Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) (1988–2012), also once known for a short period of time as Darjeeling Gorkha Autonomous Hill Council was a semi-autonomous body that looked after the administration of the hills of

Darjeeling District Darjeeling District is the northernmost district of the state of West Bengal in eastern India in the foothills of the Himalayas. The district is famous for its hill station and Darjeeling tea. Darjeeling is the district headquarters. Ku ...

in the state of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. DGHC had three subdivisions under its authority:

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nep ...

Kalimpong Kalimpong (Hindi: कलिम्पोंग) is a town and the headquarters of an eponymous district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located at an average elevation of . The town is the headquarters of the Kalimpong district. The r ...

, and

Kurseong Kurseong is a town and a municipality in Darjeeling district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Kurseong subdivision. Located at an altitude of , Kurseong is from Darjeeling and has a pleasant climate throughout ...

and some areas of Siliguri subdivision.

Background

Gorkha National Liberation Front Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) is a political party in the Darjeeling District of West Bengal, India. It was formed in 1980 by Subhash Ghisingh with the objective of demanding a Gorkhaland state within India. Early history Part of the ...

led by Subhash Ghisingh raised the demand for the creation of a state called

Gorkhaland The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration is a semi-autonomous council for the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of West Bengal state in India. The GTA was formed in 2012 to replace the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, which was formed in 198 ...

within India to be carved out of the hills of Darjeeling and areas of Dooars and Siliguri terai contiguous to Darjeeling. A violent agitation erupted in the Darjeeling hills from 1986 to 1988 in which 1200 people lost their lives.

Formation

The semi-autonomous Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council was the result of the signing of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Agreement between the Central Government of

, the

Government and the Gorkha National Liberation Front in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

on 22 August 1988. The ceremony took place at the Banquet Hall, Raj Bhavan (The Governor's Palace) at 10 A.M. The signatories to this tripartite agreement were: C.G. Somaih, Union Home Secretary (on the behalf of the Central Government of India), R.N. Sengupta, the State Chief Secretary (on the behalf of the Government of West Bengal) and Subhash Ghisingh (on the behalf of Gorkha National Liberation Front as the representative of the people of Darjeeling District). The Union Home Minister, Buta Singh, and the West Bengal Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu, also put their signatures on the agreement. The Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Act, 1988 (West Bengal Act XIII of 1988) was enacted by the West Bengal legislature which was assented to by the President of India and was first published in the Calcutta Gazette, Extraordinary of 15 October 1988. The council had wide control over finance, education, health, agriculture and economic development within its jurisdiction.

DGHC terms

The DGHC was administered from 1988 to 2005 for three successive terms by the GNLF with Subhash Ghisingh as the Chairman. The fourth DGHC elections were due in 2005. However, the government decided not to hold elections and instead made Subhash Ghisingh the sole caretaker administrator of the DGHC. Ghisingh signed a Memorandum of Settlement with the government on 6 December 2005 to set up a Sixth Schedule tribal council called the ''Gorkha Hill Council'' in place of the DGHC. Opposition from various political parties, social organizations and the people prevented the implementation of this agreement. In March 2008, Ghisingh was forced to resign as caretaker after losing public support in the Darjeeling hills to

Bimal Gurung Bimal Gurung is an Indian politician and one of the founders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), a political party demanding the formation of a separate state of Gorkhaland within India. He was the chairperson of Gorkhaland Territorial Adminis ...

-led

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) is a registered unrecognized political party, that campaigns for the creation of a separate state Gorkhaland within India, out of districts in the north of West Bengal. The party was launched on 7 October 2007. T ...

. From March 2008 to August 2012, the West Bengal government appointed IAS officers as administrators of DGHC and no election to the council was held in that period.

Gorkhaland Territorial Administration

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha signed a tripartite agreement with the state and central governments on 18 July 2011 for the formation of the

Gorkhaland Territorial Administration The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration is a semi-autonomous council for the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of West Bengal state in India. The GTA was formed in 2012 to replace the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, which was formed in 198 ...

(GTA) in the Darjeeling hills. Till the GTA body was formed, the DGHC continued in the Darjeeling hills with a Board of Administrators composed of the three MLAs from Darjeeling constituency, Kurseong constituency and Kalimpong constituency, the Darjeeling District Magistrate, and the DGHC Administrator. The GTA replaced the DGHC after the GTA body was formed in August 2012 through a West Bengal state act.

References

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External links