SIKKIM: Namchi Mahotsav 2009 has ended with a success note

FROM SIKKIM REPORTER

BY PRAKASH CHETTRI

Dignitaries attending the concluding ceremony. Photo by Sikkim Reporter

Namchi: The 7th Namchi Mahotsav 2009, an annual extravaganza in South Sikkim to which began on November 2 to present the traditions and cultures of different communities of Sikkim, ended at Bhaichung Stadium here Namchi on 4th November.

In the valedictory function of this three day long festival, Minister for Culture and Heritage, Sonam Gyatso Lepcha was chief guest and MLA Zoom-Salghari Constituency Madan Cintury was special guest. On the day, local artists from different corners of the state presented several events depicting culture and traditions of different communities of the state. In the evening session, local talents entertained the visitors till 11pm with a number of solo and group items.

Among the memorable highlights of the festival, one was joy ride in Pawan Hans chopper in service in the state. The aerial view of Namchi and its surroundings was an attraction for many which called several sorties by the flying machine. Kite flying by experts from Ahmedabad along with local enthusiasts was another special attraction of the fest this year.

SIKKIM: Woman booked for murder of a child

FROM SIKKIM REPORTER

Rangpo: A case has been registered against a woman who allegedly killed a child after kidnapping. The brutally murdered child, a school going boy, Arpit Sharma of Rangpo Government School was missing since Monday 10 am. He was on his way to school. A search operation was conducted by Sikkim Police after a missing report was lodged at Rangpo Police Station. On November 5, partial body of the boy was recovered from Sawney Busty, Singtam, few kilometers from Rangpo.

Rangpo Police interrogated the suspected woman who is a neighbour of the child’s family. The woman, Bina Devi Sharma admitted the crime of killing the child. She confessed that she killed the child because a few months earlier there was a domestic dispute between her and the family of the child and that she killed the boy in anger. Police has filed a case against the accused.

SIKKIM: Low yield of paddy due to less rainfall

FROM SIKKIM REPORTER

Paddy being grown in Sikkim. Photo by Sikkim Reporter

Pakyong: Even though there was less rainfall this time during paddy cultivation, now the farmers are harvesting their crop here below airport construction site. “The production is not so satisfactory as compared to last year, informed Krishna Sharma, one of the farmers of Pakyong. He said, ‘the main reason for less yield is low rainfall during the time of cultivation.’ Other than rain water, there is no alternative means of irrigation for cultivation of crops, he added.

Some of the farmers here apprehend that there is less hope to do cultivation of paddy and other crops coming year, as all the water sources are likely to dry up because of construction of the airport.

SIKKIM: Farmers Club launched

Namchi: A Farmers Club has been launched on Thursday here at Dong School premises, South Sikkim by an NGO, Lakshya, based at Lower Kitam, South Sikkim, with the objective of linking farmers with banks and other development agencies for capacity building. On the day, District Development Manager of NABARD for South and West Sikkim, Ms. Anjana Lama, formally launched four Farmers Club. The other three are Denchung Farmers Club, United Farmers Club, Nandugaon, and Durga Farmers Club, Lower Tinik. She highlighted the initiatives of NABARD in promotion of Farmers Club for holistic rural development.

She exhorted that NABARD has started the scheme of Farmers Club promotion through registered NGOs and explained the guidelines and framework for Farmers Club. General Secretary and CEO of Lakshya, Roshan Kaushik, spoke of the significance Farmers Club. Lakshya will guide the Club and provide training for capacity building of the farmers. Programme Coordinator for Promotion of Farmers Club, Meghraj Sharma of Lakshya told the farmers about in running the Farmers Club.

SILIGURI: Civic CD drive on pollution

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Siliguri, Nov. 6: The Siliguri Municipal Corporation will release CDs on the systematic disposal of waste in an awareness campaign for residents to be launched next month.

“We will make a documentary and distribute CDs to all 47 councillors, who in turn, will show them in their wards, using LCD projectors and other audio-visual mechanisms to the residents,” Sujoy Ghatak, the newly elected member of the mayor-in-council (conservancy and environment), said today. “The CDs will contain information and guidelines on waste disposal and proper collection of garbage. We plan to launch this campaign by the first week of next month.”

