PHOTO FEATURE: JAKS initiate agitation

Members of Janmukti Asthahi Karmachari Sangh blocking traffics in Darjeeling Hills. Photo from Sunchari

DARJEELING: Gorkha League conducts closed door meeting

THE HIMALAYAN BEACON [BEACON ONLINE]

BY BARUN ROY

DARJEELING: The Central Committee of All India Gorkha League met today in Darjeeling to discuss on the party’s future political strategy. Though nothing much has been divulged the party President Madan Tamang refuted the news being published about him in different news papers. He said the party is presently deliberating on what its future course of action would be.

SIKKIM: GJM-sponsored bandh disrupts traffic on NH in Sikkim

FROM PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Gangtok, Nov 20 (PTI) Traffic on Sikkim’s national highway, the sole road connecting the state with rest of the country, was paralysed throughout the day due to Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJM)-sponsored bandh in Darjeeling Hills.

No vehicles, barring those of army and emergency services, plied through the highway during the day, police said.

Traffic between Sikkim and Siliguri in West Bengal resumed at 5 pm after GJM relaxed its bandh, they said.

NEPAL: Bardot urges end to animal sacrifice in Nepal

FROM AFP

Brigitte Bardot has urged the president of Nepal to outlaw sacrifice of animals for religious purposes

KATHMANDU: The legendary French movie star turned animal rights campaigner Brigitte Bardot has written to Nepal’s president urging him to stop a mass animal sacrifice from going ahead next week.

A temple in Nepal will host what is thought to be the world’s biggest ritual slaughter in which hundreds of thousands of buffaloes, goats and birds will be sacrificed to the Hindu goddess of power, Gadhimai.

In a letter seen by AFP Friday, Bardot urged the president to outlaw the sacrifice of animals for religious purposes ahead of the festival, calling the practice “violent, cruel and inhumane.”

“I personally find it hard to imagine that your heart can withstand such cruelty, knowing that you, being the head of the country, are ultimately responsible,” said Bardot, 75, in her letter to President Ram Baran Yadav.

NEPAL: Maoists insist on package deal

FROM THE HIMALAYAN TIMES

Pushpa Kamal Dahal

KATHMANDU: A meeting of the central office bearers of the Unified CPN-Maoist, held at the residence of party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ in Naya Bazaar this morning, decided not to deal with other parties the single issue of opening the House.

“The meeting decided to deal all the pertaining issues in a package,” said party vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha ‘Prakash’ after the meeting.

Chairman Prachanda had briefed the leaders about his meeting with Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala in Singapore. The Maoist leaders present at the meeting expressed hope that the parties would forge consensus before the Friday’s deadline for launching the third round of agitation.

The Maoists’ secretary CP Gajurel said Koirala’s proposal to find a middle path had raised hope for consensus. Casting doubt about building a consensus immediately after Koirala’s return, he, however, said things were going in a positive direction.

DARJEELING: Bandh paralyses life in Darjeeling Hills

FROM PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Siliguri, Nov 20 (PTI) Normal life was crippled in Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal as the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-sponsored 24-hour bandh began this morning.

Shops, markets were closed and vehicles kept off the roads in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong sub-divisions as a result, official sources said.

Educational institutions and tea gardens were, however, exempted from the strike call.

The GJM has been demanding permanent status for over 6,000 employees in Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.

GJM General secretary Roshan Giri alleged the West Bengal Government did precious little to accord them permanent status by November 17, 2009 as promised.

DARJEELING: 12-hour shutdown hits life in Darjeeling

FROM TRAK.IN / IANS

Darjeeling, Nov 20 (IANS) Normal life came to a halt here Friday as Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) activists called a 12-hour shutdown in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, demanding permanent status for iver 6,000 employees working with Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) on temporary basis.

‘There are altogether 6,274 employees working in DGHC now. The state government had promised to make them permanent by Nov 17 this year, but nothing has been done so far.

‘We’re demanding permanent status to all DGHC – the district’s governing body – employees and we have called this dawn to dusk shutdown protesting against the administrative delay,’ GJM general secretary Roshan Giri told IANS.

According to an official , hundreds of GJM activists had also staged a demonstration Thursday, squatting in front of the office of Darjeeling district magistrate B.L. Meena.

