, others are being deprived of them. Moreover, the
yardstick to grant a development board and funds too is not clear."
Citing some examples, he said: "For instance, as per the 2011 census,
literacy rate of the Bhutia and Limbu communities is 81.1 per cent and
87.8 per cent, respectively. However, the literacy rate of Lodha and
Savar tribes is 45.5 per cent and 40.6 per cent, respectively. Although
boards have been formed for Bhutias and Limbus, there is no such body
for communities which are educationally backward."
When the first board was formed for the Lepchas by Mamata, it was
said that the boards would be apolitical cultural entities. But Morcha
president Bimal Gurung had said development boards should be formed for
all communities in the hills rather for a few of them. Gurung, as the
GTA chief executive, also announced development boards for 19
communities in the hills. So far, development boards have been formed
for Lepchas, Tamangs, Sherpas, Bhutia and Mangars. The chief minister
has announced development boards for the Limbus and Rais as well, but
they have not been formed. While Mangars and Rais are among Other
Backward Classes (OBC), the rest of the communities that have been
granted or promised boards are Schedule Tribes.
Pravin Gurung said it was strange that communities whose population
was dwindling were not granted development boards. "As per the 2011
census, the Tamangs population was 1,46,203, and a board was formed for
them. But the population of Mru and Khond communities is only 196 and
660, respectively and still, no development body was offered to them,"
he said.
"The Indian Constitution does not have provisions to provide
preferential treatment to certain sections even among the STs. In
Bengal, there are more than 40 communities which have been classified as
STs but development boards have not been formed for all of them. Boards
haven't been announced for other OBC sections and it is against the
provisions of equality that is enshrined in the Constitution. There
should be no discrimination based on caste and creed," said Gurung.
The petitioner has demanded that a single development board covering
all tribal communities in the state be formed. "For this, all
development boards must be dissolved. Or else, development boards must
be formed for all communities in the state," he said.(TT)
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