CM Chamling back from Delhi

RANGPO-24TH AUGUST 12
Sikkim chief minister Mr. Pawan kumar chamling was return back from delhi after one week long trip to Delhi .according to the news Mr. chamling was left for Delhi on 18th august .today maximum cabinet ministers ,mla,chairman ,senior leaders of the party ,members of yuva ,cheli ,trade ,majdoor and others cell members .councillors and panchayats along with local residents was present at bagdogra and Rangpo the main entry point of Sikkim to greet him .after gone to Delhi Sikkim residents was listening that he was ill at the delhi so everyone wants to know the health condition .Mr. chamling during meet asked that he is OK.

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Bail rejected

Calcutta, Aug 24 : A division bench of Calcutta High Court comprising Justice A.K. Roy and Justice Taufique Uddin today rejected the bail petition of Sudesh Rai Maji who was arrested in connection with ABGL chief Madan Tamang’s murder.

The court had rejected Maji’s bail plea in November last year.

Maji’s lawyer claimed that his client had been languishing in jail for the past 250 days. “The investigation into the murder has already been concluded. So there is no necessity to keep Maji behind the bars any more. If granted bail, he will help the CBI in investigation,” said the lawyer.

Opposing the bail plea, the government lawyer told the court that Nicole Tamang, the main accused in the Madan Tamang murder case, was still at large. “At this point, it would not be wise to grant bail to Maji,” he said.

The lawyer also claimed that Maji was present, along with Nicole, at the spot when Madan Tamang was murdered.

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Photography salute to first two - Sikkim exhibition of father-son’s Chogyal photos

Gangtok, Aug. 24: Off-season tourists to Sikkim have found a way to spend their time by browsing through a photography exhibition in tribute to the first two photographers of Sikkim, Tse Ten Tashi and his son Paljor Dorji.

There are around 200 photographs on display at the Star Hall premises on MG Marg, including 20 photographs taken between 1940-75 by Tashi and Dorji during the Chogyal (Sikkimese King) regime.

“The photo exhibition is dedicated to the first two photographers of Sikkim, Tse Ten Tashi and Paljor Dorji. They were pioneers in their field and were also close to the royal family of Sikkim,” said the president of the Vividh Kala Akademi, Kiran Rasaily.

Tse Ten Tashi served as the private secretary to Chogyal king Tashi Namgyal, crown prince Paljor Namgyal and Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal in 1963. He was also conferred one of the highest honours, Pema Dorji, in recognition of distinguished service rendered to the Sikkim Darbar.

Tse Ten Tashi was also the first person to set up a photography studio in Sikkim. He passed on his legacy to his son Paljor Dorji.

Dorji was a former secretary to the last Chogyal king of Sikkim. He was a prolific photographer and built a huge collection of photographs on mountains, chortens, monasteries, landscapes, flora, and fauna.

The exhibition has been jointly organised by Vividh Kala Academy and the Journalist Union of Sikkim and is on till September 2. Around 10 amateur photographers from Sikkim have also displayed their photographs in the exhibition.

“The tourists are very excited about the old photographs taken between 1940 to 1975. Most of them, like the photos of the Chinese and Sikkimese army at Nathu-la, were taken in the mid-sixties,” said the treasurer of the Journalist Union of Sikkim, Pravin Rai.

“We thought we would visit Changu Lake and Baba Mandir but the route is closed and no permits are being issued. Looking at the old photographs of Sikkim is a new experience” said Tanmoy Raha, a tourist from Calcutta.(TT)

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illegal process of recruitment in SPDC

