A Rs 100-crore debate between two hill parties is taking centre stage ahead of the Darjeeling civic election.

Ajoy Edwards, president of the Hamro Party, promised to annually generate a revenue of Rs 100 crore for the Darjeeling municipality if voted to power and is stressing that civic bodies must not solely depend on the state and Centre for funds. Rival Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatrantik Morcha (BGPM) has called this “wishful thinking”.

“We have 10 lakh tourists visiting Darjeeling annually. If we can generate Rs 1,000 per tourist during their stay in Darjeeling we can collect Rs 100 crore for Darjeeling municipality,” said Edwards.

Self-generation of funds is a core issue of the Hamro Party’s campaign along with formation of 32 ward committees.

“Our team of councillors will focus on generating funds while development has to be guided by ward committees. My only request is that youths should also be allowed to participate in utilising at least 15 per cent of the funds,” said Edwards.

The Hamro Party feels Darjeeling municipality is one of the richest municipalities in Bengal in terms of assets and hence generation of this sum is possible. “I am a businessman .I have ideas to generate funds for this sick municipality for the benefit of our people,” said Edwards.

The leader alleged that while the expenditure of Darjeeling municipality is around Rs 17 crore, it only generates Rs 6 crore revenue annually.

Some ideas floated by Edwards to generate funds include a centre for local culture and food, museums and tourist attractions like skywalks.
The BGPM has deployed three-time Darjeeling municipality chairman, D.K. Pradhan, to counter Edwards.

“Generating Rs 100 crore from tourists is wishful thinking and reflects the lack of basic ideas regarding civic body’s finances, funding pattern and taxation procedures,” said Pradhan. Under section 94 A of the Bengal municipality act, the civic body can only levy a fee of Rs 3 per person and Rs 50 per vehicle on tourists, he said.

Anit Thapa. File photo

“When the Darjeeling municipality tried to hike the tariff of electricity in the late 1970s, the entire electricity distribution network was taken over by the Bengal government,” alleged Pradhan.

He said under the existing system, the civic body can only increase holding tax, which too can’t override provisions laid down by the valuation board.

“The municipality will have to get the major source of its fund from the government or else have to levy additional taxes on citizens,” said Pradhan.

To this, Hamro Party leader Prabhaskar Blone said: “Former chairman D.K. Pradhan belongs to the age of radio while we belong to the computer age. We can generate funds with out-of-the-box thinking.”