Darjeeling, July 18 (Siliguri Chronicle) – The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) is facing strong criticism for allegedly violating the GTA Act by not holding Sabha sessions regularly.
In a sharply worded letter, Ajoy Lucas Edwards, a Sabha member from the Darjeeling Sadar 3 constituency, accused the GTA of ignoring democratic norms and making the Sabha ineffective.
Edwards, who leads the Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front — a party whose members sit in the Opposition — noted that the Sabha has just six Opposition members in the 45-member House.
In his letter to GTA chief executive Anit Thapa, dated July 15, Edwards pointed out that since the current Sabha began its tenure in 2022, only three general sessions and one emergency session have been held.
According to the GTA Act, the Sabha is required to be convened at least once every three months.
“Your continued failure to convene the Sabha has effectively shut down the only platform available to elected Sabhasads to deliberate on public grievances, policies, and developmental concerns of the region,” Edwards wrote, calling the delay a “blatant disregard of the GTA Act”.
Edwards said the last Sabha session, held in October 2024, had passed a resolution to form a high-powered committee to look into matters related to transferred subjects and ways to strengthen administrative autonomy.
However, he pointed out that the committee—formed only in March 2025 after a five-month delay—has since “disappeared into oblivion,” with no updates or signs of progress.
In his letter, Edwards urged the GTA to convene a Sabha meeting soon and listed nine key public issues the Opposition plans to raise.
These are:
- Rollback of the tea, tourism and allied business policy-2019 and the subsequent notification that has triggered public resentment
- Granting of permanent rights to tea garden workers to the land on which they have lived
- Economic equity for workers and local people in the tea and tourism sectors
- Settlement of unpaid dues, including provident fund, pensions and gratuity in tea gardens, and initiating legal proceedings against defaulters
- Enforcement of minimum wages in the tea sector
- Strengthening the GTA’s administrative autonomy, especially over land and land reforms
- Full status report and action on Teesta flood rehabilitation
- Leasing of GTA properties without Sabha resolution
- Land issues concerning the plot near Lal Kothi, the administrative headquarters of the GTA.
Edwards, while demanding that the GTA Sabha be convened without further delay, stressed that elected representatives must not remain “mute spectators” while people’s rights are trampled and their voices ignored.
In response, GTA Sabha chairman Anjul Chowhan told The Telegraph that the Sabha would be convened soon.
“We need to serve a notice of 14 days on all Sabha members to convene a session. The notice will be served next week,” said Chowhan.
However, he did not offer a clear explanation for the earlier delays in convening the sessions.
