Panel formed to suggest GTA relief fund use- headed by the GTA secretary with other members from trade unions, different political outfits, educational institutions

SNS, DARJEELING. 28 JANUARY 21 : The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) has formed a committee consisting of stakeholders from different organisations, administration and political outfits, which will decide on how funds collected in the GTA Chairman Relief Fund (CRF) could be utilized for the benefit of tea garden workers.

A meeting was held today at Lalkothi, the GTA Head-quarters. to discuss the utilization of the CRF, which was collected from donors during the Covid-19 pandemic to provide support to garden workers. "The CRF had mainly been started in aid of tea garden workers during the time of the Covid-19. Those were times of uncertainty as no one knew what would happen or how long the lockdown would continue, so this fund was started as we thought it would be helpful for the tea garden workers. However, during the lockdown, the tea gardens reopened and every-thing went on smooth with the workers not getting wages for about only 10 days," GTA Chairman Anit Thapa said.

"The funds collected were more than Rs 2 crore, with donors from different sectors contributing to it. As announced earlier, the GTA will also be adding an equal amount of the funds collected, and the total amount would be over Rs 4 crore. As this is public money, we want to utilise it for the tea garden workers," he said.

The committee will be headed by the GTA secretary with other members from trade unions, different political outfits, educational institutions, among others, whose representatives attended today's meeting. Some participants in the meeting suggested that the funds be used for medical aid for tea garden workers or building a place in Siliguri for garden people to halt for the nights whenever they go down to the plains for various reasons, including medical check-up. Some also suggested buying ambulances or depositing cash in the bank account of the workers.

Only yesterday, Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha leader Binoy Tamang contributed an amount of Rs 1 lakh to the fund.