The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) has started receiving funds for panchayat bodies after a gap of nearly eight years.

Sources said that the Bengal government has released funds to the tune of Rs 132 crore to the gram panchayats under the GTA on the directive of the Union finance ministry.

“A sum of Rs 132 crore has been released to the gram panchayats. Of this amount, Rs 58.45 crore is tied funds and the remaining Rs 73.57 crore is untied funds,” said a source.

The tied funds are for specific projects.

Rural bodies have leeway in choosing their schemes which can be executed with united funds, explained an official.

The funds were released as rural elections were held in Darjeeling earlier this year for the first time after 2000.

Communication from officials in Delhi had earlier revealed the Darjeeling hills had lost funds to the tune of Rs 447.44 crore only for the period between 2015-19 in the absence of duly elected gram panchayats.

This is because the Union panchayat ministry had framed guidelines in 2015, linking the release of finance commission grants to panchayat bodies formed on the basis of elections.

In 2019, the Centre informed the Bengal government that states were being provided with funds for only elected rural bodies on a pro rata (in proportion) basis after deducting the proportionate amount for panchayats without people’s representatives.

“The fund that is being released pertains to the financial year 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 financial years,” said the source.

The GTA region only has a two-tier panchayat election, comprising those of the gram panchayat and panchayat samiti, unlike the rest of Bengal which has a three-tier structure with zilla parishad being the uppermost tier.

“Soon after the rural elections were held, the Centre did release Rs 83 crore. The state government then wrote to the Centre asking it to consider the GTA as the zilla parishad for the region till the three-tier panchayat is put in place. and treat the hill body on a par with autonomous development councils under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution,” said a source.

The Bengal government’s suggestions seem to have been accepted, the source opined.

The Constitution has to be amended to put in place a zilla parishad in the GTA area.

This was because the Constitution was amended to make provisions for only a two-tier system in Darjeeling in 1992.

The amendment was done at the behest of Subash Ghisingh, the chairman of the then Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC).

Ghisingh thought that the powers of the zilla parishad would overlap with those of the DGHC.

The DGHC was replaced by the GTA in 2012.

There are 112-gram panchayats and nine panchayat samitis in Darjeeling hills under the GTA.