GTA: ROW ON OVER schools

SNS, Siliguri, 28 July 2013: The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP) has threatened to lock the Belgachi Higher Secondary School and Belgachi Hindi Primary School if the schools are handed over to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) on 1 August. Both the schools fall in the Maniram gram-panchayat in the Siliguri sub-division and the schools are supposed to be handed over to the GTA with effect from 1 August. 

The ABAVP and CPI-M launched a movement against this. The ABAVP state president, Mr Birsa Tirkey, said the organisation would vehemently resist the move.

“We have decided if the schools are handed over to the GTA on 1 August then the schools will remain locked from 1 August. Around 90 per cent tribal students study in the schools and there is no justification to include the schools under the GTA. If our demands go unheard then we will launch a bigger movement, “ Mr Tirkey said. 

According to the sources, the Belgachi Hindi Higher Secondary has more than 2,000 students, while the primary school has more than 300 students. The organisation held a protest meeting at Belgachi tea plantation against the decision yesterday. 

The District Inspector (Higher Secondary), Siliguri Education district, Mr Sanjib Kumar Ghosh, said the higher education department first issued the order in this regard in October, last year. 

“In May, 2013 the department said eight schools including the Belgachi schools of Siliguri sub-division will be included under the GTA for its administrative control. If an agitation is launched then I will inform the government and it will be upto the government to decide," Mr Ghosh said.