The Package (sops announced by Mamata Banerjee)

KalimNews, Kalimpong, 5September 2013: Hillman the analyst writes in response to The Package (sops announced by Mamata Banerjee in Kalimpong on 3rd September 2013). 

In the very offset it requires to be enquired to balance the equation in accounting, under which head of expenditure of the Govt. The Package is being disbursed. Is it in the State List or the GTA list is a pertinent question which everybody require to derive an appropriate answer to understand the reality of the issue involved. On the face of it, it looks stunningly in favour of the Chief Minister doling out largesse, rightly or wrongly, concernedly as declared or camouflaged with political concern of deriving mileage out of a situation which is beyond recovery, i.e. the demand for the State of Gorkhaland, which seems more probable than improbable, constitutionally speaking (relevant to the Fifth Schedule, provided Scheduled Area granted). 

Leaving that aside a simple question is asked here for information in understanding, whether if at all the package grant is originating out of the constitutional inference of Article 275(1) which is directly implicated to the GTA concerns and therefore outside the purview of delivery by the State on its own. The amount of the programs is said to be Rs. 50 crore which if allocated from the resources of the State govt. alone will not raise any eyebrows at all. Rather the State requires to be thanked by the entire population of the District for having considered the minority aspects in delivery the dues. 

However, if the fund for the delivery of the package is out of the GTA then it requires to be passed whether this is being delivered through the back door. This may not be the case but it certainly deserves enquiry to reckon with the stark facts so that everything is in order, and there should be no provision for enquiry to the soundness of the package concerns. 

Whatever said and done, this writer has alerted through various discourses in writing, though the opposition has been constantly demanding the resignation of the GTA members, nay, the dissolution of the GTA itself, does not bode well for the people of the District if the GTA aspect is diluted to dysfunction or otherwise. The reasoning is simple and to the point. That the GTA is a constitutional aspect of the Fifth Schedule established by the President himself and therefore demanding the dis-recognition of the body would tantamount to violation of the Constitution itself which could be translated into a responsive act of misdemeanor – violation of the Constitution itself which does not sound right at all. 

Therefore the GTA members should actively participate in the continuation of the body without live or let live till such point that the statehood demand will qualify to be triggered again when the Scheduled Area aspect is finally determined for the Districts of Darjeeling & Jalpaiguri. The legal demand therefore should be under the already targeted proposal by the GJM (refer the draft proposal of 2010 sent to the Centre) either Gorkhaland Regional Authority or Darjeeling & Duars Regional Authority which is now realised as GTA for the time being but can be forwarded in time, when Scheduled Area is granted, then the above applications could be read as the State of Gorkhaland or State of Darjeeling & Duars (just like Jammu & Kasmir).

Hillman-the analyst alias Karma T. Pempahishey is the author of “Roadmap on the Trail to Gorkhaland (Partially Excluded Area -The Constitutional Guarantee)”