RANGPO-24TH AUGUST 12
RTI filed by Mr. D K Chettri general secretary of Sikkim RTI forum has exposed the hundred percent of employees working under Sikkim power development corporation recruitment process illegal. Mr Chettri has filed an RTI to provide the details of the recruitment policy and what document or under which policy the recruitment was done along with total number of employees. And the name list of Employees working in SPDC and whether the Employees are inducted through fair competition or interview. To our horror, SPDC furnished that none of the employees working in SPDC were placed through competition or Interview. All together 73 officers and staff from managing director to the class four worker is recruit via illegal process. No any notification or advertisement was done for any recruitment .according to Mr. Chettri
SPDC violated all the rules and norms of Employment in Sikkim. This is a unimaginable violation of rules by any Govt agency. If every department follows the path lead by SPDC then Sikkim Public Service Commission is no longer needed. And the qualified unemployed people of Sikkim who do not have any Contact with Higher authority should even dream of getting Govt jobs in Sikkim.
SPDC denied the Right of Equal opportunity Granted by Constitution of India.

Hence we request to HCM,Chief Secretary and the His Excellency the Governor of Sikkim to look into the matter urgently and provide justice to Sikkim’s people.

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Morcha seeks N-E tax relief - Gurung and team meet pranab and shinde

Darjeeling, Aug. 23: A Gorkha Janmukti Morcha delegation met President Pranab Mukherjee and Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in Delhi today and asked for an extension of all tax benefits, subsidies and tax holidays to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration similar to what the northeastern states get.

The seven-member delegation led by GTA chief executive Bimal Gurung also demanded Scheduled Tribe status for all Gorkhas except those from the Schedule Caste community, recruitment of Gorkha youths (Gorkhaland Personnel) and a one-time grant for administrative infrastructure of the hill set-up.

The one-time grant was mentioned in the memorandum of settlement signed by the Centre, state and the Morcha.

“Our delegation met the President and the Union home minister today. We have demanded that the GTA should be given all the tax benefits, subsidies and tax holidays enjoyed by the northeastern states, although we are not members of the North East Council,” said Roshan Giri, an executive member of the GTA and also the general secretary of the Morcha.

He said the delegation told the Centre that the GTA region was as backward like the northeastern states and deserved special concessions.

“We have demanded that all Gorkhas, except the SC community, should be given tribal status and have also asked for the release of a one time grant for setting up the GTA secretariat, administrative offices and quarters for GTA Sabha members. We believe that more than Rs 100 crore would be needed to put the administrative infrastructure in place. A request has also been made for immediate release of the Rs 200 crore package for the GTA,” Giri said.

The GTA memorandum states Rs 200 crore would be provided to the hill set-up annually for three years for development work.

According to sources, Shinde has assured the Morcha delegation that the Centre will extend all help.

The department of industrial policy and promotion has extended a number of incentives and concessions to the Northeast.

According to the website of the ministry of development of north eastern region, there is a scheme for the region, under which subsidies of 50 to 90 per cent are given to entrepreneurs on transportation costs of raw material and finished goods from designated rail routes to industrial units.

In 1996, the Centre had announced that at least 10 per cent of the annual budgets of all central ministers and their departments would be earmarked for the development of the northeastern states.

Integrated Infrastructure Development Centres in the Northeast have been declared tax-free zones. All industrial activities in these areas are free of income tax, excise duty and get exemption in sales tax and municipal tax subject to the respective state government’s approval.

In the tourism sector, schemes have been extended to the northeastern states like LTA for central government staff to visit the region.

On the issue of granting ST status to all Gorkhas except those who have a Scheduled Caste status, sources said over 100 cases of communities wanting an ST status were pending in the ministry of tribal affairs.(TT)

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Darjeeling boy’s road to sets of Jism-2 - 36-year-old cinematographer with no formal training finds toehold in tinsel town

Darjeeling, Aug. 23: A Darjeeling youth with no formal training in film-making has made it to the sets of Jism-2 as a cinematographer.

Nigam Bomzan was selected by the Bhatt camp for one of their most hyped films of the year that stars Sunny Leone.

“After completing my schooling at Vidya Vikash Academy in Darjeeling I went to Delhi and enrolled myself at Zakir Hussain College. I was a confused kid, not sure about my calling, although I was passionate about still photography,” the 36-year-old said.

