DARJEELING: Angry at the west Bengal government’s 57point objections to the running of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), its chairman, Subash Ghising, has virtually declared a lockout of the council and 4S preparing for a renewed call for setting up of a separate Gorkhaland state within the Indian Union, Ghising said in an interview that since its inception the DGHC was a still born child as the Act governing it was defective. The Act did not give autonomous powers to the DGHC, but was aimed at keeping the Gorkhas of Darjeeling under the oppressive rule of the West Bengal government by denying them political and constitutional rights. The DGHC Act was against the spirit of the tripartite accord of August 1988 which led to the formation of the hill council, he added.

He said the West Bengal chief minister, Jyou Basu, had requested him to give the hill council a trial and he had done so for three years. He had repeatedly requested Basu and other ministers and senior officers of the Left Front government to review the DGHC Act and make the necessary amendments to remove the lacunae but nothing had been done so far, he added.

On the contrary, in April the government alleged that the hill council was not being min according to the relevant Act and put an embargo on expenditure, Thus the slate government had played a “vindictive and deceitful role” to make the DGHG a complete failure. He claimed that during the past three years, a total of Rs 94 crore had been sanctioned to the hill council. Of this, the state government had put an embargo on the spending of Rs 56 crore.

Ghising is also cross that the 57point objections had been sent by the joint secretary of the hill affairs department of the state government, “How can the hill affairs” department send such a no the hill council? We are not under the hill affairs department we deal directly with the stale government,” he said. He also down the Left Front government request to visit Calcutta to remove any misunderstanding,

Meanwhile the GNLF central committee, at its meeting on June 24, decided to burn copies of the DGHC Act on July 12, send & memorandum to the Prime Minister and prepare an alternative political solution in protest against the West Bengal government’s  attempt to scuttle the hill council and to render the elected members” of the DGHE powerless.

 In a resolution adopted by the general council of the DGHG or June Sit was decided that  since the West Bengal government wanted the hill council to be run strictly according to Act, the financial powers of the chief executive officer, who is incidentally an IAS officer should be withdrawn.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 17, 1992