The facts that have developed so far after the independence of India and the reorganisation of states on linguistic basis in 1956 and the mindless shuttling of guardianship of Darjeeling Hills from Nepal to Sikkim, Sikkim to East India Company, East India Company to the British Crown, the British Crown to Indian Republic, the Indian Republic to Bengal, then Assam, then Bihar (under Bhagalpur District) and then ultimately back to Bengal has lead to the present ‘identity crisis’ amongst the populace residing in the hills. Bengal could have treated Darjeeling Hills with care and paternal love instead of converting the once Summer Capital of British Indian Empire into a cheap holiday resort and ultimately into a Colony. The facts are there to support this so called ‘presumptions’ and Bengal can no longer hide her face in the shadow. Of the 3 Crores that the Government loses each day during a hill bandh, the State and the Centre merely invests 30 Crores per year. This means that the entire Darjeeling Hills are worth Rs. 3 Crores in taxes, duties, revenues, human and natural resources per day making a gross total of Rs. 1095 crores per year, while the State and the Central Government budget for the region amounts to only Rs. 30 crores: a mere 36.5:1 ratio. Further, if a common man was to be explained, this simply means that while a single hard working individual from the Hills puts in Rs. 36.5 Rupees into the State and Union Exchequer the two Governments collectively puts a mere Rupee coin back into his pocket. The private enterprises and business conglomerates in the region are also parties to this Business of Exploitation.
If the Business of Exploitation by the Government and the private enterprises were not enough there have been veiled attempts to restrict development in the Hills. The Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council with its mismanagement, misappropriations and short-sighted policies also has a great role to play in this misfortune of the people.
Business of Exploitation
Tea Industry
The Tea Industry is Darjeeling dates back to 1840. By 1856 the tea industry was firmly established in the district as a commercial enterprise. The tea industry in the Hills is mostly controlled by private interests. There are presently 84 tea gardens of which 18 have remained closed for several years. The Tea Trading Corporation of India, a public sector enterprise under Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India is operating two tea gardens and the West Bengal Tea Development Corporation, a State Government undertaking is presently operating one tea garden. The rest of the tea gardens are in the possession of private enterprises or individuals.
National Production of Tea
1.The total turnover of the tea industry is around Rs. 10,000 crores.
2.Since independence tea production has grown over 250%, while land area has just grown by 40%.
3.There has been a considerable increase in export too in the past few years. Total net foreign exchange earned per annum is around Rs. 1847 crores.
4.The labour intensive tea industry directly employs over 1.1 million workers and generates income for another 10 million people approximately. Women constitute 50% of the workforce.
The Reality in Darjeeling Hills
In Darjeeling Hills, the Tea Industry is worth more than 500 crores yet it receives merely an investment of Rs. 1 crore per year. The Common Minimum Wage paid to the labourers per week is hardly more than Rs. 200 making the monthly wage less than Rs. 1000. It would not be a furlong presumption either to say that the Darjeeling Tea auctions at around 15,000 per kg in the international market. Read the rest of this entry »
Subash Ghisingh’s enigmatic rise in the parleys of politics in the Hills in an era when the Communist Party of India - Marxist ruled Darjeeling Hills like a small fiefdom was a result of a calculated game plan of the Central Government, the State Governments of West Bengal and Sikkim and of course the powers to be then, the emerging industrial giants eying for the cheap lands available in the Dooars and Terai of the Darjeeling Hills.
The Gorkhaland Agitation that was spearhead by Subash Ghisingh was the aspiration of every individual in the Hills including those of Dooars and Terai yet the result of it was nothing but 1200 dead, thousands missing and a generation wounded. The Hill Affairs Department merely renamed Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council and there took place merely a change of guard from Dawa Lama to Subash Ghisingh. The entire thing was such an eye wash that both Hill Affairs Department and the DGHC received the same amount of finance – 30 Crores– Rs. 20 Crores from the Centre and Rs. 10 Crores from the State. One can only wonder whether the blood of the innocent was worth it. Now that the DGHC is on its way out, isn’t history repeating itself? The controversial and popularly rejected Sixth Schedule Amendment Bill will be placed in the Budget Session of the Parliament. The possibilities remain that it may even be passed by the end of the Session being implemented within two to three months. An Interim Council by the name and style of Gorkha Hill Council Darjeeling will be formed and an IAS officer given the responsibility of holding the election within a period of six months. If one looks closely at the circle of developments, the refusal of the Parliamentary Standing Committee to visit Darjeeling, Subash Ghisingh’s entrapment at Pintail Village and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s call for indefinite strike, mass ‘fast unto death’ and Subash Ghisingh’s Gherao – all events and incidents like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle have after falling into places led merely to the earlier and definite rectification of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Subash Ghisingh may no longer be able to enter into Darjeeling Hills but the arrow that he had shot might have just reached the bull’s eye, people or no people, he has been able to do what he had always set out to – revert the 21st century into a primitive era of Chaang drinking tribal extracts where once noble, fashionable, liberal and educated Hill people dwelt. The King might be dead and on the run but his legacy might not be very easy to shake off, perhaps even impossible once it filters down on to this earth and nurtures the soil with dividends of divisionism. The King is Dead! Long Live the King!