In 1999, director and scriptwriter Kabir Khan was impressed with Bomzan’s photography that was shown at a talent hunt contest in Delhi. “He took me as an assistant for a documentary, Fifty Days War, which was based on the Kargil War in 1999,” said Bomzan.

Since that day, it was a story of hard work. “I was not paid regularly. At times, I was jobless and penniless. I have done all sorts of work, including depositing electricity bills, telephone bills and cheques (for people in the locality), basically the job of a peon. But the struggle taught me to respect all jobs and never lose focus,” Bomzan told the mass communication students at St Joseph’s College yesterday at an interactive session.

Although Bomzan has never done a course in film-making, he advised the students to “read a lot, watch good films and concentrate on the theory and not just practical work in college”.

“After working as an assistant for various projects (including Paap directed by Pooja Bhatt), I got an opportunity to work as a cinematographer for Arjun Rampal starrer Fox during 2007-8,” said Bomzan. Soon after Fox Bomzan was chosen by director Tanvir Ahmed to work in Ada….A Way of Life, which had A.R. Rehman as the music director.Bomzan also worked for Blood Money, produced by Mukesh Bhatt, before he was selected for Jism 2 early this year.

“At times, I have shot for 42 hours with just a couple of hours’ rest before managing to sleep like a log for 18 hours at a stretch. While working as an assistant, I had to face hostile attitude from other crew members and I have cried almost everyday after a bad day in office,” said Bomzan.

“Dino (Morea, the co-producer of Jism-2) called me up one day and asked me if I was interested in doing Jism-2. Then I spoke to Pooja (Bhatt) and everything fell in place,” he said.

The film was extensively shot in Sri Lanka and some portions in Jaipur and Goa. “During the shooting in Sri Lanka, Mahesh sahab tweeted something on the lines ‘my cinematographer is a magician.’ Pooja Bhatt (the director) also commented saying ‘Nigam was the man of the match.’ This was one memorable moment,” Bomzan said.

“I am discussing other projects but I still haven’t signed any new film.”

So does he consider himself as having truly arrived on the big stage? “I am only focused on my job. The moment I think I have made it, I will have to pack my bags and return home.”

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Science centre power cut - Connection snapped after Kalimpong facility runs up dues

R.R
Kalimpong, Aug. 22: The Kalimpong Science Centre, which has experiments to illustrate the production of electricity, has been without power for a week because it has not cleared electricity dues, according to the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited.

Officials at the four-year-old centre said the dues of Rs 51,000 could not be cleared because they did not get the bill.

But WBSEDCL gave a different version.

“We had sent the bill to the centre on time. If the centre has not received the bill, it should have informed us. We would have issued a duplicate bill,” said Sanjiv Agarwal, the WBSEDCL assistant engineer in Kalimpong.

The centre is running on a generator now.

The snapping of the power line is just one problem that plagues the facility, though.

The centre has been operating without a curator since April after the last curator, B.B. Gurung, quit the job.

Gurung said he was saddened to learn about the deteriorating condition of the centre. “It will not be fair on my part to comment on the ills afflicting the centre. Kalimpong is the only science centre in Bengal that does not have a curator.

None of the staff at the centre is a permanent employee.

All 22 are contractual employees working on meagre salaries. Their jobs must be regularised otherwise their output at work will not be that good to say the least,” Gurung said.

The other science centres in the state are in Calcutta, Siliguri, Purulia, Burdwan and Digha.

Several exhibits, such as the sculptures of pre-historic animals in the garden, lie unkempt.

At the fun science gallery and digital gallery repairs are needed. “Most of the items at the centre cannot be repaired locally. Manpower and parts will have to be brought in from Siliguri or Calcutta,” said a staff member at the centre.

One of the exhibits, called the rising arc, is an experiment to generate electricity.

The fun centre also has an “intelligent room” where visitors can order a computer to switch lights on and off.