After visiting different localities of the civic area Ghatak realised that raising awareness among residents was the only way to reduce the level of pollution. “Keeping that in mind, we mooted the idea of this awareness drive through CDs, which perhaps will be introduced for the first time at the SMC,” he said.

The content of the documentary will be “dos” and “don’ts” for the residents on conservancy, guidelines for collecting garbage, the necessity of solid waste management and how a resident can help civic employees dispose the waste, Ghatak said. “These will be projected in a simple way for easy understanding of all people, right from a child to a senior citizen.” 

DARJEELING: Positive dreams on sale at HIV expo

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

VIVEK CHHETRI

Visitors look at the paintings on display in Darjeeling on Friday. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, Nov. 6: Hari Chhetri has been HIV positive for almost a decade. The society might think that Chhetri can do little, but he and his friends have decided to prove that “life does not end with HIV/AIDS”.

People living with HIV/AIDS have come together to organise an art exhibition titled Positive Expressions, where their works have been put on for sale.

Chhetri is also the president of Sankar Foundation DjNP+ (Darjeeling Network of Positive People).

Of the 27 works at the exposition that is being held today and tomorrow, five were immediately sold, raising Rs 55,000 by afternoon.

“These artworks were the outcome of a two-day creative design workshop that was conducted by Sweta Pradhan and Dipang Lama of PRO D, along with Helen King,” said Chhetri.

The PRO D is a Darjeeling-based NGO, while King is a volunteer with the Shankar Foundation DjNP+.

The works, which have been done with charcoal, crayons and oil paints, express the hopes and dreams of the HIV positive people, many of whom have dared to come out in public.

“My work reflects the life before and after I was diagnosed with HIV positive. Society might be thinking that HIV people are mere skeletons but we want to prove that life does not end with HIV/AIDS,” said Shankar Mani Rai, pointing at his work.

UNIVERSITY WATCH: Disorder tag on Jadavpur stalker

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Calcutta, Nov. 6: Police struggled to put a face to the masked stalker who attacked engineering student Garima Singh at Jadavpur University on Wednesday even as psychiatrists painted the portrait of a young man suffering from borderline personality disorder.

“This seems to be a case of borderline personality disorder or BPD, which is more common than you think. We come across two or three persons suffering from mild to moderate BPD every day,” said city-based psychiatrist Ranadip Ghosh Roy.

According to doctors, Garima’s assailant was probably prone to “instability” in mood, interpersonal relationships and general behaviour.

“In most cases, behaviour changes abruptly if such people don’t get something they desire,” explained Ghosh Roy.

Investigators haven’t yet spoken to Garima about the possibility of her having met the stalker before but psychologists said the assailant was most probably someone whom she had “rejected”.

“Stalkers are usually unable to control their impulse and aggression after being rejected, and tend to exhibit extremely hostile behaviour. In most cases, they don’t have anyone to share their frustration with, which is the root cause of such behaviour,” said psychologist Tapashi Mitra. 

TEA TALK: Tea fast off after DM letter

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Siliguri, Nov. 6: The 26 workers of Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate who had been on an indefinite hunger strike since Monday withdrew their agitation today after Jalpaiguri district magistrate Vandana Yadav wrote to Tata Tea to reopen it by November 13.

The workers had been fasting on the subdivisional office premises in Malbazar.

With the management leaving the estate and declaring indefinite suspension of work on September 14, workers of Nowera Nuddy had resorted to demonstration earlier before starting the hunger strike from Monday.

This morning, the situation grew tense as workers of Batabari, Damdim and Rungamuttee, three other gardens owned by Tata Tea in the Dooars, demonstrated in their respective gardens for two hours, blaming the management for the closure.

In the afternoon, two delegations of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad met the chief secretary at Writers’ Buildings in Calcutta and the Jalpaiguri district magistrate in her office. 

