Darjeeling hills was deprived of development funds to the tune of over Rs 400 crore because of delay in holding gram panchayat elections, a communiqué from the Centre to the state has revealed.

A letter written by Sanjeeb Patjoshi, the joint secretary of the Union panchayat ministry, on November 21, 2019, states that the guidelines for release and utilisation of the 14th Finance Commission grants prescribes release of grants for gram panchayats formed on the basis of elections. The guidelines were framed in 2015.

The letter from the Centre to the state was released by Darjeeling MP Raju Bista after the state election commission directed the district magistrates of Darjeeling and Kalimpong to start preparatory work for the delimitation of gram panchayats and panchayat samitis in the hills, on Monday.

The election commission’s directive, after an appeal from the Bengal government, is being seen as the start of the process to hold panchayat elections in the hills.

But by releasing the 2019 letter, Bista, a BJP MP, was trying to drive home the point that the Centre had been asking the state to hold rural polls in Darjeeling for a long time.

No elected gram panchayat has been functional in the hills since 2005 largely because hill political leaders opposed it.

The 2019 letter by Patjoshi to M.V. Rao, Bengal’s additional chief secretary, panchayat and rural development, says “the states are being provided with FFC (14th Finance Commission) on pro-rata basis to only their duly constituted GPs (gram panchayats) after deducting proportional amount allocated to the non-duly constituted GPs in the state”.

Since panchayat elections were not held in the hills after 2000, the Bengal government got less than allocated funds because of the pro-rata basis guidelines framed in 2015.

“During the period of 2015-2019, in the absence of duly elected Gram Panchayats in Darjeeling the loss to the Darjeeling 112 GPs comes to around Rs 447.44 Crores,” the letter states. Rao’s letter further states: “I, therefore, request you to take immediate necessary steps for conducting Gram Panchayat elections in the Hilly areas of Darjeeling District so that they become eligible to draw 14th Finance Commission Grants herewith onwards and take up development activities towards delivering basic services to their citizens.”

Observers believe the hills lost a couple of hundred crores more since 2019.

The Bengal government’s recent decision to start the process of holding rural polls has been welcomed by most.

However, Bista has blamed the Bengal government for delaying the two-tier polls. BJP critics in turn have blamed the Centre for not taking steps to amend the Constitution to pave way for three-tier panchayat system comprising gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and zilla parishad.

After the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council was formed in 1988, the Indian Constitution was amended to put in place a two-tier panchayat of gram panchayat and panchayat samitis in Darjeeling hills unlike the three-tier rural structure in the rest of Bengal.