Teams to check relief politics - District officials and GTA work out mechanism after differences between parties

Members of the Lion’s Club of Kurseong with relief goods for landslide survivors
 in Tingling. Picture by Suman Tamang

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, July 5: The Darjeeling district administration and the GTA have decided to co-ordinate relief work for landslide survivors so that differences between the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and Trinamul do not affect the flow of aid to relief camps.

Today in Mirik three committees - grievance committee, food committee and house building committee - were formed. These three committees will co-ordinate all relief measures.

U. Swaroop, the subdivisional officer of Kurseong, said: "A house building committee will be headed by the BDO at the block level and the SDO in the civic areas. The house building committee will have a GTA Sabha member and a nominated GTA member of the TMC, apart from the representative of the local area."

More than 2,000 people are staying in 22 relief camps spread across Mirik.

Swaroop said: "The food committee consists of members of the district administration and people like municipality commissioners and GTA Sabha members and this committee will co-ordinate the distribution of food and its quality. The composition of the grievance committee is similar to the house building committee. Anyone having any grievance can place their issue before this committee."

Sources involved in relief work said the committees were formed after a heated exchange between supporters of the Morcha and Trinamul.

Phoebe Rai, the elected GTA Sabha member of Gopaldhara-Okayti constituency, said: "We do not want politics in relief measures. We just want the best possible measures to be undertaken jointly. TMC leaders nominated to the GTA too will have a role to play. This is fine with us as an Opposition party too can play a constructive role."

Binod Khaling, the coordinator of the GTA's Soureni relief co-ordination committee, said that till yesterday, the district officials and the GTA were carrying out relief work separately. "At today's meeting the BDO has assured us that food items will come to us and there will be regular coordination," Khaling said.

At Mirik, which was the worst hit in last week's landslide, S.M. Ghisingh, the GTA co-ordinator there, said distribution of relief material was not being properly done. "We admit there was some co-ordination problem till yesterday, but from today everything is moving well. We are co-ordinating to ensure that the right relief materials reach the right place," he said.