Anit Thapa, the president of the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), reminded government teachers and employees that they would have to take leave of absence if they were elected to certain posts in the panchayat set-up.

While the reminder is something that is pretty well known in the rest of Bengal, most candidates for the panchayat elections in the hills were not well-versed in the various rules and regulations of the panchayats.

This is basically because, before this year, panchayat samiti elections in the Darjeeling hills had last been held in 1984, while the gram panchayat polls were conducted in 2000.

“Many, including our party leaders, were not aware of these provisions. This is why the announcement has been specifically made by Anit Thapa,” said a source in the BGPM.

Even though the restriction also applies to various positions in the zilla parishad, the hills only have a two-tier rural setup.

There are 112 gram panchayats and nine panchayat samitis in the hills.

Thapa in his announcement which is written in Nepali basically states that teachers and government employees who get elected as sabhapatis and sahakari sabhapatis of panchayat samitis and pradhans of gram panchayats have to take absence of leave and forfeit their salaries for the next five years.

“The teachers get a salary of anything between Rs 50,000 and above Rs 1 lakh but the honorarium they will get in the panchayat is between Rs 5,500 to Rs 6,000. This difference is definitely working on the minds of the teachers elected to panchayats,” said a party source.

The directive is in consonance with an order issued in 1993.

The announcement also comes at a time when the BGPM is scheduled to hold a meeting with party functionaries in Siliguri on Tuesday. “Even though the agenda is not yet known, all senior party functionaries have been invited to the meeting. Rural polls and board formations will definitely come up for discussions,” said a source.

The rural boards are to be formed before August 16 according to the state government’s directive.

The announcement made by Thapa also handed an issue to the Opposition in the hills.

Many Opposition leaders are demanding that elected GTA Sabha members who are teachers also follow a similar criterion as applied in the panchayat set-up.

Around 10 GTA Sabha members are teachers. However, unlike the panchayat act, no such provisions have been mentioned in the GTA Act.