Darjeeling, July 15: The state government today announced a package for the casual staff of the DGHC which could take the sheen off the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s agitation for the hill council workers.

The kitty was unveiled by council administrator B.L. Meena, who attended office at Lal Khoti here today, the first time since November 2009.

The Janmukti Asthai Karmachari Sangatan, an affiliate of the Morcha, is one of the strongest organisations which has been clamouring for the regularisation of jobs for the casual workers. The Morcha had also demanded that Meena should function from the hills, where the party frequently shuts down government offices.

“The state government has directed us to submit a list of workers who had been in the council for more than 10 years. These workers will get an enhanced monthly salary of Rs 6,500 and will also be entitled to Rs 1 lakh on retirement at the age of 60 (see chart),” said Meena.

Even though the state had come up with a similar package for its casual employees, it had not been extended to the council considered to be an autonomous body in the past. The announcement comes at a time the Morcha is in the backfoot following ABGL chief Madan Tamang’s murder and the government is trying to make a toehold for itself in the hills.

According to Meena, of the 6,321 casual staff members, about 1,300 have worked in the council for more than 10 years. These people will be entitled to the benefits.

“At the moment, Group C and Group D workers get a salary of Rs 4,000 and Rs 3,500 respectively. But now both the groups will get the same salary. We will be sending the list of candidates as soon as possible,” said Meena.

The DGHC has 3,472 vacant posts and Meena said the process for regularisation of jobs would continue simultaneously. “You can say that this is an interim package for those who have worked for more than 10 years,” the official added.

The council has also decided to start the appointment of primary school teachers. The DGHC is in charge of education, but while it can appoint primary teachers, it does not have any authority to recruit teachers in the secondary sections. However, in the absence of a recruiting agency like the School Service Commission in the hills, the secondary sections are run by ad hoc teachers taken by the council.

Of the 6,321 casual staff, 1,559 are school teachers. “There are 779 primary teachers who will be appointed after a recruitment board is formed. This process will start immediately. We will also work out something on the lines of the School Service Commission to appoint secondary teachers while giving priority to the ad hoc teachers,” said Meena.

With the state doling out incentives to different strata of workers the agitation for regularisation is likely to tone down in the coming days.

The JAKS had been agitating with a single point agenda that all the 6,321 workers of the DGHC be immediately regularised.

Machendra Subba, the president of the JAKS, said: “The announcement is nothing new as the state had already given such a package to others. But the government must fulfil its promise to regularise all the DGHC workers.”

Subba was referring to the written assurance from the state government on September 17, 2009. “The government has authorised the DGHC to start the regularisation process against the sanctioned vacancies in all categories which it is authorised to do as per the existing act and the recruitment rules there under,” read the faxed message from Writers’ Buildings to Darjeeling district magistrate, who is also the principal secretary of the DGHC. The message had prompted the casual workers allegiant to the JAKS to break the indefinite hunger strike.

The letter essentially meant that at least 3,472 casual workers were to be made permanent while the fate of the remaining 2,815 was to be decided later.

Another written assurance was given by Meena on October 30 after the workers started their next bout of agitation. Meena had then said the process would start from November 17, 2009. But the state government said it was impossible to initiate the regularisation process amid frequent strikes and shutdowns in the hills.

Meena, on his part, said the assurance had been given under duress.

Today, the council administrator said he would be mostly working from Lal Khoti from now on. He will also visit Kalimpong and Kurseong once a week.

So long Meena had been functioning from Pintail Village on the outskirts of Siliguri. The Morcha had been demanding that as a council administrator, he should move his office to the hills.