GTA quota resolution

TT; VIVEK CHHETRI Darjeeling, Nov. 7: The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Sabha today passed a resolution to allow reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in elections to the hill body. The decision to seek amendments to the GTA Act — the quota resolution is one of the 29 resolutions on which the Sabha wants amendments — comes after the recent meeting of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders with chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Darjeeling. The ST community makes up 33.72 per cent of the hill population and the SC percentage is 9.32. The Lepchas, whom the Morcha has tried to woo after the community formed a development body under the state government, are STs. “We want the state government to amend the GTA Act so that there are reservations for the SC and ST community members in the next GTA elections. We also want the 100-point roster system to be followed in all appointments related to the GTA,” said Roshan Giri, executive member of the hill body. According to the roster system, the SC community would be entitled to 22 per cent reservation, the quota for the Schedule Tribe community is 6 per cent and Other Backward Classes enjoy a reservation of 27 per cent for jobs and GTA elections. Giri added: “We have also passed a resolution to make the GTA ad hoc employees permanent.” The decision to demand regularisation of the GTA employees has come when a section of the 6000-odd workers has joined the new Trinamul employees’ union. Observers believe the Morcha-controlled GTA wants to appease the SC and ST community and also believes that the state government is likely to make the amendment given that nearly half of the hill population comes under SCs or STs. Chhetri meeting The Morcha MLAs will occupy seats in the treasury benches of the Assembly from the next session, after the party’s request was sanctioned by the Speaker of the Assembly on Thursday. On Wednesday, Morcha legislative party leader Harka Bahadur Chhetri had placed a formal request for allotment of treasury bench seats to the three MLAs — Chhetri himself, Trilok Dewan and Rohit Sharma. Though the Morcha MLAs had been occupying treasury bench seats since 2011, they had stopped attending the House proceedings in the wake of renewed agitation in the hills. Chhetri said the arrest of key Morcha leaders and nearly 2,000 activists was also discussed with the chief minister. “The chief minister spoke to the Darjeeling police superintendent and assured us that the arrests will be looked into on a case-to-case basis. We have full faith in her assurance,” Chhetri said.