HM Reports
Kalimpong, Sep 25:

The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) is working on to start the School Service Commission (SSC) and College Service Commission (CSC) separate for the hills as agreed in principal in the tripartite agreement of the GTA pact, Gautam Ghosh the principal secretary of the hill body said here today on the sidelines of a programme held at Cluny Women’s College.The secretary said setting up of both the commissions have been scripted in the GTA pact and admitted that no concrete steps was taken so far to set up the same.

“But we have started the ground work to set up both the commissions very soon,” Ghosh said.
Separate School Service Commission (SSC) had come into existence in the hills during the Subash Ghisingh saga which unfortunately seized to operate due to reasons unknown. The Commission was under the education department of the then Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), an autonomous body similar to GTA. Ghisingh was the chairman of the council for 20 odd years ever since its inception. Many aspirants from the hills had appeared for the test to qualify as teachers at different higher secondary schools but the qualifiers were never appointed despite clearing every hurdle and panel being made. Ghosh speculated that both the commission would be operational at the least by November or December this year. In his bid to end the allegation by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) that many departments were yet to be transferred to the GTA,he added, “Most of the departments have been handed over to the GTA. The state government interference isonly there in departments which are yet to be transferred”.

He further said that both the state government and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha ruled GTA should come forward for talks to end the stalemate. “Everyone has been speaking on decentralizing the powers but in reality nobody wants to decentralize the powers. For development works in the hills both the state and GTA should work hand in hand and any dispute should be solved through dialogue. For the last couple of months I have been working in this,” the chief secretary added.