BJP to contest panchayat polls in Darjeeling hills, demands 3-tier election

YOWAN MOTHAY, EOI, KALIMPONG, APRIL 15, 2023 :  The BJP has announced to contest panchayat elections in the Darjeeling hills. The decision was taken on Saturday in a meeting held by the Darjeeling District Committee of the BJP with the party workers at the party office in Kalimpong.

BJP Darjeeling District Committee President Kalyan Dewan said in a news conference after the meeting that the BJP is going to fight the panchayat elections in the hills for the benefit of the hills, to make hills free from corruption and to lead the hills to the path of development. 

Dewan also said that the BJP would go to each village home with the lotus flower symbol. Dewan said the BJP wanted a three-tier panchayat election in Darjeeling hills. 

Because there was no three-tier panchayat, the funds and BJP to contest panchayat polls in Darjeeling hills, demands 3-tier election facilities of the 14th and 15th Finance Commission of the Central Government were not being utilized by the villagers. 

If the Niti Aayog funds and facilities as recommended in the 14th and 15thFinance Commission had been distributed to the Zilla Parishad, the village settlements would have developed a lot. 

Stating that the West Bengal government had brought a bill to abolish the Zilla Samiti Parishad forever from hills, he strongly opposed the anti-hill policy of the State Government. 

He said that the State Government was trying to impose two-tier panchayat elections on the hills. 

The BJP had decided to fight two-tier panchayat elections to check the misrule of the Bharitaya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha and remove corruption from 100 days’ employment programmes and water schemes