Cabinet clears Lepcha board

Feb. 5: The state cabinet today cleared a proposal to set up a Lepcha development board under the backward classes welfare department, setting up a fresh point of confrontation with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in the hills. The Morcha is opposed to the formation of any hill body outside the purview of the GTA Sabha and Bimal Gurung, the party chief and the chief executive of the GTA Sabha, had made it clear that any development board of the Lepchas should be under the GTA Sabha. Today, when asked about the government’s decision, senior Morcha leader Roshan Giri said the move was “arbitrary” and “an encroachment on the powers” of the GTA. The board has been named the Mayel Lyang Lepcha Development Board — Mayel Lyang Lepcha in Lepcha language loosely means the land of the Lepchas. A senior minister said: “Mamatadi had promised the Lepchas that a board would be formed for their welfare and development. The community members were apprehensive about their survival. The chief minister felt that they needed support and has kept her word.”

Lepchas, who are regarded as the original inhabitants of the hills, make up about 20 per cent of the population there. During her visit to the hills last week, Mamata had a meeting with representatives of the Lepcha community at Algarah, near Kalimpong, and had assured them that work would start soon. On January 31, when the chief minister came down to Siliguri after her trip to the hills, she told a news conference: “We have decided to form a development council for the Lepchas. It will work for the development of the Lepchas who also reside in the hills. There are also large numbers of Buddhists in the hills for whom we have decided to form a separate development council.” Government sources said the proposal was added later to the agenda for the cabinet meeting that was held this afternoon. According to sources, the details on the formation of the board would be worked out later. The chairman and the vice-chairman of the board would be from the community, a government source said. “The number of members in the board... is yet to be decided. An officer of the rank of joint secretary would be appointed as member-secretary,” a senior government official said. The focus of the board would be on overall development of the community, preservation of their language and culture, their education, support for improving lifestyle through agriculture, horticulture, pisciculture, tourism and cottage industry, the official said. Mobile health units, rural health centres and also indigenous treatment procedures of the Lepchas would be promoted. The Lepchas never had any territorial demand. “The board will be set up under the Societies Act and will not have any political powers,” the senior official said. “The council will be based in Kalimpong.” Funds for the projects to be taken up by the board would be released through the departments concerned of the state government. “Central funds would also be provided,” the official added. Morcha leader Giri, who is now in Delhi, said over phone: “It is an arbitrary decision taken by the state government and an encroachment on the powers and functioning of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Sabha.” He said if “the Lepchas are given such privileges then the other communities residing in the hills should get the same. We protest this decision strongly.” Representatives of the Lepcha community were reluctant to speak on the matter. L. Tamsang, the president of the Indigenous Lepcha Tribal Association, and N.T. Lepcha, the co-ordinator of the Lepcha Rights Movement, refused to take calls. The president of the Lepcha Youth Association, Dorji Lepcha, said he had heard about the cabinet’s decision. “I have heard the news. However, I am not the right person to comment on the development,” he said. In the GTA memorandum of agreement (MoA), there is a clause for nomination of minorities to the GTA Sabha. “The GTA Sabha shall consist of forty five elected members and five members to be nominated by the Governor to give representation to members of SC, ST, women, and minority communities,” the MoA says. The Lepchas are a minority section in the hills. At present, the GTA Sabha does not have any nominated member from the Lepcha community. At least one rival party of the Morcha, the CPRM, raised a question on the “intention of the government”. Tara Mani Rai, the CPRM secretary, said: “What is the intention of the government (in forming such councils)? Could it be a conspiracy to divide hill people?”(TT)

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Golay party launched

NIRMAL MANGAR Gangtok, Feb. 4: P.S. Golay floated a new political party Sikkim Krantikari Morcha in West Sikkim today. Around 10,000 people attended the event at Soreng, Golay’s native place. Most of the members on the ad hoc committee of the new party are retired bureaucrats and dissident SDF workers. “Our leader (without naming Golay) has envisaged a vision of building a new Sikkim opposing rampant corruption. The dream has eventually come true and we are his crusaders,” said the party’s publicity secretary M.N. Dahal. “A meeting of the ad hoc executive committee will be held on February 8. The election of the president and other central executive members will be held during the meeting,” said party vice-president Bhoj Raj Rai, a former SDF MLA. The party flag and constitution were also unveiled today.

