Unpaid bills stall hill road: Ajoy Edwards raises questions on Bengal fund flow
Telegraph | 3 February 2026
A project to upgrade a road in Kalimpong has been stopped by the contractor after the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) allegedly failed to make payments against submitted bills, raising questions on the fund flow from the Bengal government to the hill body.
Ajoy Edwards, an elected GTA Sabha member and a leader of the Opposition camp, in letter to the GTA has stated that work on “upgradation, carpeting and other allied works” of a road from Chuikhim forest to Kiran Golai under Kalimpong Block-1 has stopped over unpaid bills to the contractor.
Work on the 2.5km road executed under the state plan for the year 2023-24 against a sanctioned project cost of ₹2.49 crore had started from December 2023.
Edwards said that during his recent visit to the area, residents drew his attention to the incomplete road.
“Immediately thereafter, I contacted (over the phone) the concerned agency, Shri Nitesh Agarwal, who informed me that he has already submitted a part bill amounting to ₹1.2 crore out of which only ₹20 lakh has been released till date,” Edwards, leader of the Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front, wrote to the GTA chief executive Anit Thapa, who helms the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha, and officials of the hill body. Thapa's party is a hill ally of the ruling Trinamool Congress.
“The agency further stated that the remaining work would be resumed only after receipt of the pending payment,” the letter states.
Agarwal, speaking to The Telegraph, recently said he needed to check his accounts to verify the sum he received so far for the project.
Dushyant Nariala, the GTA principal secretary, did not take calls from this newspaper.
A GTA source, however, said that officials of the hill body had contacted the contractor and “warned him” to complete the project. “Work will start soon,” the source said.
Edwards, however, raised the larger question on whether promised funds were at all coming to the hill body from the state exchequer.
“I am also deeply concerned and surprised as to why the payment against the budget allotted for the financial year 2023-24 has not been fully released, resulting in the stoppage of work and leaving the project incomplete,” stated Edwards.
Sources had earlier told The Telegraph that the construction of the IT park in Kurseong, announced by chief minister Mamata Banerjee on December 8, 2023 and to be completed in December 2025, hit a dead end when the state failed to release the approved ₹24.79 crore.
“The GTA started executing the work with speed and completed a substantial amount of work. However, at the moment work is progressing at a snail's pace as the GTA has not received funds from the state,” a source had earlier stated.
Earlier when Bimal Gurung, the leader of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, was heading the GTA, similar allegations had surfaced.
"In 2014-15, against the sanctioned allocation of ₹90 crore, the state government released only ₹68 crore. Likewise, against the sanctioned funds of ₹130 crore for 2015-16, the state government released only ₹42.92 crore," a GTA source had then said.