BENGAL: Govt snubs Sibal order

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Calcutta, Nov. 6: The Bengal government today dismissed human resource development minister Kapil Sibal’s directive that the state scrap the process of appointing primary school teachers ignoring central regulations that are applicable across the country.

“The state government has its own teacher recruitment procedures. We have the freedom to appoint teachers for state-aided schools on our own. We cannot take Sibal’s statement into consideration,” state school education minister Partha De told a news conference.

The state government had recently issued newspaper advertisements inviting applications for the post of primary school teachers to fill up 56,000 vacancies in 59,000 schools.

The advertisement had set only one minimum condition for a candidate to apply for a primary school teacher’s job: he/she must have passed the Madhyamik (Class X) examinations.

About 40 lakh candidates applied in response and the recruitment tests are slated for December.

BENGAL: NH34 extension

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Nov. 6: The Centre has approved the expansion of two stretches of National Highway 34 that would reduce travel time from Calcutta to north Bengal.

The expansion, cleared yesterday, is part of the third phase of the National Highways Development Project. The plans which were cleared by the cabinet committee on infrastructure include the expansion of the 103km Farakka-Raiganj section of NH34 that will cost Rs 1,078.84 crore.

The other stretch that will be expanded to four lanes would be the Behrampore-Farakka section that runs 102km. This will cost Rs 998.79 crore. Both stretches are two-lane now.

Officials said the expansion between Behrampore and Farakka would reduce travel time between Calcutta and north Bengal by 25 per cent.

SILIGURI: Guardians defer school strike

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Siliguri, Nov. 6: The Guardians’ Forum of North Bengal has deferred the indefinite strike it had threatened to start in seven English medium schools from November 9 as the deputy mayor of Siliguri Municipal Corporation today assured the parents’ body that more meetings would be arranged with the institutions.

The reprieve, however, came with a rider: Authorities at Nirmala Convent would have to sit for a meeting with the forum to resolve the fee hike issue by next Friday, failing which the parents would call the strike.

The ultimatum comes after Nirmala Convent sent three guardians, instead of any management representative, to the meeting between the forum and the seven schools.

A heated exchange of words between the forum leaders and the three guardians sent by Nirmala Convent delayed the starting of the talks by one hour.

“We honour the deputy mayor’s request and defer the strike for the time being. But Nirmala Convent will have to hold talks with us by next Friday. Otherwise, we will go ahead with the indefinite strike at all the seven schools,” said Sandeepan Bhattacharjee, the forum president.

The deputy mayor, Nantu Pal, who is also the in-charge of the education and culture departments, said: “Meetings will be held between the forum and each school. None of the parties should delay the convening of the meeting as the impasse is proving detrimental to the future of thousands of students,” Pal said.

DARJEELING: Hic! hurrah for local brew – Restaurant owners hatch Plan B to counter Morcha ban on liquor shops

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

BY VIVEK CHHETRI

Thongba, a locally brewed liquor, is served in wooden kegs. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, Nov. 6: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha deciding to close down all licensed liquor shops from tomorrow, many restaurants and hotels are planning to fall back on traditional tipple to cater for the needs of tourists.

The Morcha move is supposed to “pressure the state exchequer” by stopping the flow of revenue that the party claims is being generated through the sale of liquor in the hills.

Morcha president Bimal Gurung had earlier said the state government had collected excise duty of around Rs 50 crore from the sale of liquor in the hills during the just-ended month long festival period.

Sources in the liquor business, however, said all taxes were directly collected at the source (manufacturing unit) and liquor shops do not have to shell out a single rupee to the government at the time of sale of any bottle.

“Only for the renewal of bar licences, they have to pay around Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 per month. The rest of the tax is paid by the manufacturers before the liquor leaves the factories,” said a source. The source also said if all “off” shops in the three hill sub-divisions stopped selling liquor and the manufacturers scaled down the production proportionately and distributors brought in less quantity, then the loss to the state exchequer would be around Rs 3 crore per month.