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Gurung threatens to quit GTA

VIVEK CHHETRI Darjeeling, Feb. 4: Bimal Gurung today said he would soon resign from the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Sabha, the council that runs the Darjeeling hills, so that he can devote himself fully to the statehood movement. “I will resign from the GTA in a few days. The Sabha (the 45-member elected body formed under the GTA Act) will sit for a meeting after which I will resign so that I can be fully involved in the next phase of the Gorkhaland agitation,” Gurung told a party meeting at the Darjeeling Gymkhana Club. The declaration of intent adds to the headaches of the state government that has been at the receiving end in the hills since Mamata Banerjee raised sensitive issues during a meeting at Chowrastha and provoked a backlash. Gurung referred to the chief minister’s speech last week. “She acted like Hitler. What does she mean by ‘rough and tough’? Many chief ministers have visited the hills but no one spoke like her in such a bitter tone. No Gorkha should tolerate such statements,” he said. Government sources said they were trying to figure out if Gurung, who had initially said he would not head the GTA but did so later in deference to the “wishes of supporters”, would carry out the threat or whether the usual reluctance in one-leader parties to name successors would limit his options. But Gorkha Janmukti Morcha sources said Gurung, who is the chief executive of the council, was determined to give up his GTA constituency of Tukvar, the village from where he hails. The move is being seen as an attempt not just to prove his sincerity to the Gorkhaland cause but also to keep the wheels oiled for a renewed agitation if a Telangana state comes into being. The resignation will help Gurung reassure his core constituency that he has not put personal privileges above the statehood movement. At the same time, the absence of any other leader matching Gurung’s clout will ensure that his writ would run in the council even if he is no longer the chief executive, Morcha sources said. Gurung said: “Only I shall resign from the GTA. I will not ask the 45 elected members or even the chairman and the municipality commissioners to resign. From now on, no one should come to me for contract work but only for Gorkhaland.” The steady stream of adverse news from Darjeeling is threatening to undermine the chief minister’s persistent efforts to showcase peace in the hills as one of her biggest achievements in power. At a meeting in Calcutta today, Mamata showcased peace in Jungle Mahal but did not mention Darjeeling. It was not clear if the omission was a Freudian slip or just an oversight because of the sheer volume as Mamata pointed out: “At every meeting, I have to spend two to three hours on the achievements of the government.” Gurung today said he had purposely decided not to sign the memorandum of agreement of the GTA. “The agreement was signed by the party’s general secretary Roshan Giri. It was for a reason I had not signed on that document,” he said. “It would have been binding on me.” A Writers’ Buildings source said the government saw no reason to be apprehensive of Gurung’s “empty threats”. “He (Gurung) stands only to lose, should he give up the post of chief executive. We don’t think he would do that. It will be extremely difficult for him to pick a successor,” said the source. “As far as his logic of not being a signatory to the tripartite agreement is concerned, there is no legal or constitutional basis to it. Roshan Giri (the general secretary of the Morcha) signed the agreement as the authorised signatory of Gurung. Besides, not signing the agreement does not make it easier, or more difficult, for Gurung to pull out of the post,” the source added. Senior minister Firhad Hakim said it was not up to the government alone to help preserve peace in the hills. “The government has done everything possible to help the GTA. Preserving peace in the hills, in the presence of a functional GTA Sabha, is not the government’s responsibility alone. The Morcha-led Sabha must also do its bit,” Hakim said. “What he (Gurung) wants to do with the post (chief executive) is up to him and his party,” the minister added. Gurung called upon all rival parties in the hills to participate in an all-party meeting to be held at the Gymkhana Club on Thursday at 11am. “Each of these parties will have to agree to send 500 supporters for a dharna to Delhi. We will also send 500 supporters at our own cost.” But he added: “I wonder whether some parties can mobilise more than 10 people.” Pratap Khati, the general secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League, one of the Opposition parties of the hills said the ABGL, too, would set some conditions. “They (the Morcha) must reject the MoA as the GTA is a stumbling block to Gorkhaland just like the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. We want not just Bimal Gurung but the entire 45 elected Sabha members, four MLAs and the MP to resign for the cause of Gorkhaland,” Khati said. Gurung also requested the people of different sub-communities of Gorkhas not to get divided.(TT)

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Council caution by Morcha rivals

RAJEEV RAVIDAS Kalimpong, Feb. 3: The CPRM and the ABGL have expressed qualified support to the demand for the formation of the proposed Lepcha Development Council. The CPRM said it would support the formation of the council if the state government didn’t have the ulterior motive of dividing the hill population. The ABGL backed the move saying any arrangement that would ensure development of Lepcha culture and language would be welcome even if it was under the state’s control. Tara Mani Rai, the CPRM secretary, said: “We have started a discussion in our party on the issue. We can form a definite opinion only after that is done. However, if the council is set up to ensure the development of the Lepcha language and culture, we are okay with it,” said Tara Mani Rai, the CPRM secretary. Asked if they were okay if such a body was formed under the state government, Rai said that would depend on the intention of the government, especially given that chief minister Mamata Banerjee also spoke about forming a similar council for the Buddhists during her recent visit to the hills. “What is the intention of the government (in forming such councils)? Could it be a conspiracy to divide us? Apart from the council for the Lepchas, the chief minister also spoke about forming a council for Buddhists,” said Rai. Pratap Khati, the vice-president of the ABGL, however, said any arrangement to ensure the development of the Lepcha language and culture, was welcome even if it was under the state government. “A body to oversee the welfare of the Lepchas is good. There is a need to uplift the language and culture of the Lepchas. We support such a demand,” he said. (TT)

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