K. K. Lohar, a Gorkhaland Territorial Administration officer in charge of the education department under which the centre falls, said the delay in the repair and replacement of damaged exhibits was because the administration in the hills was going through a transition after the formation of the GTA.

“We have already prepared a proposal for the repair and replacement of exhibits, besides improvement of the garden at the centre. The process of appointing a curator also had to be put on hold because of the GTA election. Everything should fall in place within a month or two,” he said.(TT)

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Morcha seeks tea arrears

Calcutta, Aug. 22: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today asked the government to immediately clear the wage dues of 600 labourers in three state-owned tea gardens in Darjeeling and ensure better housing and water supply for all those employed in the sector.

The demands were raised at a meeting between commerce and industries minister Partha Chatterjee and a Morcha delegation led by GTA chief executive Bimal Gurung at the Gorkha Bhavan here this morning.

The Morcha leaders told Chatterjee that 600 labourers in the three gardens owned by the West Bengal Tea Development Corporation weren’t paid wages according to the new rate since April 1 last year when it was increased from Rs 67 to Rs 90.

“The minister was not really aware of this delay and assured us of quick action with regard to the arrears,” said a Morcha source.

Gurung also asked Chatterjee to ensure better housing and water supply for tea garden labourers through the panchayat department.

“We were told that the panchayat department is in the process of finalising its implementation plans for such schemes,” said a Morcha leader.

Later in the day, another Morcha delegation led by general secretary Roshan Giri met chief secretary Samar Ghosh at Writers’ Buildings.

Although neither Ghosh nor Giri commented on the meeting, calling it a “routine administrative” discussion, Writers’ sources said the transfer process of various departments, assets and accounts to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Sabha had figured in the talks.

“The government aims to complete the process by August 31. The Morcha wanted to know how it was being done and what the process was like,” said an official.

The Morcha, which is new to the task of administration, also sought inputs from the chief secretary on various aspects of governance for the day to day running of the GTA.

“They sought the chief secretary’s assistance and guidance regarding some administrative processes which they are not familiar with. The government is providing every assistance as far as this is concerned. The GTA will need some handholding in its initial days,” said the official.(TT)

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Molest charge on priest

NIRMAL MANGAR
Gangtok, Aug. 22: The Sikkim State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has lodged an FIR against a temple priest for allegedly molesting an 11-year-old boy in the East district.

According to the complaint lodged with the Sadar police station in Gangtok on Saturday, the incident happened on the evening of August 9 during Janmasthami celebrations.

The Class V student had gone to the temple to see the celebrations when priest A.J. Pathak, 54, a resident of Bihar, allegedly called him inside saying he would give the child sweets.

The priest then allegedly molested the boy.

The temple is on the General Reserve Engineer Force’s compound in East Sikkim, 6km from Gangtok.

The GREF functions under the Border Roads Organisation and looks after road construction across the state.

The boy did not tell anyone about the incident till August 18, when he told his sister.

When child’s parents heard about the incident, they first spoke to the principal of the child’s school.

Later, the parents and the school authorities lodged complaints with the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

“We received complaints from the boy’s parents as well as the principal of the child’s school on August 18. The boy was brought before the commission and during counselling, he narrated the incident to officials,” said the chairperson of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Manita Pradhan.

Pradhan lodged an FIR against the GREF-appointed priest the same day.

“The accused person is on leave and he has gone to his home in Bihar. We have requested BRO commandant Col. M.N. Reddy (in charge of the NEFR campus) to call him back immediately and take action against him,” said Pradhan.

Officials said a case under Section 377 (unnatural offence) of the IPC has been started against Pathak.

According to Doma Bhutia, a senior lawyer in Gangtok, if the priest is convicted under the section, he may be imprisoned for up to 10 years or fined or both.(TT)

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Darj civic tax from tourist pockets Shell out Rs 10 a day from Sept 1

Darjeeling, Aug. 21: The Darjeeling municipality has decided to levy a Rs 10 tax a day on each tourist visiting the hill station from September 1.

