A tripartite agreement was signed between the Centre, West Bengal government and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) on Monday at Pintail village near Siliguri for creating Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), aimed at bringing peace in Darjeeling.
Though the GJM and the state were on opposite sides regarding the formation of a separate Gorkhaland state, the body will get a special economic package, along with more autonomous and financial powers. The new administration will have regulating powers over 59 departments and will have 50 members, including 45 elected members. According to sources, the total economic package would cross Rs 1,000-crore mark, of which the Centre has already promised Rs 600 crore.
Though the chief minister Mamata Banerjee made it clear that “Bengal will not be separated and Darjeeling will smile inside the state,” the new body will have autonomous powers over all the departments -- except home, finance and judiciary. Later, the GJM president Bimal Gurung has stated that this is the first step towards the creation of a separate state.
Confirming the size of the package, Harka Bahadur Chetri, the party spokesperson and the MLA from Kalimpong constituency, told Business Standard, “We had asked for Rs 1,500 crore. The Centre has already assured Rs 600 crore. With the kind of projects assured in the agreement, the figure stands above Rs 1,000 crore – including the state’s contribution.” The Centre grant would be given in an instalment of Rs 200 crore in three years, which is higher than Rs 30-crore that the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) used to get year-on-year.
According to Chetri, the highlights of the package and the promises given consist of super speciality hospitals at four places (including a medical college), university in Darjeeling, central institutes’ of technology and a management institute.
Apart from this, Banerjee promised that the region would see colleges of tourism and nursing, tea research institute, horti culture and flori culture centres, mini and micro power projects, bridge connecting with Doars across Teesta river, IIT vocational training institutes, along with a new water supply and traffic management system in the Hills. “An elected body would take charge of the Hills with in the next six months,” she assured.
Through the agreement GTA would become the first authority outside a state to get such wide range of powers. It would control land, agriculture, forest, education, levy of local taxes, health, culture, municipalities, tourism and tea plantation in the region, said Union home minister P Chidambaram, who was present on the occasion from the part of the Central ministry, promising to back the administration.
The most important among the decisions would be to give the powers of Tauzi - the body in charge of leasing out land owned by the state government including tea estate land, renewal of lease, receiving annual rent.
Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary Biman Bose alleged that the Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress is trying to divide the plains and the Hills.
Replying to that Banerjee said, “Darjeeling is my sister and the plains too. We will develop both the regions together. The earlier government has even tried to hold this agreement for certain reasons like the change of name of the body from Gorkhaland Regional Council to GTA.” On the other hand, Gurung claimed that Terai and Dooars region should also be a part of the GTA.
The accord was signed by West Bengal home secretary G D Gautama, Roshan Giri, the GJM’s general secretary and K K Pathak, joint secretary from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Since Gorkha National Liberation Front leader Subhash Ghising was forced to resign as chairman of the DGHC in March 2008, after losing public support in the hills area to the Bimal Gurung-led GJM, the state government had appointed an IAS officer as administrator of DGHC. Meanwhile a 48-hour bandh called by two local political outfits, opposing the agreement, paralysed life in parts of Siliguri and Jalpaiguri towns.
With the meetings of the committees set up for interim governance and to decide territorial areas set to start tomorrow, majority from the Hills believe that Banerjee would fulfil the promise of transforming “Darjeeling into Switzerland” and would make her dream of a "peaceful and smiling Kanchenjunga" region a reality.
