Bimal Gurung at Bagdogra Airport before leaving for Delhi on Sunday

Siliguri, March 24: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha is extorting money from educational institutions in the hills like it has been doing from the tea estates and hydel project sites of the region, urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya of the CPM has alleged.

“Our allegation that it is extorting money from different sources has been proved now,” Bhattacharya said here today. “However, what is surprising is that the Morcha has resorted to collecting money from educational institutions across the hills on a regular basis.”

Considering its act of extortion, the Morcha can be compared to the “anti-national outfits” of the Northeast, he added.

The Morcha has, however, denied the charge.

According to CPM sources, the Morcha had invited the heads of educational institutions from Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong and Mirik to Gorubathan on March 1. In that meeting, Pradeep Pradhan and Roshan Giri, the vice-president and general secretary of the party, told the institution heads that they needed around Rs 2 crore for maintaining the Gorkhaland Personnel. “They said they had drawn the attention of the hill schools on the issue and planned to raise the money from the institutions,” the sources said.

In that meeting, the Morcha leaders had told the schools about a form that they would have to fill up soon. It was sent to the schools along with a covering letter from Giri on March 10, the sources said. “There were 19 points on which the schools were told to provide information. The donation will be worked out on the basis of the information.”

Besides the basic information about the school, the one-page form has sought to know the fee structure of the institution and the quantum of grant received from the government since 1988 (the year the DGHC was formed).

The Morcha said it was simply collecting information from the schools. “It is true that we are obtaining data from schools to identify the shortcomings for development of these institutions,” said Binay Tamang, the Morcha spokesperson. “The extortion charge is baseless.”