Interim jurisdiction, a Morcha priority Staff to council head: Work from hill office

Darjeeling: The Janmukti Asthahi Karmachari Sangatan has demanded that DGHC administrator B.L. Meena work from his Darjeeling office, failing which it will start an agitation.

Meena has been working from Pintail village at Salbari near Siliguri since November 16, 2009.

Deepak Sharma, the spokesperson for the JAKS, an association of contract workers of the DGHC, said: “The atmosphere in the hills is conducive for him to work. The people are facing a lot of problems, for all those who need to meet him have to go down to Siliguri on hired vehicles. We request Meena to attend to his office from Darjeeling, failing which we will take a stand on the matter.”

The main office of the administrator is at Lal Khoti in Darjeeling but Meena has chosen to stay in Siliguri ever since the hills erupted over the issue of regularising the casual employees of the DGHC.

On October 30, 2009, Meena had given a written assurance to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha that “the appointment of casual workers against existing sanctioned vacancies (numbering 3472) will be issued from 17 November 2009 onwards observing all formalities”. The total strength of casual workers stands at 6,287.

However, the state government did not fulfil its commitment. Home secretary Ardhendhu Sen later told the Morcha — the JAKS is an affiliate of the party — that the government would not be able to spell out any timeframe to complete the regularisation.

Even though Meena refused comment today, sources said the administrator was staying in Siliguri to avoid any untoward incident. “The situation could turn volatile any time if Meena goes to the hills as the state government has not yet started the regularisation process. Until the core issue of the workers being made permanent is settled, it makes sense to be in Siliguri especially when the talks (regarding the interim settlement) are moving in the right direction,” said a source.

The JAKS, however, insisted that the situation in the hills was at the moment peaceful.

Sharma said that in the absence of Meena in Darjeeling various issues like providing winter allowances to the hill workers had not yet been solved. “In the last financial year (2008-09), we had received Rs 800 as winter allowance. This time it has not been distributed till date. Everyone is facing a lot of problems and if Meena fails to turn up in Darjeeling, we will announce our stand during a public meeting in Kurseong on Saturday.”

Source: The Telegraph