Morcha cry for 3-tier system

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, Jan. 27: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha will press for a constitutional amendment to implement the three-tier panchayat system in the hills at the tripartite meeting that is scheduled to be held in Delhi on January 29.

The last hill rural elections where held in 2000 after which the GNLF chief and the then chairman of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, Subash Ghisingh, refused to hold polls till the issue of including the Darjeeling hills in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution was cleared.

Today, Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri who is also an elected executive GTA Sabha member, said before leaving for Delhi: "We want the Centre to amend the Constitution as early as possible so that a three tier panchayat system can be implemented. This will be one of the issues that we will raise in the meeting ... Since it has been agreed in the GTA memorandum of agreement that a three-tier panchayat system would be implemented, we will press for it."

Both the GTA Act and the GTA memorandum of agreement have provisions that say a three-tier system would be implemented in the hills.

Morcha president Bimal Gurung had earlier said they would agree to the two tier panchayat polls till the three-tier system was in place - an indication that the party was eager to go for elections and tighten its grip at the grassroots.

According to the 73rd amendment to the Constitution in 1992, there is provision for a gram panchayat and panchayat samiti (a two-tier system) in the area which is under the GTA since 2012 after the hill body was formed.

The amendment was made on the behest of Subash Ghisingh, who headed the now defunct Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, as he had felt that the powers of the zilla parishad (the upper-most level of the three-tier system) would overlap with that of the DGHC.

In 2000, the rural elections were held for only one tier - the 112 gram panchayats.

In 2005, Ghisingh refused to hold the elections till the matter of including Darjeeling hills in the Sixth Schedule was cleared.

Today, Giri said: "We will also press for setting up a Central University in the hills. This, too, has been agreed upon in the GTA MoA. A GTA delegation has also met Smriti Irani, Union human resource development minister (regarding the issue), and we are hopeful of a positive response."

Apart from Giri, Darjeeling MLA Trilok Dewan, GTA secretary Don Bosco Lepcha, GTA principal secretary Barun Roy are expected to attend the tripartite meeting.

The Morcha delegation would also demand a special incentive for investors in GTA area, increase in special central assistance of Rs 1,000 crore per annum for the next five years, transfer of reserve forests and withdrawal of cases against Morcha activists during the Gorkhaland agitation.

Now the GTA gets a special central assistance of Rs 200 crore a year for three years.