Strikes fail to stall projects in Darjeeling hills

Darjeeling, March 8: Development projects are progressing in the Darjeeling hills despite 29 months of agitation for Gorkhaland, virtually emptying the coffers of the DGHC.

Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti, the Bengal chief secretary, might have complained about lack of development in the hills because of the agitation by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, but figures given to The Telegraph by a senior DGHC official reveal an unexpected state of affairs in a region frequently rocked by strikes.

Since Cyclone Aila hit the hills in May 2009, the council has spent at least Rs 110 crore on development projects.

“After the cyclone, the DGHC received Rs 40 crore for relief work. We had other funds also and payments to the tune of Rs 110 crore have been made so far,” said B.L. Meena, the administrator of the DGHC.

Apart from the projects that were executed with Rs 110 crore, many others are being carried out now and the DGHC is preparing to pay Rs 21 crore. Most of the projects relate to repair or asphalting of roads across the hills and construction of protection walls to prevent mudslides. Once the Rs 21 crore is used, the council coffers will virtually go dry.

“As so many works are being taken up, we have already a liability of Rs 58 crore. We will have to write to both the central and the state governments for more funds to clear the dues of Rs 58 crore,” said Meena.

The DGHC is expected to receive another Rs 8 crore from the Centre soon. “The state government, too, released about Rs 5 lakh in February,” added the official.

Most of these works have been executed using non-plan funds or “untied funds”. “Apart from the untied funds, we also get money for specific programmes like the 100-days’ work and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and some tourism projects,” said Meena.

Even though Meena did not disclose the exact amount the council had received for the specific projects, he had earlier said it received around Rs 400 crore annually under what was termed as planned budget.

A rough estimate of the break-up of the funds under the planned budget is Rs 100 crore for100 days’ work, Rs 150 crore for mid-day meal and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Rs 100 crore for rural development and Rs 100 crore for the construction of roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna.

The Morcha president, Bimal Gurung, slammed the state government for the present funds crunch faced by the DGHC. “They (state) talk about development; we have allowed development to take place in the hills but they are now saying there are no funds,” he said at a meeting at Manju near Mirik yesterday.

“We are not into development but are directing the authorities (DGHC) to do work as and when the people come to us with their grievances,” Gurung said, implying that the party was not deciding the allocation of the funds. However, ABGL president Madan Tamang has alleged that the Morcha is directly involved in the allocation of the funds and has accused the party of being insincere with the agitation.