‘Big day for Darjeeling’: Hills get School Service Commission, GTA gets power of Zilla Parishad

The Governor is pleased to appoint the following members of the Regional School Service Commission for Hill Region with immediate effect and shall remain valid upto 24.01.2028 or until further order whichever is earlier on usual terms and conditions

EOI, DARJEELING, JANUARY 25, 2024 : The long pending demand for a Regional School Service Commission (SSC) for the hills was finally fulfilled on Wednesday with a notification issued by the West Bengal School Education Department. 

The notification stated that the Governor had appointed certain members of the RSSC for the “Hill Region with immediate effect” and that “it would remain valid up to January 24, 2028 or until further order whichever is earlier on usual terms and conditions.

”The list of members includes seven names, most of them being renowned educationists of the region with the West Bengal (Sub-Ordinate) Education Service; retired Assistant Master in Charge Bijay Kumar Rai being made the chairman of the body. Welcoming the move of the West Bengal government, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Chief  Executive Anit Thapa in a Press release on Thursday said: “Work has been the main principle of the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) from the start. We do practical politics and after we took over the GTA we started working towards the promises we made during the election.” 

I have been saying time and again that we have to fix the system first and took up the issue in every departmental meeting. The GTA area did not have any system to appoint any teachers which is why the educated youths either had to leave the hills or work in the private sector. There are many youths that are unemployed also,” added Thapa who is also the BGPM president. 

He said that the BGPM had given priority to the field of education and his main aim was to fix the administrative system. 

“I faced a lot of obstacles while trying to fix the system, but I did not lose hope and continued fighting for it. This is the reason why the GTA got the Regional SSC. This is a historical day for the hills which is our achievement. The educated youths can now write their future here in the hills itself with them being able to get work in the education field,” he said.

Thapa also congratulated the seven members who have been appointed and expressed hope that they worked according to the GTA Act to improve the educational system in the hills.

(KalimNews: The members of the Regional SSC are- Thendup Tshering Bhutia, Retired WBCS(Exe) Officer; Tara Lohar Lepcha, Retired Associate Professor, Kurseong College; Dr. Anuradha Rai, Principal at Southfield College, Darjeeling; Dr. Samir Bal, Principal at Kurseong College, Kurseong; Dr. Sangmu Lepcha, Retired Head Mistress of Barnesberg Higher Secondary and Nava Ratna Pradhan, Retired Principal of Scottish University Mission Institution, Kalimpong.)

In another notification from the West Bengal School Education Department of the same date the Governor also reconstituted the ad-hoc committee of District School Board in Darjeeling and a new one for Kalimpong with the members appointed for a period of one year.

The previous ad-hoc committee of Darjeeling which was formed on July 1, 2015 had expired on June 30,2016 but was not reconstituted.

In a letter from the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj to the West Bengal Panchayat and Rural Development Department, the GTA was allowed to exercise all the powers of the Zilla Parishad undersection 153, 154, 155,156, 157,158,159, 160, 161 and 162 of the West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973 until it was formed. 

The letter states that as “there is currently no Zilla Parishad in the GTA area, the Ministry has no objection to granting permission to your proposal provided that disbursement be undertaken in accordance with Ministry of Finance Operational Guidelines for the implementation of the Fifteenth Finance Commission recommendation on Rural Local bodies Grant dated July 14, 2021.

Thapa said his party had been working to fulfill the promises made during the election. 

"Firstly, it is now clear that the GTA has been given the power to function like the Zilla Parishad. Secondly, we have been able to fulfill promises that we made from the time people voted us to the GTA. We believe in realistic and practical politics and will continue to work for the benefit of the hill people," he said