Is Mamata’s Hills promise illusion?
Though the Mamata Banerjee government has promised all-round development in Darjeeling Hills, in reality it is an illusion.
The government has not followed the provisions of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) treaty, signed between the Centre, the state government and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) in July 2011 where the development of the hills is concerned.
According to a provision of that memorandum of agreement, the Government of India and the government of West Bengal will provide all possible assistance to the GTA for the overall development of the region. The Government of India will provide financial assistance of `200 crores per annum for three years for projects to develop the socio-economic infrastructure in GTA over and above the normal plan assistance to the state of West Bengal. A three-member committee with B. Bhamathi, the additional secretary, ministry of home affairs, the state home secretary and Roshan Giri, the GJM general secretary, was also constituted to review the implementation of the provisions of the memorandum of agreement.
However, the committee did not meet during the last three months. “One can understand the sincerity of the state and Union government in implementing the provisions of the agreement. No meeting of this committee has been held for last three months,” Mr Giri said on being contacted. According to sources in the state hill affairs department, the state government has so far sent schemes and projects worth around `180 crores to the Centre. “These schemes and projects include construction of road, tourism facility, schools among others in the hills and the entire fund is supposed to come from the Centre under its `200 crore per annum assistance programme as per the agreement. However, till now, no project has been sanctioned by the Centre,” sources informed.
The GJM has repeatedly knocked the doors of the state government on this issue, but not a single paisa has been released by the Centre so far. “What we can do if the Centre does not sanction the funds?” a senior state government official reasoned.
The GJM leadership, however, held the state government squarely responsible for this apathy. “The chief minister has repeatedly asked the Centre for a bailout package for the debt-ridden West Bengal. But she not been demanding release of funds for the hills. We had lot of expectations with the present state government, but with changing time we have now realised that it would never fulfil the aspirations of the people of the hills,” a GJM leader said.
On being contacted, state home secretary Basudeb Banerjee said: “As the GTA elections will be held soon, we have not pressed for the funds from the Centre now. Moreover, no infrastructure project can be implemented now as the monsoon has already arrived in North Bengal.”
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