The State Government is weaving a conspiracy – R. B. Rai

Darjeeling, Feb 2 2008 8:30 PM IST: The purported withdrawal of the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s visit to Darjeeling has lead to mixed reactions from Political Parties in Darjeeling Hills. However, all have directly blamed the State Government for creating situations leading to the withdrawal of the much awaited visit of the Parliamentary Standing Committee to Darjeeling. The former Member of the Parliament and the General Secretary of Communist Party of the Revolutionary Marxists said that this was the conspiracy of the State Government. “The State Government does not care about the wishes and the aspirations of the people of Hills. The State Government has created such situations here [Darjeeling Hills] that it could use to stop the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s visit to Darjeeling. We strongly condemn this move of the State Government,” Rai said.

Baichung’s shot at business

The Statesman, Siliguri, Feb. 1: Football star Baichung Bhutia is turning to be a businessman. The 31-year-old Indian football team skipper would soon set up a highway-styled fuel station on a 1.3 bigha plot at the Siliguri Regulated Market campus at Champasari.  The State Agricultural Marketing Board has allotted the plot to Baichung’s newly formed company, ‘Free Kick Ventures Pvt. Ltd,’ at a subsidised lease rent. Other than Baichung, his wife Madhuri Tipins and a Siliguri couple are stakeholders in the company.

The football star and his wife were in Siliguri this morning and signed the lease agreement with the Siliguri Regulated Market Committee. Siliguri ADM and the market committee chairperson Mr Paritosh Roy signed the agreement on behalf of the State Agricultural Marketing Board. “The land has been leased out to Baichung’s company for 30 years and for the sole purpose of setting up a fuel station. Against that, he has paid us Rupees two lakh as one time advance and would pay Rs 25,000 as rent per annum,” Mr Roy, said.
The Indian football’s pinup boy would, however, be required to compensate the subsidised lease rent. He would play the role of brand ambassador for the marketing board’s agri-produces for the next five years. To be specific, Baichung would spare seven days a year for the next five years for the promotion, the Siliguri ADM added. It may be mentioned that the current Mohun Bagan captain, Baichung Bhutia shares a rapport with the state urban development minister and the Siliguri MLA, Asok Bhattacharya. He had campaigned for the minister in the last Assembly polls.

Give blood, know your HIV status

The Telegraph, Siliguri, Feb. 1: The National AIDS Control Organisation has framed new guidelines under which voluntary blood donors found HIV-positive will be called, counselled, tested further and, if required, offered treatment.

Till now, all collections went through unlinked anonymous testing before units contaminated with HIV or any other germ were destroyed.

“We have issued a circular to make this option available to donors from January,” said R.S. Shukla, the ex-officio secretary and project director of the West Bengal State AIDS Prevention and Control Society. “For this, counsellors have been appointed at all district-level government blood banks.”

Vaccine seizure exposes racket

The Telegraph, Siliguri, Feb. 1: The seizure of 1,800 ampoules containing poultry vaccines smuggled in from Nepal has blown the lid off a racket. [Inset photo: http://www.pacificvet.co.nz]

Officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), acting on a tip-off, stopped a Maruti van at Baghajatin Park here on Wednesday.

“We found the ampoules made in the Netherlands inside the vehicle. The driver, who was detained, revealed that he had been sent by a Nepali national to deliver the goods at the spot,” said S.K. Chakraborty, the deputy director of the DRI in Siliguri.

Sudhir Maharajan, the Nepali national who was also arrested from a hotel in Siliguri, told the officials that the consignment from the Netherlands had been received in Kathmandu from where he brought it here.

“The vaccines are smuggled into India and sold at lower rates which attract hatchery owners from across the country. This time, somebody from Chennai was supposed to take the delivery, but did not turn up,” the official said.

Made by the Dutch company, Intervet International BV, the seized ampoules contain three types of poultry vaccines — Nobilis SG9R Salmonella Gallinarium (used to check salmonella), Nobilis IB Ma5 and Nobilis IB 4/91 (both used to check infectious bronchitis). “Each ampoule contains 1,000 doses of the vaccines and the total cost of the booty seized is around Rs 20 lakh,” Chakraborty said.

Maharajan has also revealed the names of some hatcheries of north Bengal that buy the smuggled vaccines. “Our officers are verifying his statement,” the DRI official said. Both Maharajan and the driver have been sent to 14 days of jail custody by a Siliguri court.

According to animal husbandry officials in Delhi, these vaccines do not protect poultry against bird flu, as many hatchery owners thought.

Indigenously-made and imported poultry vaccines for both viral infectious bronchitis and bacterial salmonella are available in India. The Dutch vaccine, too, is sold in the country. “It is possible that vaccines that Nepal got for free are being sold in Indian clients at a very low price,” one scientist said.

Crash witness fights fear- Family organises puja to bring girl out of shock

The Telegraph, Bhatpara Tea Estate (Alipurduar), Feb. 1: Six-year-old Niki Thapa, who saw a MiG-27 crash within 35 metres of her yesterday, is still in a state of shock, prompting her family to summon the local priest to drive away her fear. [Inset: A priest touches Niki’s forehead during the puja. Picture by Anirban Choudhury]

The girl had to be admitted to hospital after the fighter plane fell on a betel nut grove where she had gone to pick flowers on her way home from school. She was shivering at the hospital and her hearing had been affected by the ear-splitting noise.

Bar Council Notice

Doubts over status hearing

The Telegraph, Darjeeling, Feb. 1 10:45 AM IST: Confusion prevails over the parliamentary standing committee’s scheduled visit to the Darjeeling hills to conduct a hearing on the Sixth Schedule status. [Photo of Sushma Swaraj : Parliamentary Affairs Dept.]

Opposition parties in the hills claim that the Standing Committee on Home Affairs is not coming here at all and put the blame on the Bengal government.

“Till yesterday morning, one of the standing committee members with whom I am in touch maintained that they would be coming. However, this morning, I came to know that they would not be making it. This is because the state government has said there is law and order problem in the hills, which is untrue,” said Madan Tamang, the president of the ABGL, an important opposition outfit in the hills.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, too, sent a fax to Sushma Swaraj, the chairperson of the standing committee, and Vice President Hamid Ansari, protesting against the cancellation of the panel’s three-day visit to Darjeeling from February 6.