The charge will be levied as conservancy or sanitation tax, not tourism tax, and is expected to help the municipality which faces a cash crunch.

Last year, tourists were told to pay a one-time entry fee of Rs 3. The earlier civic board had collected the “tourist tax” on November 15, 2011, by stopping vehicles entering the hill town at Ghoom.

“I am personally not comfortable terming it a tourist tax. It sends a wrong message and we are thinking of calling it either conservancy or sanitation tax. We will collect the tax from September 1,” said Amar Singh Rai, the chairman of Darjeeling municipality.

Tourists will have to pay the tax at the hotels with their bills.

Rai said the civic body had discussed the matter with GTA chief executive Bimal Gurung and representatives of the hotel owners’ association a few days back.

The civic authorities had to stop collecting the tax last November as it was difficult to distinguish between tourists and those coming to Darjeeling for work.

That there was no system to stop the vehicles and collect the money also contributed to the confusion.

Besides the entry fee of Rs 3, the municipality had also charged Rs 20 per multi-utility vehicle and car and Rs 50 from each bus.

Its not clear if the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-run present board will levy any tax on tourist vehicles.

Darjeeling sees around 3.5 lakh domestic tourists and 40,000 foreigners annually. The visitors generally flock to the hills between March and May and later from October to November.

On average, a tourist stays here for three days. (See chart)

The municipality is expected to collect around Rs 1 crore annually from the tourists and it will be a relief for the cash-strapped civic body.

“When I took charge of the municipality, the liability was about Rs 4 crore. We have managed to bring it down to Rs 2 crore in less than a year. Of the Rs 4 crore, almost Rs 2 crore was related to the rehabilitation work related to the devastation caused by Cyclone Aila,” said Rai.

Even though all figures are not immediately available, the zamindari department collected taxes to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in March this year. The same department could collect only Rs 2 lakh in the entire financial year of 2010-11. The poor collection of tax is generally blamed on civic inefficiency.

The civic body has to raise a portion of the employee’s salaries from its own resources. The total annual expenditure of the municipality in terms of salaries, wages for daily workers, gratuity for retired employees and a portion of their pension stood at Rs 1.02 crore.

“It is difficult for us to manage. We have to pay 20 per cent of the salaries (the rest is paid by the state government) of the 456 permanent employees of the municipality. Also, we do not get any financial help to pay the 193 daily wage workers who get Rs 75 a day,” said a municipality official.

Sources said the GTA had decided to allot Rs 1 crore to the Darjeeling municipality for repair of roads and pavements. There are a total of 95 roads, pavements and footpaths in Darjeeling.(TT)

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Barla Parishad’s poll target

Siliguri, Aug. 21: The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad today vowed to go all out to defeat the alliance of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the tribal group led by John Barla in the panchayat polls.

The state leadership of the tribal outfit also gave its carte blanche to the Dooars-Terai unit to forge a tie-up with any party in the elections.

Birsa Tirkey, the state president of the Parishad, said his organisation was not attaching much importance to the decision of the Morcha and Barla to contest the polls jointly in the Dooars and Terai.

“But we would like to clarify that we won’t leave any space for the Morcha and Barla in the elections and will go all out against them in the campaign. The Parishad will ask the people in the Dooars and Terai to distance themselves from such an unholy nexus, whose divisive activities have hindered the progress of the plains,” Tirkey told The Telegraph over the phone from Calcutta.

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Sikkim player in India team - 23-year-old midfielder features in the 20-member squad for Nehru Cup

Gangtok, Aug. 20: Sikkim boy Sanju Pradhan, the captain of the East Bengal football team, has made it to the 20-member Indian squad for the Nehru Cup, which begins in Delhi on Wednesday.

Nirmal Chettri and Sunil Chettri are also in the squad and Sunil would be leading the Indian team in the tourney.

