GJM seeks quake relief package for Darjeeling

On the eve of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to Darjeeling, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leadership said on Sunday that the devastation in the Darjeeling Hills caused by last month's earthquake near the Sikkim-Nepal border had been largely ignored by the State and Central governments.

It also demanded a special package of at least Rs.1,000 crore for restoration work and resettlement of the affected.

“The devastation caused by the earthquake in Sikkim has received the attention it deserved. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Minister Chidambaram and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi visited Sikkim and relief packages have been announced, but no such package has been given to the Darjeeling Hills,” Harka Bahadur Chettri, senior GJM leader and the party's MLA from Kalimpong told The Hindu over telephone.

Dr. Chettri said the GJM leadership would meet Ms. Banerjee on Monday and submit a memorandum. “We expect Ms. Banerjee to impress upon the Centre the urgent need to provide relief to the quake victims in Darjeeling hills,” he said.

Dr. Chettri pointed out that the death toll in Sikkim had been very high, whereas not many died in the Darjeeling Hills, but the damage to property on this side of the State border “is in no way less than that in Sikkim.”

“There are many remote places here where the government machinery has not yet been able to reach,” Dr. Chettri said, adding that the quake caused damage worth several thousand crores of rupees.

The Prime Minister had announced a special package of Rs.1,000 crore for earthquake relief in Sikkim during his visit there last month. Immediately after the tragedy, Ms. Banerjee had announced compensation to those killed and injured in the earthquake in West Bengal, but the State government had not announced any relief for those who lost their houses, Dr. Chettri said.

Source: The Hindu

New Beginning and status for Darjeeling

It is just as well that the parties to the tripartite agreement on Darjeeling’s autonomy went in with their eyes open. While the West Bengal chief minister and the leader of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha stuck to their expected margins of rhetoric, the fact that could not be missed was the awareness of reality and each other’s compulsions that they displayed. That is always a safe premise to begin on, and keeps politics within the bounds of reason and maximalist impulses at bay. Mamata Banerjee unequivocally declared that Bengal will not be divided, and that the agreement is not a precursor to division. Bimal Gurung, acknow-ledging Banerjee’s constituency in the plains, emphasised that the GJM had not given up its demand for statehood. In fact, in a concession to the GJM, that the demand stays alive was written into the memorandum of agreement. Otherwise, what the hills have gained this time round is immensely bigger than what they had acquired 23 years earlier.

Most importantly, Gurung seems to have understood the responsibility now placed on the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, running which will be distinctly different from spearheading an agitation. While Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram warmly warned the GJM about this, the GTA’s object lesson in how not to do things remains the Subash Ghising-run Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council — in particular, Ghising’s failure to account for nearly Rs 80 crore and to do any work. Moreover, the DGHC got very little compared to the sums the GTA will receive from the Centre and the state; nor did the DGHC have the power, on paper, to spend the money any which way it pleased. The much larger GTA, with executive and financial but no legislative powers, is getting 59 departments in comparison to the DGHC’s 19. That is a lot of opportunity to begin the turnaround in the hills with, although little can happen without the oversight and cooperation of Kolkata and New Delhi.

Once the state assembly passes the bill establishing the GTA and elections to the body are held, Gurung and his colleagues will have to prove their ability to govern and deliver on the socio-economic revival the Darjeeling hills need — that includes infrastructure, commerce, the tea industry, health and education. The territorial issue is still pending and whatever happens in faraway Telangana is likely to frame politics in north Bengal. But, for now, as Chidambaram, Banerjee and Gurung noted, there is peace in Darjeeling — long sought and long denied to its people. Irrespective of the discordant notes, there is harmony enough to make a new beginning.

Indian Express

Mamata likely to visit Hills next week

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to visit Darjeeling on July 17 or 18 to attend a meeting on the tripartite agreement on Gorkha Territorial administration. Representatives from the union government, officers and ministers of the state government and those from the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), who spearheaded the movement for separate statehood, will attend the meeting.

The meeting has been organized after the union home ministry concurred with the date. The state government has finalised the draft of the agreement that would be sent to the Centre and to Darjeeling for a consensus before the meeting.

Significantly, within 17 days of taking charge of the state administration, Mamata managed to break the long impasse that plagued the Hills for long. Immediately after, peace was restored in Darjeeling. Tourists started swarming the Hills.

The state administration is of opinion that this is the right moment for the tripartite agreement that would take peace to the next level.

On Friday, there was a meeting between the state administration and GJM representatives at the state secretariat. The state government proposed separate school service commission, college service commission, PF and insurance offices for the Hills.

The meeting also decided that the Gorkha Territorial administration would be able to create and appoint government officials, said an official.

The self-governed Hills body would be created through an election. After the agreement, the government would bring a bill in the next assembly session for the authorization of the body. The bill will also require a concurrence from the President. The state government expected that an election for the body can be held by March next year.

The GJM has asked for the inclusion of 300 moujas of Terai and Dooars into the proposed territory. On the other hand, the residents of Terai and Dooars think otherwise. So the state government has proposed the formation of a committee that would have representatives from the Hills as well as from Terai and Dooars.

The committee, which would have four representatives from the state, one from the Centre and four from the GJM, would submit its report within six months.

Till the election, the five-member administrative board, which includes the hill council administrator, three MLAs from the Hills, the DM of the Darjeeling district, would carry out the development works in the Hills.

Time of India