Elected Sabha members of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) have started writing their designation plates attached to their vehicles in Nepali.
The new trend started after Anit Thapa, chief executive of the GTA and the president of the ruling Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), had recently directed all elected representatives in the hills to ensure that Nepali was used in signboards.
“We have started writing the designation plates in our vehicles in Nepali,” said an elected GTA Sabha member.
There are 45 elected GTA Sabha members.
Designation plates in the Darjeeling hills are normally written in English.
Thapa, while addressing a Nepali New Year’s Day gathering in Bijanbari on April 14 had asked the party’s elected representatives to ensure that all signboards in Darjeeling hills be written in Nepali along with other languages, but had not talked about designation plates.
"He had not mentioned that designation plates in vehicles had to be written in Nepali but his party leaders seem to have decided to go ahead with the new plan,” said an observer.
However, although BGPM leaders are repeatedly urging people to put up signboards in Nepali, the change isn't really visible.
“We have placed the order for a new signboard but it is yet to be delivered,” said a businessman from Darjeeling.
Thapa, while addressing people on the occasion of the Nepali New Year on April 14, had set a month’s deadline for the use of Nepali signboards.
He had also asked people to be more enthusiastic about the day. “Nepali New Year’s Day is being celebrated in many places but I have realised that it is not a spontaneous celebration like the English New Year. Our new year celebration is being conducted by a committee that invites various organisations to come and celebrate the day,” Thapa had remarked.
“It is only during the election period that people talk about being jati premi (community loyalist) and jati birodi (working against the community),” the BGPM president had added.
Issues like identity and language are the crux of hill politics.
Thapa’s BGPM currently is in control of the GTA, the panchayat bodies and also the municipalities of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong.
However, Thapa had stated that even the elected boards were not taking the usage of Nepali language seriously.
“The GTA had issued a notification to all panchayat bodies and municipalities to ensure that Nepali is used in signages in business and government establishments. I don’t think the leaders have taken this directive seriously,” said Thapa.
Since last year, the GTA has been issuing notifications both in Nepali and English. This was after the Sikkim government issued a notification that all official notices and gazettes would be published in both languages.
“I request all the elected leaders to ensure that the signages are put up in Nepali within a month. I have nothing against the use of other languages, too (along with Nepali). However, we have to use the Nepali language (in the hills) as this is the homeland of Gorkhas,” Thapa had added.
Nepali was recognised in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution in 1992.