It is the first time that 23-year-old Pradhan has found a place in the national squad.

“My dreams have come true. I have been waiting for a call to the team for many years. I have got an opportunity now,” the midfielder told The Telegraph from the selection camp in Greater Noida.

“I have promised to myself to work hard and give my best if I make it to the (final) team. As players it is our dream to play international matches. We get to play against players who have different styles and approach. I will also get to know my calibre and I try to improve my game,” said the footballer who hails from Nelli in South Sikkim.

During the selection camp at Greater Nodia Sanju played several friendly matches.

“I cannot say whether I would be in the first XI, it depends on the coach. But I will try my best to make most out of the opportunities coming my way,” he said.

Footballer Bhaichung Bhutia said he was happy that two players from Sikkim had been selected for the national squad. “Nirmal has played before for the national team. Sanju is making it to the team for the first time and let’s hope he does well. Both are hard working and dedicated and would do well,” he said.

The general secretary of Sikkim Football Association, Menla Ethenpa, said: “Sanju Pradhan’s entry was long awaited in the Nehru Cup.”

In the opening match of the tourney, defending champion India will take on Syria at the Ambedkar Stadium in Delhi.

Bhaichung Bhutia is supposed to attend the Nehru Cup matches.(TT)

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Nepali deadline

Darjeeling, Aug. 20: The Gorkha Janmukti Vidyarthi Morcha today set a 20-day deadline for all advertisers in the hills to write hoardings in Nepali, failing which it would pull down the billboards.

The student wing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha also demanded that question papers for various state job exams be written in Nepali, apart from English and Bengali.

The demands were made on the 20th anniversary of the Nepali/Gorkha language being included in the Eight Schedule of the Constitution in 1992. Amrti Yonzone, the president of the Vidyarthi Morcha, said: “On the occasion of bhasha manyata diwas, we would like to request all advertisers who have put up hoardings in languages not understood by the hill people to have their content written in Nepali also. We are not against the content being written in other languages. But we want the local language to feature in the billboards.”

Many billboards in the hills are written in Bengali and that might be the reason for the outfit to raise the demand for the Nepali content. “We have set a 20-day deadline for the inclusion of Nepali language in the billboards, failing which we will be forced to bring them down,” said Yonzone.

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Morcha, Barla in joint rural fight

Darjeeling, Aug. 20: Bimal Gurung today said the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha would contest the panchayat elections and all other polls jointly with John Barla’s group.

“We will jointly contest not just the panchayat elections, but all other elections,” Gurung, who is the GTA chief executive, said at an event where Barla was felicitated by an arm of the hill party.

The tribal leader, who had yesterday said that his group would contest under the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha symbol, was felicitated by the Morcha-affiliated Janmukti Astai Karmachari Sangathan at the Darjeeling Gymkhana Club.

The award was given to Barla for strengthening ties between the Gorkhas and the tribals. Barla said: “The morale of the Gorkha-speaking people living in the Dooars and Terai is at an all-time low. I appeal to you all (Morcha leaders from the hills) to organise a meeting with them to boost their morale.”

Morcha supporters were disheartened after the Justice Shyamal Sen committee recommended the inclusion of only five mouzas of the Terai and Dooars in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. The Morcha had wanted 396 mouzas to be included.

Barla seemed to be voicing the opinion of the Morcha supporters in the plains.

“I, despite being a member of the adivasi community, still have faith in your (the Morcha’s) leadership. The Gorkha-speaking people from the plains should have more faith in your leadership,” Barla said.

The tribal leader’s political survival depends on the support of the Gorkha-speaking people of the plains, who are second in terms of numbers in the plains after the adivasi community.

A chunk of the adivasi people supports the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad — the organisation that expelled Barla for joining hands with the Morcha.

When Gurung spoke, he did not mention the Morcha in the Dooars and Terai or reply to Barla’s appeal.