Most bars have already worked out a plan to counter the ban. “We have started ordering local liquor made from rhododendrons, oranges, ginger and chingping, a type of seed. A bottle (750ml) of local liquor costs us around Rs 80 but they are also available at Rs 20 depending on the quality,” said the owner of a leading restaurant.

SIKKIM: Eight army jawans injured in road mishap

FROM PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Gangtok, Nov 6 (PTI) Eight army jawans were seriously injured today when the vehicle in which they were travelling fell into a gorge at Nine Miles on Jawahar Lal Nehru road between Nathula and Gangtok this evening, a police officer said here.

The mishap took place as the driver of the army vehicle lost control apparently due to some mechanical problems, Superintendent of Police (SP), East, MS Tuli said.

The army and police team soon rushed to the spot and evacuated the injured jawans to the hospital for treatment, he said, adding the condition of the injured jawans was stated to be serious.

ADMISSION NOTIFICATION: Indian Institutes of Technology – Admission Notification 2010

Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) are the institutions of national importance established through an Act of Parliament for fostering excellence in education. At present, it has fifteen IITs located in various cities. This institute has announced admission for the year 2010 to undergraduate courses.

Eligibility Criteria

1. A student can attempt IIT JEE Exam only twice, in consecutive years. Candidates who have passed (10+2) or equivalent qualifying examination in 2006 or will be appearing in 2007, and secure at least 60% (55% for SC/ST and PD) marks in aggregate in their respective Board Examination are eligible. In ease the respective Board awards letter-grades without providing norms for converting them to equivalent percentage marks, the norms decided by the Joint Implementation Committee. JEE-2007 shall be final.

2. Candidates, who have accepted admission by payment of full fees at any of the IITs, IT- BHU, Varanasi, and ISM, Dhanbad through JEE will not be permitted to appear in JEE-2007.

3. Only those candidates whose date of birth falls on or after October 1, 1982 are eligible for JEE-2007. However, in case of SC/ST, PD candidates, the upper age limit is relaxed by five years, i.e. SC/ST and PD candidates born on or after October 1, 1977 are eligible.

Important Dates

JEE-2010 Examination : April 11th, 2010

Online Application Process : November 1st, 2009 – December 7th, 2009

Offline Application Process : November 16th,2009 – December 15th,2009

How To Apply

An applicant can submit application either on-line through internet or off-line through prescribed (OMR) application form. 

ANNOUNCE: General Meeting of Delhi Rajya Newar Sangathan

Delhi Rajya Newar Sangathan is having first general meeting on 22nd November 2009. The central commitee members from Darjeeling will grace the occassion. The venue of the meeting is DAV Public School, West Patel Nagar, New Delhi, (Land Mark – Near New Delhi Metro Pillar no. 97). The meeting will commence at 12.30 noon. We invite all the newars of Delhi NCR region to attend this meeting. For any queries, please get in touch with us at delhirajya.newarsangathan@gmail.com.and can also be contacted at 9210915553 (T L Shrestha)

BENGAL: Brand Buddha starts tenth year with faded lustre

FROM THAINDIAN.COM

BY SIRSHENDU PANTH AND SOUDHRITI BHABANI

Kolkata, Nov 6 (IANS) Amid the boom of Maoist guns, raging political violence and speculation on whether the end is in sight for the 32-year Left Front (LF) government, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Friday stepped into his tenth year as West Bengal chief minister.

Having taken over the reins from the iconic Jyoti Basu on Nov 6, 2000, Communist Party of India-Marxist’s (CPI-M) top gun Bhattacharjee led the Left combine to definitive wins in the state assembly polls in 2001 and 2006. But three-and-a-half years after the last poll, the tide seems to have turned.

Bhattacharjee now presides over an administration that is often accused of chickening out from taking hard decisions, especially after the opposition’s recent electoral victories.

While the CPI-M-led Left Front still enjoys a massive mandate in the assembly, the string of losses in the panchayat, municipal, Lok Sabha elections and even by-polls have raised serious questions about its prospects in the assembly elections due in May 2011.

The electoral resurgence of the Trinamool Congress-led opposition has also triggered fierce blood-soaked turf battles in several districts with the violence between the two groups claiming more than 100 lives over the past six months.