SILIGURI, Feb. 24: Beginning tomorrow, vehicles hailing from Sikkim are also coming under the ambit of the GJMM’s indefinite Darjeeling bandh, which is underway since 20 February. According to the GJMM general secretary, Mr Roshan Giri, the party activists have been instructed not to allow any vehicle to ply along the NH31A to Sikkim from early morning tomorrow. Until today, the GJMM had kept the vehicles with Sikkim registration number out of the bandh, while vehicles with West Bengal numbers were barred from plying between Siliguri and Sikkim. The NH31A is the only road link that connects Sikkim to the rest of the country via Siliguri and a sizeable stretch of the arterial road falls in Kalimpong sub-division of the Darjeeling hills. The fresh GJMM diktat means, beginning tomorrow there would be no vehicles plying to and from Sikkim. In another development, the GJMM has relaxed the indefinite bandh in the cinchona and tea plantations in the hills for a week beginning tomorrow. This, the agitating Hill party say, has been done keeping in mind the plight of the plantation workers.
Left Front peace rally
The district Left Front today brought out a huge public rally from Baghajatin Park in Siliguri in support of peace in the Darjeeling hills and a harmonious relationship between all communities in the region. The rally marched up to the Air View More and then returned via Sevoke Road-Bidhan Road. [The Statesman]
Kalimpong, Feb. 24: Darjeeling MLA Pranai Rai’s suggestion to hold a referendum on the Sixth Schedule for the hills has been well received more by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha than by his colleagues in the GNLF, at least in Kalimpong.
While most GNLF leaders we spoke to refused to go on record, Kalimpong MLA Gaulan Lepcha brushed aside the suggestion.
“Why should there be a referendum now when the people have already given their verdict in favour of Sixth Schedule in the last Assembly election,” said Lepcha.
The three-time MLA said his single-point poll plank had been Sixth Schedule status, and the people had voted overwhelmingly for him. .
Given that there are no takers within the GNLF for a referendum, it appears Rai was speaking in his individual capacity. Or, probably, he is trying to wriggle his way out of the party, having seen the writing on the wall, said an observer.
The Morcha, on its part, said it would always welcome a referendum.
“In fact, this has been our demand right from the beginning. It was the state government and the GNLF who were not in favour of holding a referendum,” said Harka Bahadur Chettri, central committee member of the Morcha. He felt that by floating such an idea so late in the day, Rai could be trying to gain the goodwill of the people and, maybe, even leave the party. [The Telegraph]
Darjeeling, Feb. 24: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has managed to garner majority support in the Darjeeling Municipality after two GNLF councillors today switched allegiance.
Ramesh Chhetri, councillor of Ward 22 told reporters that he was joining the Morcha. “I had some personal problems because of which I could not join the Morcha earlier. Now I can and I am not under any pressure,” he said.
Apart from Chhetri, the councillor of Ward 26, Nirmala Ghalay, also resigned from the GNLF. He has conveyed the message in a letter to Bimal Gurung, the Morcha president.
Deepak Gurung, the president of the GNLF Darjeeling Branch Committee, said he was unaware of the development.
Following today’s development, the Morcha now enjoys a thin majority of 15 councillors against the GNLF’s 13. However, the Morcha will not be able to form the civic board immediately, as the state government is yet to give its opinion on the election that was held to elect a new chairman on February 16.
At that time, 15 councillors elected Pema Yolmo from the GNLF as their chairman. Darjeeling district magistrate Rajesh Pandey had sent a copy of the resolution to the director of local bodies and the principal secretary, municipal affairs, for their opinion as the election was held in the absence of an observer.
The Morcha leaders, too, are waiting for the government’s report.
If the government nullifies the election, the Morcha would be in a position to form the board in Darjeeling but if it is upheld then the party would have to wait for another six months. Under the Bengal Municipality Act, there must be a six-month gap before a no-confidence motion can be moved. Read the rest of this entry »
Dagapur (Siliguri), Feb. 24: Nine more Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters today joined the 11 protesters who have been on hunger strike here since Thursday even as the Darjeeling district Left Front brought out a peace rally in Siliguri this afternoon. Over 4,000 people had participated in the rally.