He said the three-member fact verification committee, formed by the state government to look into the Morcha’s demand to include more mouzas in the GTA, had started its work. “The fact verification committee has already started their work,” Gurung said.

Unlike the Justice Sen committee that had been given a specific deadline to submit its report, no such time limit has been set for the fact verification committee for submission of its report.

The Morcha today named a seven-member team that will leave for Calcutta tomorrow. “After the formation of the GTA, it is our duty to call upon the governor. After meeting the governor day after tomorrow, we will go to Delhi to meet the President and the Union home and finance ministers,” Gurung said.

The seven members who will be part of the team are Gurung, Ramesh Allay, the deputy chief executive of the GTA, Roshan Giri, Anit Thapa, Ram Bahadur Bhujel, Devendra Sharma and the GTA principal secretary Saumitra Mohan.

“It is more of a courtesy call. Discussions on the financial package and the transfer of departments to the GTA are likely to figure during the meetings,” said a member of the delegation. The GTA Sabha is hopeful that notifications on the transfer of departments will be issued by the state government by August 31.(TT)

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Hill accident

Siliguri, Aug. 20: A Tata Sumo carrying seven people from Gangtok and bound for Siliguri rolled off NH31A in Kalimpong tonight.

The driver of the car is missing and the six passengers are injured. They have been admitted to Rambhi primary health centre, about 45km from Siliguri.

The accident happened around 8pm today at Hanumanjhora on the NH31A.

Local people and police extricated the passengers from the car and took them to hospital.

The passengers have not been identified yet, nor is the name of the driver known.

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Gurung gives team a year to deliver

Darjeeling, Aug. 19: Bimal Gurung has warned 14 executive members of the GTA Sabha that he would not hesitate to replace them if they failed to perform in a year.

Gurung, the GTA chief executive, gave the warning while addressing all 45 elected members of the Sabha at an event organised by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s Darjeeling subdivisional committee at Gymkhana Club yesterday.

“Both the elected and nominated members of the GTA must work together. The public, the Opposition parties and even the state government are closely monitoring the functioning of the GTA. The biggest challenge is to fulfil the expectations of people and if the executive members fail to perform to the best of their ability in a year, I will not hesitate to replace them,” Gurung said.

The GTA Sabha has 50 members — 45 elected and five nominated — and 14 of them have been made executive members and been given charge of various departments.

The chief executive, however, said it would take time for the GTA to function smoothly and called upon the employees of the now-defunct DGHC (who are with the GTA now) to improve their work culture.

“I find that some of the employees of the DGHC do not work properly. Old habits have to be changed. I, too, will work day and night and I expect the same from the employees. I will make surprise visits and if I find that the employees are not working properly, we will take immediate action.”

The chief executive stressed the need to free the GTA of corruption, terming it as the biggest bane of the DGHC.

“I have zero tolerance towards corruption. Even the GTA members should ensure that there is no corruption. The members should also ensure that there is no nepotism in the GTA,” he said.

Gurung reminded the GTA members that they were no longer agitators and they had to now deliver as administrators. “Earlier, we used to go door-to-door calling upon the public to raise slogans and participate in the agitation (for Gorkhaland). The time has now come to ensure that development reaches the doorstep of the people.”

A GTA Sabha member, who didn’t wish to be named, said he welcomed Gurung’s warning. “Everyone has already realised that if we don’t perform, the people will not forgive us. We have to ensure better administration and development for the region.”

Gurung also demanded that development work related to gram panchayats which were being undertaken through the BDO be vetted by respective GTA members.

Even though the panchayat and rural development department were transferred to the DGHC, elections haven’t been held to gram panchayats in the hills since 2005. The department is now with the GTA.

“We will soon make a representation to the government as well as submit deputation to BDOs saying development work by the panchayat and rural development department must be carried out through the elected GTA Sabha members,” said Gurung.

Observers believe it wouldn’t be difficult to meet Gurung’s demands as the panchayat and rural development department is with the GTA.

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