Shops, markets and tea gardens were closed and buses and cars were off the roads since Friday morning.

The attendance rate was also very low in schools and colleges in the district though they were kept out of the purview of the strike, an official in the district administration said.

‘We heard that the district magistrate has gone to Kolkata to hold talks with senior state government officials on this issue. We’re expecting that some positive result will come out of the dialogue process,’ Giri added.

DARJEELING: Darjeeling Hills shut down for 12 hours

THE HIMALAYAN BEACON [BEACON ONLINE] EXCLUSIVE

BY BARUN ROY

DARJEELING: Janmukti Asthahi Karmachari Sangathan has called for a 12 hours strike in Darjeeling in protest against the West Bengal Government’s failure to implement steps transforming the temporary DGHC employees into permanent employees. The strike has completely shut down normal activities in the region. However, the Janmukti Asthahi karmachari Sangathan has not included schools and colleges in the purview of the closure. Emergency services has also not been included in the purview of the closure.

Darjeeling shuts down again. Photo by Barun Roy

 

 

SIKKIM: Gorkha Bridgade enters semi of CM’s Gold Cup football

FROM SIKKIM REPORTER

BY PRAKASH CHETTRI

Namchi: Gorkha Bridgade entered the semi-final of the ongoing All India Chief Minister’s Gold Cup Football Tournament after its victory in Wednesday’s match against the Friends Club Kathmandu with the score of 4-3 in the tie-breaker here at Bhaichung Stadium.

The 4th and final pre-quarter match of the tournament organized by South District Football Association (SDFA) was a close contest between the Gorkha Bridgade and Friends Club Kathmandu. Both the teams played skillfully in the spirit of winning the match. Both of them played attacking game from the beginning and made number of attempts in the goal post. But the match remained goalless in the first half.

In the second half, the match became interesting with attacks and counter attacks but neither team was successful to convert their attempts to a goal. Several attempts by Friends Club returned from goalpost. At the final whistle of 90 minutes the game was goalless needing a tie breaker by penalty shots. In the tiebreaker, Friends Club got the lead 1-0 when their goalkeeper held the first penalty shot. Then the score board changed to 2-1, 2-2 and finally 4-3 in favour of Gorkha Bridgade.

SIKKIM: Minister visits Nathula border

FROM SIKKIM REPORTER

BY JANUKA SHARMA

Minister for Commerce and Industries and Information and Public Relations (IPR) Neeru Sewa. Photo by Januka Sharma

Gangtok: On Wednesday, November 18, a sunny day with strong wind, Miss. Neeru Sewa, Minister for Commerce and Industries and Information and Public Relations (IPR), visited Serathang trade mart, Nathula border of India and China and Baba Mandir. She was accompanied by officers of both Commerce and Industries and IPR departments in her first visit of the area as a Minister.

She enquired about success of the trade mart. At Nathula border, the Minister talked to Indian Army personnel on tourists visiting the area. She visited the conference hall at the India China border. also visit.

SIKKIM: Livelihood Schools will have RAC as headquarter – CM

FROM SIKKIM REPORTER

Sikkim Chief Minister Dr. Pawan Chamling

Gangtok: Chief Minister Dr. Pawan Chamling convened a meeting with the Heads of Departments (HoDs) at Samman Bhawan here on Capacity Building programmes of the State Government on Wednesday, November 18. It may be recalled that the Cabinet in its meeting on 31st October, 2009 has, in principle, approved the establishment of Livelihood Schools in 31 constituencies. In the meeting, venues for Livelihood Schools were finalized. Chief Minister informed that each Livelihood School will have a Secretary or HoD of the concerned Department as its in-charge. He said that the Livelihood Schools will enable the unemployed to develop their capabilities and skill to sustain themselves economically.

“It is a new concept and Regional Administrative Centre (RAC), Karfectar, South Sikkim, will be headquarter of Livelihood Schools”, Chief Minister said. He directed that RAC, Karfectar, should be vacated immediately and handed over to the Directorate of Capacity Building for the said purpose. He said offices located in RAC, Karfectar, should be relocated elsewhere within 25th of this month so that the Directorate would be fully functional by 12th December, 2009.

