The Hindu : Front Page : Bill providing for caretaker to Gorkha Council passed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 15, 2005

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Front Page

Bill providing for caretaker to Gorkha Council passed

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA, MARCH 14 . The West Bengal Assembly passed a Bill today incorporating a provision to appoint a caretaker for overseeing the functioning of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council till elections are held to the Council following the expiry of its present term on March 26.

The move is significant as Subash Ghising, chairman of the Council and his colleagues in the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) have been insisting for the past few weeks that any administrative body which might be set up by the State Government at the end of the Council's term should include the post of "caretaker". The GNLF leadership has also been demanding that Mr. Ghising should be given the post once it was created.

The chief whip of the Left Front, Rabin Deb, moved for the inclusion of the provision "to exercise caretaker powers of the general council" in the original Bill seeking amendment to the DGHC Act which was earlier tabled in the House by Ashok Bhattacharya, Minister for Urban Development.

Change in name

The Bill also proposes a change in the nomenclature of the Council by deleting the term `autonomous' from it.

It empowers the State Government to make an arrangement on the powers and functions of the general council and the chief executive councillor in case elections to the Council were not held even after a year after the completion of the five-year term [as has been the case with the present general council].

Introducing the Bill, Mr. Bhattacharya said the State Government by proposing changes in the Act was keen to avoid any confrontation with the GNLF in the Darjeeling hills. Confrontation would only lead to bloodshed and the State Government was keen to ensure peace in the region.

Questions argument

He, however, questioned Mr. Ghising's argument that elections be deferred on the ground that the region was threatened by the presence of operatives of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.

The Minister cited the instance of Jammu and Kashmir where elections to the Assembly were held a few months ago despite "the ISI being active" in parts of that State.

Some Opposition members accused the State Government of succumbing to the `blackmailing tactics' of Mr. Ghising by including the provision of a caretaker in the Bill.

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