Hills counting venue impasse resolved..... All political parties in Darjeeling hail move

CRPF patrol the Darjeeling Chowrasta area. SUMAN BARAILY

THT, Darjeeling, 30 March 2014: DARJEELING: The counting venue impasse was laid to rest with the district election officer (DEO) scheduled to requisition the Gorkha Ranga Mancha in Darjeeling. All political outfits in the Hills have hailed this move.

Earlier, the district administration had decided to shift the venue to Siliguri following a high court order against the use of St. Joseph’s School premises for counting purpose. The Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency consists of 7 Assembly constituencies including 3 in the Hills and 4 in the plains.

While counting for the Hills constituencies took place at St. Joseph’s school premises in Darjeeling, counting for the 4 constituencies of the plains took place in Siliguri. The decision to shift the Hills counting venue to Siliguri had met with stiff opposition from political parties.

Alleging a sinister design at work behind the shifting of the venue to Siliguri, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and the BJP had written to the Election Commission requesting that counting be held in Darjeeling.

“Earlier we had approached the people in charge of the Gorkha Rang a Mancha to allow us to use the premises. I had personally visited twice and the additional district magistrates thrice. However, we were denied the usage of the premises. We had then decided to centrally hold the counting at the Siliguri College, which has the prescribed infrastructure. However, we then had written to the chief electoral officer of the State about our decision, who had advised us to review the situation. We have now decided to requisition the entire Gorkha Ranga Mancha premises till May 28,” said district magistrate Puneet Yadav.

The district administration is apprehensive that the Gorkha Ranga Mancha being under the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and the Hills autonomous body comprising of elected members with political affiliations could result in objections from other political outfits.

The polled EVM’s will be kept in strong rooms in the premises from April 17th evening till May 16, the day of counting.

“Hence we have decided to requisition the entire premises till completion of election process,” added Yadav.

The district administration had earlier inspected 7 other locations including the Lebong stadium, North Point School ground and the Ghoom Boys’ High School. “However, they were not suitable. We need 3 big halls to facilitate the counting and the Gorkha Ranga Manch is most suitable,” stated Yadav.

The GTA has preferred to remain tight lipped on Yadav’s allegations that they had earlier denied the usage of the premises. “We are happy that the counting is going to take place at the Gorkha Ranga Manch,” said Gorkha Janmukti Morcha general secretary and GTA member Roshan Giri.

With the last date of withdrawal ending at 3pm on Saturday, symbols were distributed to the 13 candidates. Later talking about security arrangements, Yadav stated that along with the existing 9 companies of central forces, another 22 companies would be deployed in the Darjeeling district, 13 companies in the Siliguri Police commissionerate area and 5 in the Chopra Assembly constituency.