NEPAL: UCPN-M postpones announcement of autonomous regions

FROM MYREPUBLICA.COM

KATHMANDU, Nov 6: The Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) has postponed its scheduled program to announce autonomous regions, our correspondent Post B Basnet reported quoting party sources. The program was scheduled for coming Monday.

Party sources said that the party is going to announce the postponement of the program later on Friday. They had planned to announce 13 autonomous regions, which is a part of their ongoing nationwide anti-government protests.

It was not immediately known why the opposition party postponed the program aimed at pressurizing the government to step down. But the government has already said that the announcement, if happens, will violate the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of which UCPN-M is a party and will encroach upon the jurisdiction of the Constituent Assembly (CA).

The CA is currently working on federal structure of the country as is the only body authorized to take such a responsibility. 

NEPAL: ‘I don’t want subsidies’

Intro:

FROM DOWNTOEARTH.ORG

SHARED BY AARDEE

For five years the non-profit Centre for Renewable Energy has been promoting and selling expensive solar lamps to poor families in Nepal. Today more than 100,000 households use these lamps. The ngo created the market without any subsidy. Its president Babu Raja Shrestha told Priyanka Chandola how. Edited excerpts

Why solar lamps

Nearly 60 per cent of our country’s population uses kerosene wick lamp. They consume 86.7 million litres of kerosene every year at a cost of 4,162 million Nepali rupees (US $58.6 million). A solar lamp, tuki in Napalese, is charged by the sun. It consists of a solar photovoltaic panel, two sets of white led -based lamps (with four 100-mw bulbs) with rechargeable nickel metal hydride battery and a connector for powering a small radio. The lamp lasts more than five years. The rechargeable battery lasts two years.

The solar panel and other components of the lamp are imported and assembled locally. In December 2004, the Centre for Renewable Energy promoted a local entrepreneur to establish a small-scale solar tuki -manufacturing unit in Biratnagar town in Morang district. Seven such companies have been set up since.

How the lamp was made affordable

The price of a solar tuki is NRs 3,500. This is equivalent to two years’ expenditure on kerosene for lighting for an average rural household. One can buy it on installments and the repayment schedule can be matched to monthly expenditure on kerosene. If we include battery replacement and other costs, the expenditure on a solar tuki for five years would be NRs 5,060. In case of kerosene lamps, it is NRs 9,050.

In 2005, grants from the United Nations Development Programme helped us micro-finance the lamps.

Creating a self-sustaining market

We launched the Light for All movement in January 2005 to create conditions that will make a self-sustaining market possible for such clean lighting systems. A self-sustaining market means manufacturers, distributors, retailers and financing institutions consider it economically feasible and there is an ongoing consumer demand.

Distribution involves community networks, and financing by micro-finance institutions, cooperatives, saving and credit groups, and ngos. The price structure has been designed to exclude the middleman. The manufacturer offers a 10 per cent discount to the distributor. This includes the cost for transportation and an advance for repair and maintenance.

OUT OF THE BOX: Brazil man appears at own funeral

FROM BBC NEWS

NEWS SHARED BY ABDUL KALAM EZANI

A 59-year-old Brazilian man has surprised his family by turning up at his own funeral, local media report.

Relatives of Ademir Jorge Goncalves, a bricklayer, had identified him as the victim of a car crash in southern Parana state the previous day.

Police told O Globo newspaper that relatives had trouble identifying the corpse because it was badly disfigured.

It emerged that Mr Goncalves had spent the night drinking a rum-like liquor called “pinga” with his friends.

He did not get word of his funeral until it was already happening on Monday morning, his niece Rosa Sampaio said.

She said some family members – including herself and the man’s mother – had doubts, but an aunt and four friends had positively identified the body.

“What were we to do? We went ahead with the funeral,” she told O Globo.

A police spokesman welcomed the happy ending: “Before long, the walking dead appeared at the funeral. It was a relief,” the unnamed officer told the paper. 

