First General Meeting of Gorkha Welfare Society, New Delhi

New Delhi, March 09: A general body meeting of Gorkha Welfare Society was held at Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi, wherein Gorkhas from different parts of the county joined hands for a common purpose of creating social awareness among the Gorkha community. This is the first time that a Gorkha Welfare Society is being proposed to be made in the capital – New Delhi representing and for the welfare of Gorkhas from all India.

Col. Ramesh Allay, from Kalimpong presided the meeting wherein he described this meet as a historical meet as Gorkhas from different parts of country were present to discuss the social and educational upliftment of our community.

Mr. Binu Sundas, a research scholar in HIV from J.N.U.  extended his unconditional help for admission in colleges and other educational matters. He also extended his help to set up a Gorkha Help Desk at the time of admission in different colleges in Delhi just as the North Eastern students have a help desk.

Ms. Jyoti Thapa Mani, Design Director, Business Words, and Gorkha Heritage Research Scholar gave a brief introduction about Gorkha history and extended her selfless help for the upliftment of Gorkha community.

She also emphasized highlighting the developmental and importance of Darjeeling in International media.

She suggested that the Gorkha Welfare Society could take up the matter of neglect of Darjeeling Hills and the world heritage sites in and around Darjeeling to help the inhabitants of Darjeeling which are mostly Gorkhas. In particular she emphasized highlighting.

1. Site of world famous “Darjeeling Tea” .
2. Proposed World Heritage Site for “Kanchenjunga National Park”
3. Darjeeling Railways, a world heritage site recognized by UNESCO ‘The first and only world heritage site in North – Eastern India.

Rashmi Dewan, Deputy General Manager, Reliance Energy, suggested organizing cultural programs and sports activities so that more of our youth get recognition and the Gurkhas are seen not just as “guards”. We should promote/sponsor and help scout talent amongst out youth and give them a platform to showcase their talents.

The Gorkha Society should also honour and highlight the achievements of Gorkhas in our community who are doing great work eg – Ms.Jyotsna Sitling – IFS (Forest Services) recipient of  Ms. Jyotsna Sitling getting the Indira Gandhi Parayavaran Awards for environment protection in the individual category this year for her work in preserving the bio-diversity of the Valley of Flowers.

Also talk about and recognize the playwright who has just last year won the National Award for his script. We need to have funds to be able to promote and help deserving candidates.

It was decided that the Gorkha Welfare Society will soon get registered in order to make it a legal entity Mr. Mahendra Gautam has kindly consented to help with the paper work regarding the registration.

With the consent of about 83 members present the following members were handed the following responsibilities on ad-hoc basis.

Treasurer:

 Y.K. Shrestha,

Managing Partner,

Connect Pro Management Consultants,

Delhi

 

Advisor:

Col. Ramesh Allay

Rashmi Dewan,

General Manager, Reliance Energy

 Jyoti Thapa,

Design Director, Business Words, and Gorkha Heritage Research Scholar

 Samdup Wangdi (Sandy),

Govt. Employee

 Swaroop Chamling,

London, U.K.

Primula Bhandari,

Director,

Reliance Insurance, North Bengal Region.

Nisha Chettri,

Free lance Photographer,

Mahendra Gautam,

Retention Manager,

Vodafone, Delhi

Binu Sundas,

Research Scholar in HIV from J.N.U. 

Barun Roy,

Administrator, Editor

www.beacononline.wordpress.com

www.darjeelingtimes.com

Editor – Darjeeling Times – English Monthly Magazine

 

Executive Body:

Niel Rana

Kiran Rai

Raju Chettri

Roshan Sundas,

Kamal Pradhan,

Samir Joshi,

Bishal Rai ‘Kirath’

Ignou to offer new course

Siliguri, March 10: Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) is planning to start a certificate course on sericulture for students of north Bengal, keeping local needs in mind.

Pro-vice-chancellor of Ignou D.K. Choudhury told a news conference here today that a 52-hour programme for skill and personality development would also start in Siliguri, which was recently upgraded to a regional centre.

