West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee forms new board to get GTA up and running

TT, KOLKATA/ DARJEELING: Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday sought to breathe life into the com-atose Gorkhaland Territorial Administration to complement her efforts to get back tea gardens in working condition in a desperate bid to get normality back in the Hills.

The chief minister announced an eight-member board of administrators to run the now-defunct GTA and appointed rebel Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Binay Tamang to lead it. The government packed it with local leaders, including Darjeeling MLA Amar Singh Rai, to give legitimacy to the autonomous body, using a clause in the 2011 Act that allowed the government to "supersede" the GTA Sabha.

The entire GTA Sabha, which was packed with pro-Gorkhaland GJM leaders and ran the autonomous body, resigned this June after the start of the Gorkhaland agitation, leaving the Bengal government no option but to somehow go on with the agency with a bureaucrat as its head. This arrangement, senior officials in Kolkata felt, robbed the GTA of its legitimacy. "What the government has done is an effort to keep the GTA relevant with a smacking of 'autonomy'. An active GTA that works for the people of the Hills and is led by leaders from the Hills will also rob some wind of the sails of the Gorkhaland agitation," a senior bureaucrat told TOI.

"We gave the responsibility of running the GTA to principal secretary Barun Ray and made him an administrator only because they (Hills politicians) resigned. They could have continued for some months, even a year, till fresh elections were held," the CM told reporters at Nabanna. "We have now formed an eight-member board of administrators that will include local leaders from Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong and Mirik and will be assisted by the GTA principal secretary. They will work for the development in accordance with the (GTA's) mandate," she said.

Rebel GJM leader Tamang will head the body and close aide Anit Thapa will be its vice-chairperson. The other members are Darjeeling GJM MLA Amar Singh Rai, GNLF president Mann Ghising, Mirik Municipality chairman L B Rai and Hills politicians Anu Chettri, Joytim Khatoon, Sanchabir Subba and bureaucrat Ray. Two more leaders could be added at a later date, indicated officials. A functioning GTA will also help in the movement of funds, the government believes.

The tremors induced by the Bengal CM's announcement were felt 615 kilometers away in Darjeeling. Some Hills parties reacted with caution, others with scepticism and anger.

Darjeeling MLA Rai did not respond to calls.

Tamang himself claimed to have got the news from the media but refusing to elaborate. The Bimal Gurung-led GJM faction smelt a "state conspiracy" to steer the agitation away from Gorkhaland and chose to recall how Tamang himself had set on fire copies of the GTA agreement on june 27.

The GNLF alleged its president was not even consulted before being named as a member and demanded an unconditional apology for the unilateral announcement. GNLF spokesperson Neeraj Zimba said: "We were the only party to file a writ in the Supreme Court questioning the legal and constitutional validity of the GTA. That case is still sub-judice. How could the CM ever imagine that we would want to join GTA, something we feel is illegal and constitutionally invalid?"

GJM spokesperson Binita Roka said: "At a time when our party - and its president Bimal Gurung - is constantly engaging with the centre to pave way for tripartite talks to achieve Gorkhaland, this step by the state government is only an attempt to frustrate that process. They want to steer us away from the Gorkhaland demand." Party central committee member Swaraj Thapa echoed from New Delhi: "This is a political conspiracy."

The GTA, which took shape after a July 2011 tripartite agreement between the centre, the state and the GJM, repealed the Left regime's Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Act, 1988, and completed its five-year-tenure in December 2016.

GJM, a signatory to the original Act, later went to the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court, alleging that the state had failed to implement key aspects of the Act.