How did the Sen Committee recommend 5 moujas against a demand of inclusion of 398?

Ajanta Chakraborty, TNN | Jun 9, 2012,KOLKATA: The Justice Shyamal Sen Committee, set up by the Mamata Banerjee government to determine the jurisdiction of the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA), has recommended inclusion of five moujas — two in Jalpaiguri and three in Darjeeling against the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's (GJM) demand of 398 moujas of Terai and Dooars.

Chief secretary Samar Ghosh, to whom the report was submitted on Friday, laid bare the contents before the media on Saturday. He announced, "The high-power committee has recommended inclusion of M M Terai, Purba Karaibari and Gulmathari under the Darjeeling district and Samsing and Chalauni moujas under Jalpaiguri district into the GTA Sabha. The GJM had demanded inclusion of 398 moujas (199 each) from the two districts, but the high-power committee has found only these five moujas qualify for inclusion."

A mouja or a group of villages was taken as a unit area while considering the jurisdiction of the GTA Sabha in the Terai and Dooars region. The GTA is the new Hill Councill that would run the administration in Darjeeling. It is armed with more powers that its predecessor, Darjeeling Gorkha Hills Council (DGHC).

The inclusion of five moujas by the nine-member committee, that the chief minister dubbed as "independent of the government" may sound abrupt, but not after the chief secretary elucidated the steps leading to the final recommendation.

Explaining the rationale behind the inclusion of only five against the original demand of 398 moujas, the chief secretary said the areas were included, taking into account contiguity, compactness and ground-level conditions. He explained that out of the 199 moujas demanded by GJM in Jalpaiguri, 149 were excluded for their geographical proximity to eastern Bhutan. Three of the remaining 50 were incomplete moujas. Out of the rest, only ten were Gorkha-dominated.

Among these, Paschim Totagaon, Purba Totagaon and Sundari Basti lacked direct link to DGHC or the proposed GTA Sabha.

Ghosh said, "To include these, Allenbari Tea Estate would have to be brought in. But the Gorkha population there is only 25 per cent." Of the remaining seven moujas, Bagrakote Tea Gardens and Kalaikuti were struck off due to administrative reasons. Patharjhora, Turibari and Manabari moujas had to be left out because the Gorubathan block would have to be linked to them for the sake of contiguity. These three were, in fact, linked to Odlabari block which had a high school were students from the three moujas attended.

"Therefore, only Samsing Tea Gardens and Chalauni can fulfil all the criteria and have been chosen out of the 199," the chief secretary said.

As for selection of three among the 199 moujas in Darjeeling, he said two had been repeated and seven were already in DGHC. Out of the 190 in consideration, only 11 moujas were Gorkha-dominated (more than 50 % population). "Considering the ground-level situation and other factors, only three moujas fulfil the criteria," the chief secretary said, adding, "moujas like Demali among the 11 have been left out because they have no link with the Hills and are entirely dependent on the plains of Bagdogra." Again, the Mechhi and Shiuba moujas couldn't be included thanks to their proximity to the Nepal forest.

Mirjanglachhat and Karaibari, Chaupasarichat, Joramarichhat and Jadubektarchhar moujas are surrounded by non-DGHC areas and thus, stand excluded. "Thus, M M Terai, Gulmakhani and East Karabari are recommended all factors considered," the chief secretary said.