The decision of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) to print a student diary with a picture of the hill body’s chief Anit Thapa has kicked off a fresh row in the hills.

Every year, the academic session in the hills starts in mid-February and ends in mid-December.

Sources said that the GTA distributed the students’ dairies before the start of the new academic year a few days ago among all the hill primary schools under its jurisdiction.

One of the pages of the school diary has a photograph of Thapa wearing a Nepali/Gorkha topi (headgear) with his hand touching his heart, is accompanied by the caption: “Inspired by: The Honb’le Chief Executive Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Shri ANIT THAPA”.

Binay Tamang, the general secretary of the state Congress, was among the first to criticise the GTA’s decision.

“The school diary of institutions under the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration has published a photograph of a special person. This is in contravention of the orders of the Supreme Court by GTA officials and also the publishing house,” said Tamang in a written statement.

The Supreme Court has guidelines on the use of photographs of people in power using government funds.

There are 786 primary schools under the GTA which officials claim have around 18,000 students.

Rajesh Chowhan, deputy chairman, GTA Sabha, who is also looking after the GTA primary education, defended the move.

“We have not published any photograph stating a political affiliation,” he argued.

Chowhan added that the GTA school diary was a first-of-its kind in the hills.

“Since the time of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (the DGHC that was formed in 1988) until now, there was no way to communicate between the parents and the teachers,” explained Chowhan. “Inspired by the chief executive of the GTA we came up with this initiative.”

“It received good publicity because of people with a negative mindset,” Chowhan added, implying Tamang.

Hill leaders Tamang and Thapa were once politically close. Tamang was the president of the breakaway Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and Thapa its general secretary from 2017 to 2020 when the two parted ways.