Voluntary labour call in hills

The burnt office of Sonada-II gram panchayat

TT, Darjeeling, Sept. 28: The Darjeeling district administration is seeking voluntary labour from hill residents to help rebuild government properties damaged during the Gorkhaland agitation.

This is the first time in recent memory that the administration has asked for voluntary labour from the residents to restore properties. Earlier, some tea gardens in the Darjeeling hills had adopted such a mode to rebuild estate factories razed by fire.

The labour contributors were largely unpaid and utilised for a specific number of days.

Sources said the Darjeeling administration was also looking at a similar kind of voluntary service, mostly in the rural areas for now.

According to records available with the Darjeeling district administration, government properties worth Rs 17 crore have been damaged and destroyed.

The sources said district magistrate Joyoshi Dasgupta had asked the block development officers of the six Darjeeling blocks to seek shramdaan (voluntary labour) to immediately restore gram panchayat offices so that "the process of rendering public services may be started very soon".

In the rural areas, panchayat offices have borne the brunt of the attacks by statehood supporters, followed by forest department properties, a source said.

Dasgupta said: "We are seeking assistance so that we can start providing services as early as possible. We are basically seeking help to rebuild properties that have not been fully damaged. In case of fully damaged panchayat offices, we are trying to set up base at community halls for now so that work can start from there."

Dasgupta was, however, sceptical when asked whether the damaged or destroyed gram panchayat records could be fully recovered anytime soon. "We are trying our best to collect the data but we do not know how much can be retrieved," she said.

The records include both paper documents in files and computers.

Most government benefits reach the people through panchayat-level offices. The damage inflicted on the offices is likely to affect the implementation of crucial schemes such as the 100-day rural job-guarantee programme and the doling out of relief during calamities.

The sources said the block development officers had directed the executive and assistant secretaries of the respective blocks to coordinate with residents who have experience in manual labour, self-help groups, clubs and ex-servicemen to help rebuild the offices "to the extent possible".

"Work has started in some villages. People are turning up to lend a helping hand," a block development officer said.

The administration started the initiative before the 104-day hill strike was withdrawn on Tuesday.

While the voluntary service initiative has been started to rebuild low-cost and small establishments in rural areas, the sources said it would take "quite some time" to restore major offices in urban localities that have been burnt or vandalised during the agitation.

"There is no way that the state government will immediately start rebuilding properties that were set ablaze during the agitation. It will definitely take quite some time before these government properties are restored," a district official said.

Tilak Gurung, the president of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's Kurseong town committee, was today arrested for his alleged involvement in various incidents of vandalism in the past three months.

(Source and Courtesy: https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170929/jsp/frontpage/story_175443.jsp)