Darjeeling Funds misuse to dominate talks: Asok

The misuse of DGHC funds by the frontal organisations of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, as alleged by the council’s administrator B. L. Meena, will be discussed in detail at the next round of political-level talks in Delhi, according to Bengal municipal affairs minister Asok Bhattacharya.

Meena had told the media on April 23 that the Morcha’s frontal organisations like the Nari Morcha and the Yuva Morcha were directly controlling the implementation of the DGHC’s development schemes.

Bhattacharya — who is tasked to represent the state government, along with Bengal health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra, at the political level meeting — said in Gangtok today: “We will discuss the matter in an elaborate manner during the tripartite talks, as the charges are very serious.”

Bhattacharya is on a three-day visit to Sikkim to oversee the organisational work of the CPM in the state. He, however, did not comment when asked how a party that had no electoral mandate could dictate the use of the DGHC funds.

He iterated the Bengal government’s position on the Morcha’s Gorkhaland demand and said the party should accept the proposal for a more empowered council as an alternative to the statehood for the hills. “The proposal sent by the Centre and the one we will place at the next round of talks are better and more viable than the Morcha’s document on an interim set-up,” said the minister.

Meena’s allegation prompted the Gorkha Janmukti Nari Morcha to file a Rs 10 crore defamation suit against him in the court of the Darjeeling civil judge (senior division) today. “The case has been admitted and will come up for hearing on May 29,” said Taranga Pandit, a lawyer representing the Nari Morcha.

When told about the defamation case, Meena said he had enough evidence to show the direct involvement of the women and youth wings of the Morcha in the execution of the DGHC projects.

“I have inspected two sites where work is going on and I have specific written proof that the Nari Morcha and the Yuva Morcha are engaged in two projects being undertaken at Sukna High School. When I visited the spot, some eight to ten students (of the Yuva Morcha) admitted that they were doing work worth Rs 40 lakh. I have spoken only about two projects in Sukna and I have papers with which I can go anywhere,” said Meena.

He said while one project was on infrastructure development of the school, entailing an expenditure of Rs 18 lakh, the other was the erection of a boundary wall and development of a playground worth Rs 40 lakh.

Meena, who has been accused by the Morcha of trying to derail the Gorkhaland movement, said today: “I have nothing against the ongoing movement and I am simply doing my duty. Whatever I have said is based on my findings and not to malign or implicate anyone or any forum. But if anyone blames me for making baseless comments, I am not ready to digest them. The jobs in Sukna were assigned to a DGHC-empanelled contractor of the same locality, but were eventually taken up by the frontal organisations of the Morcha.”

With Meena standing by his accusations, the Morcha again said he was doing so to hide his “own incompetence”.

“Our first question is if he has proof, what is he waiting for? By making these statements, he has virtually spoken of his own incompetence and he should resign. We want to make it clear that in no way is the Morcha or any of our frontal organisations involved in the execution of DGHC work,” said Harka Bahadur Chhetri, the media and publicity secretary of the Morcha.

Source: The Telegraph

Darjeeling Ecclesiastical department

Darjeeling: Religious studies and research on local culture are set to receive a fillip in the hills with the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) creating an ecclesiastical department.

An order issued by the DGHC, a copy of which is with The Telegraph, suggests that the new department will have one director, three joint-directors and three assistant directors. However, when Tika Khati, the executive officer of the information and culture department who has been made the director of the cell, was contacted for details, he declined comment as he had “not yet seen the order”.

The order follows a circular issued by the council on May 23 which stated that the DGHC would support “needy monasteries” from July by "engaging head priests, assistant priests, mali (gardener) and chowkidar (guard)". All executive officers, the acting director of tourism and executive engineers of Kurseong, Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Mirik divisions had been told to scout for monasteries that needed funds. Monks in these monasteries are expected to receive remuneration from the DGHC.

Though it is yet to be known whether the monasteries that had been approached have agreed to the financial aid or not, the formation of a full-fledged, ecclesiastical department suggests that the council is supporting the religious institutions in a big way. Since Ghisingh is known to be a patron of jhakris (shamans), fedambas and bijuas (priestly heads of the Rai community), studies on practices like shamanism are likely to be taken up at the research wing of the department.

It was learnt that Khati will be in charge of the formalities that will have to be done before the recruitment of the three joint directors on contract. While one of them will be K.K, Limbu, who is currently an assistant law officer in the DGHC, Kamal Chandra Rai, an academician, will be the second joint-director. Pasang Bhutia, former chairman of Darjeeling Municipality, will be the third joint director.

Sources said Bhutia has already resigned as the ward commissioner of the Darjeeling municipality. The resignation will probably be announced by the civic body either tomorrow or the day after.

The three assistant directors will be B.K. Jairu, Birahi Kaila and Goma Subba. While Jairu is an assistant director of culture in Kalimpong, Kaila holds the same post in Mirik. Subba is an announcer with the culture department in Kurseong.

Source: The Telegraph