“The fast will continue at Dagapur along with similar agitation programmes that are on outside the subdivisional offices at Kurseong, Kalimpong and Darjeeling,” said Roshan Giri, the Morcha general secretary, who visited the spot.
“Two of the protesters have developed chest and renal problems. Doctors attending to them have advised hospitalisation but they have refused. Around 120 supporters are on hunger strike at the moment,” he said.
In Jalpaiguri district’s Birpara, 11 Morcha supporters, who were on a 28-hour hunger strike since yesterday, withdrew their agitation at three this afternoon.
“Our intention was to express support in favour of those on fast in Darjeeling district, fighting for the demand of a separate state. We wanted to prove that the seven lakh-odd Gorkhas residing in the Dooars are in support of a separate state,” said Madhukar Thapa, a central committee member of the Morcha.
“We are in contact with the central committee and have decided to organise rallies across the Dooars over the next four-five days.”
In Siliguri, Left Front leaders and supporters assembled at Baghajatin Park after bringing out a rally.
“We want peace and harmony among people of different communities residing in the district, be it plains or the hills,” state urban development minister and district front convener Asok Bhattacharya said.
“A section of evil forces had tried to create tension in Siliguri on September 28 last year but was successfully thwarted by us. Similar vile efforts are on and they need to be foiled again,” he added.
CPM state secretariat member Jibitesh Sarkar, however, was more aggressive. “Common people residing in the hills and plains are in favour of the Sixth Schedule,” he said.
“It is time to resist forces that are into an undemocratic and violent movement. We would like to reassert that whether a common man or a political leader, everybody has the right to travel to the hills.”
The leader was referring to the shifting of the CPM district conference from the hills to Siliguri after the Morcha threatened to call an indefinite bandh if chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee attended it.
Earlier, the rally travelled through Hill Cart Road and Sevoke Road before ending at the park from where it had started. [The Telegraph]
Darjeeling/Kurseong, Feb. 24: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today decided to keep for a week the tea gardens and the cinchona plantation outside the purview of the indefinite bandh. [Inset: Morcha supporters burn an effigy of Ghisingh in Darjeeling. (Suman Tamang)]
“The party has decided to let gardens and cinchona plantations remain open for the next seven days. After that, the bandh will resume in the plantations,” said Binay Tamang, press and publicity secretary of the Morcha.
Although this is the lean season, the 87 Darjeeling gardens still employ 55,000 permanent workers during the period. In the plucking season, which starts from mid-March, the gardens take an equal number of temporary workers.
The cinchona plantation has bagged orders of Rs 20 crore for this year. It is the biggest public sector undertaking in the hills and provides sustenance to around 40,000 people.
While work at the cinchona plantation had come to a grinding halt following the indefinite bandh that started on February 20, 12 of the 87 tea gardens had carried on with normal work.
Apart from essential services, the Morcha has exempted educational institutes from the bandh. The protesters today gathered at Chowrastha in Darjeeling and burnt the effigies of Subash Ghisingh and Shanta Chhetri, the GNLF MLA from Kurseong. The supporters later brought out a torch rally in the town. Read the rest of this entry »
Feb. 24: The Bengal chief minister has invited all opposition parties in the hills for a meeting in the capital on February 26. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has refused to be part of the team although three of its leaders will be heading to Delhi. [Inset: Morcha supporters burn Ghisingh’s effigy in Kalimpong. Picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha]
“They will meet the Opposition leaders and will seek an appointment with the Prime Minister,” said Binay Tamang, the press and publicity secretary of the Morcha. He said the party had earlier attended a meeting with the state government in Calcutta and was interested in talks provided such a discussion was held in Darjeeling.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s invitation was conveyed to the hill parties by Darjeeling district magistrate Rajesh Pandey.
“The Darjeeling situation is worrisome. I appeal to those who are on hunger strike to withdraw it. I also invite them for a discussion after they end the fast,” said Bhattacharjee in Calcutta before leaving for the CPMpolitburo meeting in Delhi. Sources in the CPM said Bhattacharjee would like to meet the Morcha leadership after his return to the city.
At an all-party meeting convened by the BJP in Darjeeling yesterday, it was decided that representative of six parties, except the Morcha, would meet Bhattacharjee in Delhi.
G.S. Yonzone, president, BJP (hills), said the delegation would be apprising the chief minister on the situation in the hills and demand the scraping of the Sixth Schedule status bill. The GNLF and the CPM had not attended the meeting. Read the rest of this entry »
