Premahuti - Premiere Online at The Himalayan Beacon

Birdflu Strikes Darjeeling Hills!

[Photo:CNN] Darjeeling Feb 1, 2008 7:50 PM IST: Official report of ‘38 Chicken’ dead have been challenged by unofficial and eyewitness estimates of ‘200 dead’. In an statement yesterday, the Darjeeling District Magistrate Rajesh Pandey said, “38 Chicken were found dead in Takdah and the blood of these chicken have been sent to the laboratory for testing. No thing can be said hence until the results of these tests arrive. As the reports arrive and based on the report we will implement the set procedure.” However, not giving much attention to the Bird flu pandemic across the rest of Bengal, he said, “this could possibly be due to extreme weather conditions. In these few days, there were a major dip in the temperature.” Darjeeling Hills had experienced as low as - 2 degree Celsius. However, there are major concerns as eyewitness reports have estimated around “200 chicken dead and more counting.” Dr. P. Sen an authority on the subject when contact through phone from Delhi said, “While I cannot coroborate on the ground realities there but I can say that proximity to China and South East Asia could be a major concern not just for Darjeeling Hills but the whole of North East and Sikkim. Remember the nations where most human casualties due to H5N1 have occurred in nations surrounding this region and the possibility of the flu spreading throughout the nation is very high.” When asked about the Birdflu itself he said, “The Avianflu as it is actually known has now mutated into numerous strains. We now of only ten as of now but there could be more that are still unknown to us. The Ten strains that are known to us are H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, H5N1, H7N7, H1N2, H9N2, H7N2, H7N3, H10N7. The known estimates of Human death due to these strains could be high.” Meanwhile, in the same instance more than 470,000 chickens are said to have died in Murshidabad.

Severe Internet Service Failure strikes Darjeeling

Darjeeling Feb 1, 2008, 6:30 PM IST: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, the largest service provider in the nation has been struggling to provide internet linkup to the subscribers in Darjeeling. All the internet subscribers those who have taken broadband, leased line, sancharnet (dialup) and netone have suffered. The cyber cafes which solely depended on the BSNL is said to have lost numerous days without business. The banks like ICICI, HDFC, AXIS and even SBI are said to have been experiencing difficulties. Webmasters and site developers from the town have also been bracing themselves for internet blackout. The BSNL Authorities could not be reached as most of them were at Siliguri, the insiders in the department has blamed the problem on the lack of maintenance on the fibre-optic cable which rather untechnically runs from Mirik and not from Kurseong.

The Standing Committee will not come to Darjeeling - Madan Tamang

ABGL President MADAN TAMANG during a speech at Chowk Bazaar, Darjeeling Today

Darjeeling Feb. 1, 2:44 PM IST: “The Standing Committee will not come to Darjeeling,” said Madan Tamang, the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League President in a political meeting held at Chowk Bazaar Darjeeling. “I called up a member of the Standing Committee today in the morning and I was told that it has become impossible for us [Standing Committee] to come to Darjeeling due to the present Law and Order situation there. When I asked as to what kind of Law and Order Situation, he replied that the Bengal Government has said that it cannot guarantee the safety of the members of the Standing Committee. I was shocked”, Madan Tamang said to the huge crowd gathered at the Chowk Bazaar, Darjeeling. The ABGL also warned about the nexus of the Press (pointing out directly to the the Himalaya Darpan) the intelligence and the other Political Parties (read GNLF and GJM) who have been working to create unworkable environment for the working committee to come to Darjeeling. “I was reading through the Himalaya Darpan day before yesterday and I found a report which said arms had been seized at Sukhia and conspicuously in the same page was the interview of the CPRM President R.B. Rai who had said that the weapons entering the Hills must be stopped. All in all they seemingly had been successful in creating a picture of lawlessness in Darjeeling. The nexus of the Press, Intelligence and parties with allegiance to the central and the state government is visual. The result of which has been the withdrawal of the Standing Committee’s visit to Darjeeling. This is a sad development for all of us,” Tamang said. “I am afraid now that the people who had been against the Sixth Schedule and the GNLF are now talking more like the GNLF itself. Dr. Harkabahadur Chettri has said that if the Sixth Schedule is indeed implemented in Darjeeling Hills it won’t be that bad. Now they [GJM] are speaking about contesting in the [Sixth Schedule] election. We will all have to understand where things are leading to. I have always declared if you are working for Gorkhaland why are you still thinking about Sixth Schedule. We should have nothing to do about the Sixth Schedule. If these parties contest in the Sixth Schedule elections then this will be a greater betrayal than that of Subash Ghisingh. I have always been advocating a unified campaign under collective leadership which will be able to work collectively towards attaining the aspirations of the people and that is Gorkhaland. If will all go our own way, leaders will be compromised and the people will be cheated. History will repeat itself and instead of Gorkhaland something else accepted, ” Tamang said. Alleging that death threats and conspiracies against his life were being schemed in Singamari [GJM Headquarters] Tamang said, “If you want to kill me you must me ready for the consequences. I am ready to die but I will not leave you either. I will die but after doing something good for the people and the Hills.”