State asks GTA to set up selection board to appoint posts in Groups B,C and D

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, 17 Jul 2019, Darjeeling: The Bengal government has instructed the GTA to set up the Sub-ordinate Service Selection Board to fill up vacant posts in Groups B, C and D.

The decision is significant as hill bodies -- starting with the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council constituted in 1988 to the present GTA -- have been run largely with contract workers.

At the moment, the GTA has more than 3000 vacancies.

Observers say the disenchantment among the public and leaders with the autonomous bodies was to some extent because of the successive state governments' refusal to devolve powers to the DGHC and the GTA.

"I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to chief minister Mamata Banerjee for setting up the Sub-ordinate Service Selection Board. For decades, no recruitment was conducted in the hills and our educated youths had to go out of the hills in search of employment," said Anit Thapa, the chairman of the board of administrators that runs the GTA.

Sources said the Bengal hill affairs department had directed the principal secretary to the GTA to constitute the board and revert with an "action taken report".

A provision for setting up the selection board was included in the GTA Act.

The GTA had also submitted a proposal on December 10, 2012.

There were, however, many delays. A Sub-ordinate Service Selection Board Bill, 2013 had also been framed and the matter had also been taken up with the finance department.

The GTA had also filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court in 2016 and the constitution of the board was among the other issues in the petition.

The case was subsequently transferred to Calcutta High Court but there has been no progress.

Sources said the trigger to set up the board was a telephonic conversation between Mamata and Anit Thapa in June. "The chief minister wanted to set up a selection board with an IT set up in GTA," said source..