Mamata takes ‘mini’ CMO to hills

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Kalimpong, 2 September 2014: Mamata Banerjee today said a “mini” chief minister’s office would be set up in Darjeeling town, an idea the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha did not oppose outright but said there should be no “dual administration” in the hills. 

Mamata said the CMO would be set up so that people could easily avail themselves of the chief minister’s relief fund. 

The chief minister’s announcement came after she met a Morcha delegation at Deolo in Kalimpong. This is the first time any Bengal chief minister has sought to make an office in the hills where the Morcha has spearheaded several rounds of statehood agitation. 

“A mini CMO will be set up in Darjeeling. It will be a small office with only one officer from the CMO. He will be stationed in the information and cultural affairs office in Darjeeling. The office will be small or else, the expectations will be high,” she said. 

Two meetings were held in the hills today — the first at 1pm between the Morcha delegation led by party leader Roshan Giri, and the second, the GTA-state bipartite meeting presided over by the chief secretary at 2.15pm. 

When Metro asked Giri after the bipartite meeting about Mamata’s CMO announcement, he said: “We have been told that it will be a small office for relief purposes. If that is the case, we do not have much objection.”

At the news conference after the bipartite meeting a little earlier, Giri, the Morcha general secretary, had said: “We don’t want any dual administration.”

He, however, seemed to be speaking on the specific matter of whether block development officers should report to the GTA, as the hill body has demanded from the state government.

“We demand that the BDOs should be accountable to the GTA also,” Giri said.

The chief secretary did not give any assurance in this matter to the GTA team. Giri, who attended the second meeting too, said the state wanted to conduct more discussion on the matter.

“The GTA is an autonomous body and we do not want any interference in our working,” Giri said at the news conference.

Ever since the GTA was formed in July 2011, relations between its chief executive, Bimal Gurung, and the Mamata Banerjee government have come under strain repeatedly over perceived state interference in the functioning of the hill authority.

GTA leaders have also repeatedly alleged that the state had failed in transferring departments to the autonomous hill body. The matter came up for discussion today, too, during the bipartite talks.

Giri said later that GTA officials would sit with principal secretaries of each department to iron out the anomalies regarding the transferring of departments.

Perhaps keeping in mind the Morcha’s constant complaints of the state interference in the GTA’s affairs, Mamata repeatedly said the office would be small.

“The office is being set up mainly because it will be convenient for people to avail themselves of facilities from the chief minister’s relief fund. It will be easy for people to connect with me also.”

The Morcha had in the past accused the state government of indulging in a “divide-and-rule” policy by forming a development board for the Lepchas and refusing to bring it under the GTA as demanded by the party. The chief minister also announced the formation of a Tamang Development Board, which, too, will not be under the GTA, just before the Lok Sabha elections.

Giri said bipartite meetings must be held regularly to iron out thorny issues and for the smooth functioning of the GTA.

“Today’s bipartite meeting was held after 10 months. We understand there were elections in between, but we want these meetings to be more regular,” Giri said.

The previous bipartite meeting was in Calcutta on November 21, 2013.

The Morcha today suggested that the next tripartite meeting involving the GTA and the state and central governments should be held in the second week of October.

Mamata also announced that Rs 63 crore that had been lying in the DGHC account and was later frozen by the government would be released to the GTA immediately.

The state team today suggested that hill residents pay their 2008-11 power bill dues in 12 instalments, for which the state would waive the surcharge. But the GTA rejected the offer.