ESSAY: Towards oblivion? Dal Bahadur Giri

FROM THE STATESMAN

A Gandhi loyalist and a friend of Netaji, Dal BahadurGiri first exploded the long-nurtured myth around the legendary loyalty of the Gorkha community towards English imperialism and brought into the open the nationalism latent in Indian Gorkhas. And yet he remains mired in amnesiac twilight, writes Romit Bagchi

THERE are some names that persevere through life’s huge emptiness. They endure because they embody a luminous adventure in life — a leap into the unknown, leaving the beaten track in their passion to embrace the elusive. A few people in the Darjeeling Hills, not to speak of the rest of West Bengal, know about Dal Bahadur Giri beyond the fact that he was a freedom fighter. But this prosaic phrase can hardly unravel the splendour of the life he lived.

Giri rose to towering heights in the saga of sacrifice and was known as the “Hill Gandhi”, in affectionate recognition of his exemplary avowal of the Gandhian tenets of non-violence. Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary has become an annual jamboree in the hills for the past two years since the Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha

got into the ascendancy in the political landscape of this restless terrain. Meetings, big and small, are organised to reaffirm the statehood movement’s commitment to the time-transcending ideology epitomised by the Mahatma.

Yet nobody cares to recall the man who first brought the effulgence of the Gandhian creed to the Darjeeling Hills. The state of things in other parts of the state and even in the plains of Darjeeling district, including Siliguri, is worse. It is doubtful whether even 100 people in the plains know anything about the man who first aroused the Nepali-speaking people of the Darjeeling Hills against alien rule.

How many people know that Giri laid the foundation of the Indian National Congress in Darjeeling district way back in 1921 when the plains of the district remained in a deep swoon? The plains got its first unit of the Congress in Siliguri more than a decade later. He formed a unit of the Congress at Pedong in Kalimpong subdivision and set the emotions of the people in the hills afire with a passion for freedom at a time when loyalty to the British Crown remained the hallmark of the subjective world of the Gorkha community.

BENGAL: Bengal is prone to disaster – CII

FROM THE STATESMAN

KOLKATA, 19 NOV: The state faces a threat from a variety of natural calamities that include floods, rise in sea water levels and drought.

This has been the preliminary findings of the study carried out by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) with help from Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

The preliminary findings of the report were released during a climate change business forum ~ Opportunities through low carbon strategies ~ organised by the CII in the city today.

The study will also attempt to analyse the current status of climate change impacts on the state. Promotion of awareness to combat climate change and clean development mechanism (CDM) in industrial townships of the state like Durgapur, Haldia, Kharagpur, North Bengal are also a part of the study. Special focus would be on highlighting energy efficient steps available to the small and medium enterprises in different districts of the state.

The preliminary findings in the report point to Bankura, Purulia, Birbhum and Burdwan as drought prone districts.

DOOARS TERAI: Attempt to discipline staff proves dear

FROM THE STATESMAN

JALPAIGURI, 19 NOV: A step taken to usher work culture in his office, is costing PWD executive engineer, Jalpaiguri construction division, Mr Asish Saha dear.

On 17 November Mr Saha had locked some rooms in the office complex when he found those devoid of staff during working hours. Instead of learning the lesson intended through the act, some chose to get mischievous and came up with posters today depicting the executive engineer as a caretaker.

“I found the posters after reaching office today. It is an experience,” he lamented. “Those behind the posters have made their intentions clear. I locked the office as the staffs were missing. The state government has recently released a circular directing its employees to maintain the official work hour. By ridiculing me in this manner the perpetrators have indicated they would not follow the government order,” Mr Saha stated.

The man is shocked but not shattered. “It is my duty to look after the attendance of the employees and I would continue to do so whether it is supported or lampooned. The strange thing is when I went to lock the sub-divisional office room on 17 November I did not find any of the on-duty caretakers who had the locks and keys. I had to take it from some other employees. I have informed the higher ups of the development,” Mr Saha added.

SILIGURI: Partha dismisses tie-up allegation

FROM THE STATESMAN

SILIGURI, 19 NOV: The leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly and senior Trinamul Congress leader Mr Partha Chatterjee today criticised the state urban development minister, Mr Asok Bhattacharya’s repeated allusions to a clandestine tie-up between the Trinamul Congress and the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha.