According to Choudhury, with diversification in career options, more and more students are opting for non-traditional and need-based courses on the distance education mode. “Over the years, we have seen a rapid rise in the number of students enrolling for courses which are new in concept and offer a variety of career options.”

Ignou offers courses like advanced certificate in power distribution management and certificate courses in disaster management, environmental studies, food and nutrition, human rights, nutrition and childcare, consumer protection, rural development and food safety among others.

“In north Bengal, where we have 17 learning centres, courses like disaster management and tourism studies are extremely popular,” said Choudhury. “We have a sizeable number of students who are employed. Professionals are keen to take up the courses which are related to their careers and help them achieve an extra edge,” he pointed out.

Ignou will also offer a certificate online course on Nazrul Geeti vocal music and sports medicine, the pro-VC said. On the growing popularity of long-distance courses, Choudhury said: “When we started offering distance education in 1987, we had only 4,000 students. Now, we have 15 lakh students from 1,800 study centres all over the world.” [The Telegraph]

Song & dance to celebrate step-down- One ‘hurdle’ less in statehood path

Women supporters of the Morcha celebrate in Kalimpong. Picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha

March 10: The news that Subash Ghisingh has quit after 20 years was confirmed after 3pm. And then the frenzy started. Till then what had been a mute celebration in the Darjeeling hills turned into intense sloganeering and dancing on the streets.

In Darjeeling, almost every musical instrument, from madals (traditional instruments) to dholaks, came out of the shelves with women supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha singing and swaying to popular Nepali tunes.

The crowd soon organised itself into a procession, which snaked its way through the town bursting crackers and waving Morcha flags before assembling at Chowrastha.

For the next one hour, people danced to pro-Gorkhaland songs and waited for Morcha president Bimal Gurung to arrive at the venue.

“This is the fruit of the people’s struggle. We will make merry and celebrate the day after tomorrow also,” said Gurung, who arrived at 6pm. He did not specify the place of the celebration. “We must not forget our goal, which is Gorkhaland. At the moment, we are just removing hurdles but our struggle must continue,” he added.

Ghisingh quits, split in party

March 10: GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh today resigned as caretaker administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), ending a 20-year rule that had swiftly lost popular support in the last few months because of its failure to push the statehood demand.

In the Assembly, three GNLF legislators raised the demand for Gorkhaland during mention hour and staged a walkout. Later, two of them — Pranay Rai and Gaulan Lepcha — told reporters that they had resigned from their party and formed a group called GNLF (Rebels).

The third MLA, Shanta Chhetri, said she would remain with the GNLF.

Ghisingh, down with a flu, signed and handed over the resignation letter addressed to Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to Darjeeling district magistrate and DGHC principal secretary Rajesh Pandey at the WBSEDCL Inspection Bungalow at Second Mile off Sevoke Road in Siliguri around 11.10am.

“I cannot speak on the content of the letter. I will forward it to the state government,” Pandey said after coming out of the bungalow where the GNLF chief has been staying since March 6.

In Calcutta later in the day, the chief minister said he had received Ghisingh’s resignation letter and accepted it. He added that Jalpaiguri divisional commissioner B.L. Meena would take over as the DGHC caretaker administrator tomorrow.

A source revealed that the 10-line resignation letter, drafted by Pandey upon Ghisingh’s instruction, mentioned that the GNLF chief was eligible to continue in the post till March 24. “He has said in the letter that considering the current state of affairs in the hills and a request from the chief minister, he preferred to step down,” the source said.

The district magistrate said the GNLF leader would continue to get Z-category security cover from the state.

The septuagenarian leader stayed away from reporters. “He is likely to leave for Darjeeling on Thursday and is expected to talk to the media before that,” the source said.

This is the first time since the formation of the DGHC in 1988 that Ghisingh is not in any administrative post of the council. “All these years, he was very busy with administrative duties,” said Dawa Pakhrin, the president of the Kalimpong branch of the GNLF. “From today, he is free and can devote more time to the party. We expect a meeting soon where our future course of action to fight for a separate state will be planned.”

However, leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, currently spearheading the movement for Gorkhaland, said Ghisingh would find it difficult to garner support in the hills. [The Telegraph]