DARJEELING: Dry run – No liquor in Darjeeling from Nov 7

FROM TIMES OF INDIA

DARJEELING: There will be no liquor in Darjeeling from November 7 — not a sip for tourists, not a sip for locals. Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) issued this diktat, apparently to deprive state government of the revenue it earns from liquor sale in the Hills.

Bars, restaurants and liquor shop owners in Darjeeling have little choice but to toe GJM’s line, even if it means giving up their sole means of livelihood. This means no more Kangchenjunga sunsets, nursing a glass of whiskey. Locals have it worse – a bitter winter without spirits. And what’s the Darjeeling administration – that has virtually allowed Bimal Gurung and GJM a free run – doing about it?

Apparently nothing. ‘‘We are not worried about the GJM diktat,’’ said an excise department official.

‘‘We are more concerned about the health of the Darjeeling people because they will turn to illicit liquor.’’

Gurung’s claim that he wants to stop the flow of liquor revenue to the state coffers has no logic, say excise officials. ‘‘It’s absurd to think that way. In fact, all taxes are paid in Siliguri before the liquor is brought to the Hills,’’ said an official.

Gurung insists the government made Rs 40 crore through sale of liquor during Puja alone. Last month, he announced closure of licensed liquor shops as part of the ‘non-cooperation movement’ against the state. Import of liquor from Sikkim (which is cheaper), too, was stopped. Gorkhaland Personnel have been deployed on NH-31A to check vehicles for liquor.

When another excise official was asked about the impact of the closure, he said: ‘‘Revenue-wise it will not make much of a difference as Siliguri is a much bigger source. In Darjeeling, import will be hit and also supply to army.’’

BIOGRAPHY: Vivien Leigh

FROM BIOGRAPHY.COM

Vivien Leigh

(Born November 5, 1913, Darjeeling, India—died July 8, 1967, London, England) British actress who achieved motion picture immortality by playing two of American literature’s most celebrated Southern belles, Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche DuBois.

The daughter of a Yorkshire stockbroker, she was born in India and convent-educated in England and throughout Europe. Inspired by the example of her schoolmate Maureen O’Sullivan, she embarked upon an acting career, enrolling at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1932. That same year she married her first husband, British barrister Herbert Leigh Holman, and adopted his middle name as her professional name. After her film debut in Things Are Looking Up (1934), she appeared in several more British “quota quickies” before making her first stage appearance in The Green Sash (1935). Although she possessed a weak stage voice at this point in her career, her stunning stage presence and beauty were impossible to ignore, and in 1935 she was signed to a contract by movie mogul Alexander Korda. During her initial burst of film stardom Leigh began an affair with British leading man Laurence Olivier, then married to actress Jill Esmond. The two lovers would subsequently appear together on stage and screen, notably in Korda’s Fire Over England (1937) and 21 Days (filmed 1937, released 1940; also released as 21 Days Together).

In 1938 Olivier and Leigh traveled to Hollywood, he to star in Samuel Goldwyn’s Wuthering Heights (1939), she to audition for the highly coveted role of Scarlett O’Hara in the David O. Selznick production of Margaret Mitchell’s best-seller Gone with the Wind (1939). Much to the surprise of industry insiders, she won the role over hundreds of candidates. Her unforgettable screen portrayal of Mitchell’s resilient heroine earned her not only international popularity but also an Academy Award. She capped this professional high point with her 1940 marriage to Olivier; the newlyweds subsequently costarred in the historical drama That Hamilton Woman (1941), acclaimed by Sir Winston Churchill as his all-time favourite film.

TEA TALK: Low tea output in Sep weakens revival hopes

FROM FINANCIAL EXPRESS

Kochi: With tea production falling in Dooars, Terai and Assam Valley during September, any hope of recouping the shortfall suffered in previous months have faded Traders said production September is seen lower by 5 million kgs despite a nominal increase in the South Indian tea estates.

Cumulative tea production for the first nine months of the year (2009) is seen lower by 10 million kgs over last year’s production.

Interestingly output in drought-hit Assam rose has improved in August to touch 82.92 million kg.

