GTA administrator appointed after hill body leadership exit
The West Bengal government has appointed Smrutiranjan Mohanty, the principal secretary of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, as administrator of the hill body after its chief executive and two senior office-bearers resigned, according to a report by Telegraph India.
The appointment was announced by chief minister Suvendu Adhikari during a virtual address to a meeting in Kalimpong from Siliguri on Tuesday. Adhikari could not reach Kalimpong by helicopter because of adverse weather conditions, the report said.
The government notification cited the resignation of GTA chief executive Anit Thapa and the departures of GTA Sabha chairman Anjul Chowhan and deputy chairman Rajesh Chowhan. Their resignations, submitted about two months ago, had disrupted the day-to-day functioning of the hill body, according to the notification.
“The administrator has been appointed,” Adhikari said while referring to proposals submitted by Darjeeling MP Raju Bista for the hills. He said the state government had faced difficulties in progressing the proposals because of the situation within the GTA.
The GTA operates under the state government’s hill affairs department. Adhikari said Bishal Lama, the Kalchini MLA and minister of state for home and hill affairs, would coordinate between the GTA and the state government. He also directed Mohanty to coordinate with Bista, the three hill MLAs and GTA Sabha members who had not resigned.
The report said around six of the 43 elected GTA Sabha members had officially resigned, while more than a dozen others had verbally announced their resignations. The distinction between formal and verbal resignations leaves the precise strength of the elected body unclear.
Bista said in a Facebook post that the administrator’s appointment indicated that the GTA was in its “dying stage”. He described the arrangement as transitional until a proposed permanent political solution for the hills. The BJP has used the term “political permanent solution”, or PPS, for its stated approach to the region’s political demands.
Adhikari said talks on the proposed solution had begun, following a meeting between Union home minister Amit Shah and leaders of some hill parties in Siliguri. A drafting committee has been formed to examine the issue, according to the report. Until that process progresses, Adhikari said development work should continue through the administrator.
The state government has raised the GTA’s budget allocation from ₹180 crore to ₹360 crore, Adhikari said. He also sanctioned ₹254 crore for disaster management in the hills and warned that action would follow investigations into alleged corruption in the region and its development boards. He said cases could include FIRs, arrests and recovery of funds, but the report did not provide details of any completed investigation.
Adhikari said he would visit Kalimpong during a Darjeeling tour on October 6 and conduct the bhoomi puja for a proposed medical college in Kalimpong. The government’s immediate administrative arrangement is therefore expected to run alongside development spending, disaster-management work and the political process concerning the future structure of governance in the hills.