“Frustrated with the withering support base of his party, the CPI-M leader has become desperate to malign my party and leader, Miss Mamata Banerjee on the Gorkhaland issue,” he said.

Mr Asok Bhattacharya has alleged that the state would get divided if the Left Front government were deposed from power. “Miss Banerjee has struck a secret deal with the GJMM, promising a quick fix solution of the Gorkhaland problem. We have incontrovertible evidence that she met the GJMM leaders and done a deal,” he said.

Rubbishing the charge, the Trinamul leader said that Miss Banerjee had repeatedly affirmed that she would find a solution to the seemingly intractable tangle without dividing the state. “Displaying affection for the long neglected hill people and promising to bridge the rupture between the northern and the southern tips of the state cannot be construed as a divisive political deal,” he said.

SILIGURI: BJP seeks GJMM and pro-Kamtapuri forces support for bandh

FROM THE STATESMAN

SILIGURI, 19 NOV: To garner support for its movement against price rise, the BJP state unit today appealed to several regional forces, including the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha and the Kamtapur Progressive Party, to back its proposed 12-hour strike on 30 November.

The BJP state general secretary and in-charge of the organization in north Bengal, Dr Biswapriya Roychowdhury today met the KPP and GJMM leadership to seek support.

The saffron leader slammed the state and the Central governments for failing to check rise of prices of essential commodities.

“Both the state and Central governments have failed to control prices of essential commodities.

The governments are too busy to look into the poorman’s plight,” Dr Roychowdhury said at a press conference, here today.

The BJP would appeal to all parties, except the Congress and the Left Front constituents.

Although the Trinamool leadership has declined to back the proposed strike, the BJP leadership is expecting to draw support from other regional parties.

“We would appeal to all political organisations to support our movement for a genuine cause,” the BJP leader said.

DOOARS TERAI: Cong trying to increase support base in north Bengal

FROM THE STATESMAN

JALPAIGURI, 19 NOV: The Congress is trying to increase its support base in north Bengal. As part of its effort to regain lost bases, the Youth Congress in Jalpaiguri today organised a chintan shibir to commemorate former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s birthday. Among others, North Makda Congress MP Miss Mausam Benajir Nur attended the camp.

According to the Youth Congress leaders, the Congress has received a serious blow in the recent Assembly bypolls by losing two of the three seats they contested in including Goalpokhar in North Dinajpur district, seat of Congress MP Mrs Deepa Das Munshi.

The Congress came a poor fourth in the Kalchini Assembly bypoll. “All these indicate that the Congress is in an uncomfortable position in North Bengal, considered its comfort zone,” said the Congress leadership.

“We can not deny that the Congress is facing a crisis in North Bengal as far as the bypoll results are concerned but we are definite that it would not last long. The Congress has never suffered a leadership crisis and we would definitely bounce back before the 2011 Assembly elections,” claimed Youth Congress Jalpaiguri president Mr Saikat Chattrejee.

According to him, meetings like today’s would boost the morale of the party’s grassroots workers.

Miss Nur on her part stated that the Congress needs to attract the new generation.

DARJEELING: Hill lady in Antarctica, aim Pole – Skiers to reach destination in January

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

BY VIVEK CHHETRI

The skiers squeezed inside the tent. Picture courtesy: Robert Hollingworth

Darjeeling, Nov. 19: Strong whispering wind in Antarctica might have blown away the tents but it has failed to shred the spirit of Reena Kaushal Dharmshaktu, who as a member of the Kaspersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition is vying to be the first Indian woman to ski to the South Pole.

While speaking exclusively to The Telegraph “from somewhere in Antarctica”, Reena sounded high on adrenaline. “The conditions are beautiful but difficult. The winds are very strong and two of our tents were blown away and we had to work hard to set them up again,” she said over the sat-phone.

After spending a week at Punta Arenas, Chile, as part of the pre-expedition preparation, the team reached the base camp in Antarctica on a specially equipped aircraft. The four-and-a-half hour flight is undertaken only a few times each year during the short austral summer.

The team is presently camping somewhere near the Patriot Hills — which is the only commercial base camp in Antarctica. The Hills lie on the lee of a range of mountains, including Antarctica’s tallest peak, Mt Vinsion, and are situated near a vast area of naturally occurring blue ice that is used as a runaway, said a spokesperson of the team in an email to The Telegraph.

