After West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar raised the issue of alleged corruption in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), the Trinamool Congress (TMC) lashed out him for his “unconstitutional” talk. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee targeted the Governor for his visit to north Bengal and also alleged that the Governor “himself is corrupt” and “his name was in the chargesheet of the 1996 Hawala-Jain scandal”.
However, reacting to the CM Banerjee’s allegations about the Hawala-Jain scandal, Governor Dhankhar, at a press conference within hours of the CM’s remarks, said: “My name is not in the Hawala chargesheet! Mamata’s allegation is wrong. The Chief Minister is giving wrong information. No one has been convicted in the Jain-Hawala case yet. My name was not on the chargesheet. There is no evidence against me. Such remarks should not be made on behalf of the Chief Minister. There is no truth in what the Chief Minister has said.”
The Governor added that the names of leaders like Ajit Panja and Yashwant Sinha were in the chargesheet of Hawala-kand. They were later acquitted. At the press meet, Dhankhar alleged that there has been corruption to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore in the purchase of equipment to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Why is the Chief Minister silent about that corruption, why the investigation report is not coming out?” he asked. The Governor also asked why the then chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay was silent and did not raise any question.
Earlier, speaking to media before leaving for Kolkata on Monday, Governor Dhankhar had alleged that the GTA is using crores of rupees for corrupt practices instead of development in the region. “GTA isn’t working properly, and everyone has been talking to me about it. It’s a matter of concern that polls have not been held since 2017. Everyone said that GTA is a den of corruption, inefficiency. I will get GTA audited by CAG. Transparency must be restored in GTA. The GTA was formed with that goal. Nothing happened. Although GTA was created, there has been no development of hill people. Instead of development, there has been corruption in the GTA for years,” the Governor said.
GTA, formed in 2012, is an autonomous District Council for the Darjeeling and Kalimpong areas of West Bengal. It was established to replace the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, which was formed in 1988 and administered the Darjeeling hills for two decades.
Meanwhile, former GTA Chairman Anit Thapa retorted to the Governor’s allegations saying, “I welcome the audit of the GTA, it is very important. The issue of audit has been raised before also and as far as I know, GTA is currently undergoing an internal audit.” The chairman further said that the people of the region are well aware of all the works being carried out by the GTA.”