According to Tea Board estimates, shortfall in production compared to 2008 narrowed down to just 4 million kgs for the period of January-August 2009.

In the first five months of 2009, the shortfall in production over the previous year was almost 13 million kgs.Crop prospects also looked good with some rains in the producing regions.

But, actual production fell during the month in most places except Darjeeling.

The total drop in tea production in September is close to 6.1 million kgs.

Meanwhile, good rains helped the South Indian estates to improve their production marginally by 0.5 million kgs.Total production for January-September 2009 is estimated at 696 million kgs as against 706 million kgs during the same period of 2008.

Drought-like conditions in Dooars and major portion of Terai has seen production in North India fall significantly in the early part of the year.

In South India , frost during the month of December and January and then the continuous drought in the following months saw drop in production.

Production is not expected to recoup as Northern India production falls with the arrival of the winter season. Tea leaves are damaged by frost during winter months every year.

Exports for the first nine months of the current year stands at 131 million kgs as against 150 millions during the same period of last year.

NEPAL: Leaders want preamble to reflect pacts

FROM SOUTH ASIAN MEDIA NET / MYREPUBLICA.COM / KANTIPUR

KATHMANDU: Senior leaders of the major political parties have stressed that the preamble to the new constitution should reflect the principles agreed to in the past.

They said the 12-point agreement signed between the then seven party alliance and the Maoists, Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) and the interim constitution should be the key documents of reference while drafting the new constitution.

Vice Chairman of UCPN (Maoist) Dr Baburam Bhattarai, Vice President of Nepali Congress Ram Chandra Poudel, Home Minister Bhim Rawal and Finance Minister Surendra Pandey representing the CPN-UML, agreed on the idea at the Constitutional Committee meeting on Thursday.

“We have made major agreements while signing 12-point agreement, the CPA and the interim constitution,” Bhattarai said, adding, “We should not deviate from the major principles that we agreed to while signing these historic documents.” He claimed that democracy, republicanism and federal set up are the issues that were already agreed to by the political parties.

Pluralism versus multiparty competitive politics 

NEPAL: Govt commits to book journos’ killers

FROM SOUTH ASIAN MEDIA NET / MY REPUBLICA.COM

KATHMANDU: Home Minister Bhim Rawal on Thursday said the government is actively working to punish those involved in killing and torturing journalists in the past.

Rawal said this during a meeting with a delegation of Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) at his office in Singha Durbar. “The ministry is seriously working towards punishing the guilty involved in such activities in the past,” said Rawal. “This is necessary to safeguard democracy and disseminate information.”

Rawal made the remarks when the FNJ delegation raised issues that the murderers of journalist Birendra Kumar Sah were walking freely. The FNJ delegation also urged the government to book the guilty behind the murder of journalists Prakash Singh Thakuri and JP Joshi, among others, and provide compensation to their families.

Then Maoist-led government had repelled a case against the murder of journalist Thakuri last year, terming it a ´political case´.

Meanwhile, Rawal reiterated that the government had no plan to use journalists as ´informers´ under the newly launched Special Security Plan.

“The idea was floated to help provide journalists easy access to information,” he said. “We do not have any intention to get information from the journalists.”

Rawal said the ministry has not implemented the plan after protests from various quarters. “I express my commitment to amend the plan at the policy level too,” he said. 

DOOARS TERAI: Clash in Kalchini

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Alipurduar, Nov. 5: People suspected to be owing allegiance to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and Congress supporters clashed while canvassing for votes for the Kalchini by-election last night, breaking the otherwise peaceful campaigning in the four seats which go to polls in north Bengal on Saturday.

Around 7.30pm, Morcha supporters were campaigning for Wilson Champromary, the Independent the party supports, when they were allegedly attacked by Congress members. The incident took place behind the residence of Mohan Sharma, the Kalchini block president of the Congress.

Police said the two sides had gone at each other with fists and lathis and several motorbikes belonging to the Congress supporters were damaged. Since the clash took place close to the Kalchini police station, the situation did not turn ugly as the police intervened soon.

The Congress and the RSP, too, have fielded candidates in Kalchini.