“We will be leaving this place in the next two days for another point from where we will start to ski,” said Reena, a Darjeeling girl who settled in Delhi after marrying Everester Loveraj Dharmshaktu.

Once the team starts skiing, there will be no trained guides or dropping of food. The team will have to fend for themselves, do every chore right from pitching the tent to cooking their meals on their own.

SILIGURI: Scuffle after patient death – Guard held for assault

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Police keep guard outside the hospital. (Kundan Yolmo)

Siliguri, Nov. 19: A private hospital in Siliguri witnessed a brawl this morning following the death of a retired railway official after an operation.

Kailash Prasad, 65, was operated on by W.H. Chang, a neurosurgeon and the owner of the nursing home, and other doctors yesterday evening and he breathed his last around 10pm. Prasad was a resident of Tindharia, 25km from here, and his relatives and neighbours alleged that he had died because of negligence.

Prasad had suffered injuries on the head after a fall on the road while walking. “The doctors had told us that the operation was successful, but around five hours later, we received the news that he had expired,” said Mohan Prasad, the grandson of the deceased.

Ershad Ansari, a neighbour of Prasad, said they suspected that there were some lapses on the part of the nursing home and “we wanted to meet the doctor”.

“The guard refused us entry and by 6am, many people from our locality had reached the hospital to take the body. We asked the guard to allow us to meet the doctor and he again stopped us. An altercation ensued and Munna Gupta, a resident of Tindharia, was assaulted. Matigara police also reached the spot,” said Ansari.

Mohan said when they had asked for the final bill, the hospital staff said the amount came to around Rs 70,000. “We told them that Rs 40,000 had already been paid as advance for the treatment and still, the patient had died. They discussed among themselves and returned us Rs 20,000. It proves that the doctors were negligent in attending to the patient.”

BENGAL: Man chops off cancerous left hand

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Malda, Nov. 19: A 32-year-old man has chopped off his cancer-stricken left palm from the wrist, unable to bear the excruciating pains. He has also pleaded with the government to allow him to end his life.

Swarup Das, who had been detected with bone cancer two years ago, carried out the self-inflicted amputation in full view of his family members at Kanchantar, 14km from here, on Tuesday. He stays with his parents, wife and five-year-old daughter.

His 70-year-old father, Biswanath, said he was too infirm to go out to work. “My son was the sole bread-earner for us.” Asked whether the family tried to prevent him from chopping off his palm, the father said: “Why should we? His pain was unbearable for all of us to see. The palm has been buried in a place near our home.” The family members of Swarup, who used to be the helper of a truck, get to eat one meal a day — thanks to a few villagers. “We have spent all our savings on my husband’s treatment in Bangalore. We have written to the block development officer for money but have not received any response,” said Babita.

SIKKIM: Push to save life on peaks

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

A mountaineer negotiates a slope on Mt Jupno in West Sikkim

Gangtok, Nov. 19: Stakeholders in adventure tourism and tour operators have set in motion an exercise to devise a rescue and relief mechanism to handle high-altitude mishaps during mountaineering and trekking expeditions.

The move comes in the wake of the deaths of two mountaineers and injuries to other members of a trekking team from Mumbai in an avalanche on October 19. The mishap occurred when they were descending from the 19,700-feet Mount Thinchingkang.

Soon after, a 69-year-old American on a trekking expedition to Dzongri died because of altitude sickness and was cremated in Yuksom. Both the peaks are in West Sikkim.

Added to these are occasional road accidents involving tourists, especially on the routes to Yumthang in North Sikkim and Nathu-la in East Sikkim.

Paljor Lachungpa, the president of the Travel Agents’ Association of Sikkim (TAAS), said a meeting had been held with the officials of key state government departments to discuss the issue.

Members of the Sikkim Amateur Mountaineers Association also attended the meeting.

SILIGURI: Parent cries ‘mental torture’

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Siliguri, Nov. 19: The president of the Guardians’ Forum of North Bengal today alleged that his daughter was “mentally tortured” in her St Joseph’s High School, Matigara.

