RTI: Tamang seeks fund account

DARJEELING, Nov. 19: The AIGL president, Mr Madan Tamang said that he would take legal action against the DGHC administrator Mr BL Meena if he failed to give an account of the funds that have been allotted to and utilised for development from the DGHC exchequer.

It may be mentioned that Mr Tamang had filed an RTI application with the DGHC on 6 October alleging that a fund of Rs 30 crore had been released to it and the mandatory period of 45 days to reply will be over in a few days. According to him the GJMM while defying the state government with non-cooperation movement is still accepting funds.

“Why maintain this duplicity of civil disobedience when they are accepting government funds? All details on who filed the tenders, what works were being done, should be made public. If the DGHC administrator fails within the stipulated period we shall take legal action against him,” Mr Tamang said.

Incidentally, all DGHC offices and development work under it have been indefinitely closed as per GJMM president Mr Bimal Gurung's directive since 9 November claiming that tenders and contract bids were distracting the youth from the Gorkhaland movement.

The period also overlaps with the pen down strike of DGHC ad-hoc workers demanding regularisation. Recently, the GJMM has filed a Rs 1 crore defamation suit against Mr Tamang for trying to malign the party with baseless allegations. Students who are now at the forefront of the movement have been entrusted with the responsibility of demanding proof from the leader. They are also observing a relay hunger strike for the success of the tripartite meet.

In the same context, Mr. Tamang would also register a complaint with the “highest authority” regarding the involvement of students in a political movement on 21 November. “There is a Supreme Court ruling which forbids students from participating in political programmes. We will move to the highest level in the education department against this,” he said.

The GJMM students’ wing, however, has repeatedly maintained, “demanding one's birthright is not politics.”