Didi constitutes new GTA board

In an unexpected move, the Bengal government on Wednesday announced the formation of an administrative board helmed by expelled Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leader Binay Tamang to run the semi-autonomous Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA).

The government said this was being done to keep the hill administration running.

The GTA had stopped operating nearly three months ago, when its board members resigned.

Ironically, it was Tamang who led the pro-Gorkhaland agitation that culminated in GJM leaders burning the GTA accord at Darjeeling on June 27.

The government’s decision drew sharp criticism from hill parties. The Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), pioneer of an 80’s militant movement and the second-largest party in the region, said it would move court against the Mamata Banerjee government.

The new eight-member board will have Anit Thapa, another leader of the Morcha, as its vicechairman. Both Tamang and Thapa were expelled from the GJM after Morcha chief Bimal Gurung accused them of conspiring with the state government to sabotage the Gorkhaland movement.

“We have set up a board of administrators. An IAS officer had been running the GTA ever since the elected members stepped down. The board, comprising a chairman, a vice chairman and members, will now run the body,” said Banerjee at the state secretariat on Wednesday.

The GTA was set up on July 18, 2011, after the Centre, state and the GJM signed an agreement to this effect. Bimal Gurung was appointed as the chief executive of the body, which finally came into being in 2012.

“I shall not comment on this development because I came to know about it only from the media. When I met the chief minister recently, it was to discuss the issue of providing tea garden workers with a much-needed bonus – not the GTA,” Tamang told HT.

GNLF spokesperson Niraj Zimba decried the “unilateral decision” taken by the chief minister.

“We condemn it, and we won’t accept it. Our party president, Mann Ghising, will file a defamation suit against the chief minister,” he said.