“An illegal leaflet, which did not bear the name of the publisher, was distributed on the school campus on November 10 urging the guardians to participate in a meeting at Baghajatin Park the next day. In the leaflet, some people had taken my name and made baseless allegations against me,” said Sandeepan Bhattacharjee Bhattacharjee, the Guardians’ Forum president. “The leaflet with the allegations distributed in my daughter’s school has a very bad effect on her. This certainly amounts to mental torture.”

Bhattacharjee was referring to the leaflet which had the name of the Consolidated Forum of Guardians — a newly formed body of parents opposed to the Guardians’ Forum. The leaflet had accused Bhattacharjee of insulting women guardians with “indecent and uncultured” language at the Siliguri Municipal Corporation on November 6.

SILIGURI: Many miss flights for blockades

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Siliguri, Nov. 19: Several people travelling out of the hills could not make it to Bagdogra Airport on time today and missed the flights because of the road blockades set up by the Janmukti Asthahi Karmachari Sangathan (JAKS).

Those who missed the flights were mainly visitors. They were to have boarded four planes leaving the airport between 1pm and 3pm. While three flights were bound for Calcutta, the other one’s destination was Delhi.

Airport sources said around 10 to 15 per cent of the passengers from the hills who had booked tickets did not show up today. But they could not specify the number of passengers who failed to reach the airport on time.

“I pleaded with them (the protesters) to allow me a passage as I was supposed to catch a Calcutta-bound flight scheduled to leave at 2.40pm. They did not heed my plea and I called up people (airline), cancelled my ticket and booked a seat on another flight tomorrow. I was supposed to reach Mumbai this evening and ended up staying in Siliguri today,” Shennaz B. Elavia, a psychologist and a corporate consultant from Mumbai, said.

Elavia had been to Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology as a resource person to attend a seminar. She was coming down after visiting the Neora Valley National Park when she was stopped at Gorubathan.

DARJEELING: DGHC staff hold DM hostage – Siege lifted at midnight after assurance that permanent job status would be discussed today

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

A blockade set up by DGHC casual workers in Darjeeling. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling/Siliguri, Nov. 19: The district magistrate and 14 of his staff members went without food and water for nearly 12 hours today as more than 500 DGHC contract workers laid siege to the district collectorate in Darjeeling. The officials were not allowed to even use the toilet for the first seven hours of the siege that started at 11.15am.

The workers had been demanding regularisation of their jobs, the letters for which they claimed the government had promised to distribute from November 17.

At 5.45pm, the protesters came out of the chambers, including that of district magistrate Surendra Gupta, to sit on the collectorate corridor and the courtyard. Gupta and his staff were then allowed to use the toilets. However, no food or water made its way to the officers till nearly 10pm when the protesters offered them biscuits and flattened rice.

The Janmukti Asthahi Karmachari Sangathan (JAKS), the organisation of contract workers affiliated to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, had plans to announce an agitation today.

But by 10.30am, all JAKS members assembled at Gorkha Dukha Nibarak Sammelan Hall and soon started setting up blockades on roads across the hills and confining the collectorate officials to their chambers. The blockades from 11am to 2pm hit traffic hard. Many people, who were supposed to catch afternoon flights and usually start from Darjeeling between 9am and 10am, were stranded at various points across the hills.

Till 2pm only ambulances were allowed to move around. By then almost three hours had passed since Gupta, along with P. Zimba, the additional district magistrate, Amalkanti Roy, the subdivisional officer of Darjeeling, and at least 11 other officials of the collectorate had been confined to their rooms.

SIKKIM: Lepchas call off march to Dzongu in Sikkim

FROM PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Gangtok, Nov 19 (PTI) The three-day march to north Sikkim’s Dzongu by Lepchas from Darjeeling was called off today after restrictions were imposed on them by the district authorities, a spokesman of the organisers Indigenous Lepcha Tribal Association (ILTA) said.

The ILTA decided to call off the march to the Lepcha ‘motherland’ after it was communicated by the north Sikkim district administration that not more than 10 people will be allowed to visit Dzongu to pay religious obeisance, he said.

The administration had cited law and order problems at Dzongu due to assembly of a large number of people from outside, the spokesman said, adding the decision to call off the march was taken in the larger public interest.