‘GJMM alliance of no consequence’

DARJEELING, March 29: State home secretary Mr Ashok Mohan Chakraborty today said here that the alliance between the GJMM and the pro-Kamtapuri parties was of no concern to the state government as long as they did not engage in anti-national activities. “There is nothing wrong with the alliance but we shall be compelled to take action if they resort to any anti-national activity,” he said. The GCDP and the KPP have forged an alliance with the GJMM to support the other in their respective statehood demands.

‘India can make a difference in Tibet’

Claude Apri was born in Angoulême (France) but made (Auroville) India, his home after graduating in dental surgery from Bordeaux University in 1974. His interest in the subcontinent began more than three decades ago when he journeyed to the Himalayas. Since then he has been an enthusiastic student of the history of Tibet, China and the subcontinent. Writing on Jawarharlal Nehru’s China policy has not been easy for Mr Apri, especially since all documents pertaining to Tibet are still classified, and the Nehru Papers belong to the Nehru family and Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s permission has to be obtained to access them. “The main difficulty was that the Indian archives are still closed to scholars and this despite the fact that the RTI Act was passed by the Indian Parliament in 2005.” However, that did not stop Mr Apri from writing numerous books on the subject such as The Fate of Tibet: When big insects eat small insects, le pays sacrifié, La politique française de Nehru: 1947-1954, and Born in Sin: the Panchsheel Agreement and India and Her Neighbourhood. His sources have mainly been Nehru’s own published works and documents in British and American archives. Apri is also a close friend of the Dalai Lama. In an interview with SANGEETHA NAIR, he speaks of the current situation in Tibet.
Excerpts:

Q: The Dalai Lama has often spoken of following the middle path, of not wanting independence and only seeking a ‘high-degree of autonomy’ for Tibet. Clearly, Beijing will never allow Tibet to practice a different political system. Should the dream of a sovereign Tibet be abandoned?

A: Why should the people of China not decide one day to have a more transparent, democratic system? Democracy has been percolating all over the world. Why not in China? In the 1980s, nobody had predicted that the Soviet Union would collapse so fast. The Dalai Lama recently mentioned the European model, where member-nations decided to surrender part of their sovereignty and share it with other members. While each nation keeps a large autonomy within the Union, more and more topics or subject matters come under the Union’s jurisdiction. It is a model that has brought peace and prosperity to Europe for the past 50 years. Other models can be envisaged more suited to particular circumstances and historical background. One thing is certain; a totalitarian regime has no future in the long run, especially in an era of globalisation. I would like to add that even the Chinese Constitution recognises the autonomy of the different “nationalities” within the People’s Republic of China. The Communist leadership in Beijing should first implement its own Constitution. Were they to do so, it would be a great step forward towards a long-term solution to the Tibetan issue.

Q: Reports appearing in the Western media seem to suggest that Tibet is on the path of a mass uprising against Han Chinese communist rule. As a foreigner, do you consider the West is biased in its reportage of China?

A: One cannot say that the West (or India) is biased in its reportage, because we are living in the Internet yuga (age). A Google search on “Tibetan unrest” throws up thousands of nuggets of information. It is up to people to choose which information is relevant. I think it is interesting to have different points of view on the same topic; however, it is true that the West has double standards, particularly in the economic field. Whether it is Bush or Sarkozy, most Western governments are ready to condemn Beijing, but nobody is ready to go a step further in order to not spoil opportunities of big contracts in China. I will tell you a story showing the double standard of most heads of state.

When I was 7 years old, I lived in Darjeeling, high in the Indian Himalayas . . .

It was a magical place. Snowcapped Kanchenjunga dominated the horizon when the peak shed its clouds. In spring, magnolias and rhododendrons coated the hillsides with color. Monkeys lived right in town. We rode rough little ponies instead of taxis. I went to a school named the New School, but I left India in 1946.

Fifty years later, I went back to Darjeeling with some of my old schoolfellows. Our leader approached the lady behind the desk of the Windamere Hotel and told her we were the New School party. She exclaimed, “But we expected children.” One of our gray-haired number told her, a little sadly, “We were children then.” But after that, Darjeeling took us to its heart as if we had never left. And Kanchenjunga shone on the horizon as if for us alone.

Yoma Ullman, Washington

Doc held for rape bid of Sikkimese Girl

Calcutta, March 29: A gynaecologist who started stripping after asking his patient to undress for a check-up was arrested from his Beleghata chamber yesterday on charges of molestation and attempted rape.

The patient, a 25-year-old fashion designer, had been going to Soumitra Pramanik for treatment for several months.

She did not suspect him when he asked her to remove her clothes in the deserted chamber yesterday afternoon.

“She had visited the chamber several times. When the doctor called her to his chamber, she did not find anything wrong,” said an officer of the Beleghata police station.

Pramanik had called the woman on her cellphone around 4pm and asked her to come over. “She reached the chamber and found no other patient. The doctor’s assistant was also not there,” said the officer.

“He locked the chamber door and asked me to take off my clothes. I hesitated, but he said it was needed for a thorough check-up. Although reluctant, I followed his instructions. He asked me to lie on the table,” the woman said in her complaint.

On the diagnosis table, she found the doctor’s behaviour unusual.

“He was not examining me professionally. Suddenly he went to a corner of the cham-ber and started taking off his clothes. I realised what would happen next. I got up, somehow wrapped myself with my clothes and rushed out. I ran straight to my house and narrated everything to my roommates,” she told the police.

The woman from Sikkim, who completed a fashion-designing course from the National Institute of Fashion Technology here a couple of years ago, stays as a paying guest in the same locality

Culling in West Bengal to be completed Sunday: minister

The culling operations to slaughter 40,000 poultry birds in West Bengal’s bird-flu affected Jalpaiguri district are expected to be completed by Sunday, Animal Resource Development (ARD) Minister Anisur Rahman said here.

‘We started culling in north Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district Friday. I have told my officials to complete the culling drive there by Sunday,’ Rahman told IANS Saturday.He said according to the All India Livestock Census report the culling target was set at about 40,000 chickens in Jalpaiguri.’Though the culling target is 40,000, the actual figure could vary. We have often seen that the rearing of poultry birds has significantly fallen in the rural farms after bird flu scare,’ Rahman said, adding: ‘The state ARD teams are going door to door to expedite the operation.’Culling operations, which were supposed to begin Friday morning in Jalpaiguri, were delayed due to lack of trained manpower and mandatory personal protective equipment.The fresh outbreak of bird flu was reported in Jalpaiguri March 27 after the samples of dead chickens tested positive in the High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory (HSADL), Bhopal.Over 100 chickens died in backyard poultry farms in Boalmari under Jalpaiguri Sadar sub-division, about 700 km from Kolkata.Sources said with the outbreak of bird flu in Jalpaiguri, the ARD department in adjoining Siliguri under Darjeeling district decided to disinfect vehicles entering from the flu-affected district.ARD’s Matigara block wing would launch a drive at all the entry points between Jalpaiguri and Siliguri.

Sidrapong Hydel Power Station – A glorious chapter in our history

November 10, 1897 has been an epoch making day in the history of power sector in our country, century back on this day the first hydel power station and reportedly in Asia too was commissioned at Sidrapong near Darjeeling Town, heralding the Electrical-Energy-Era in the Indian Sub-continent. On February 11, 1896 a meeting of the Municipal Commissioners of Darjeeling was held and presided over by R. T. Greer, I. C. S. the then, Deputy Commissioner of Darjeeling and the Chairman of Darjeeling Municipality. At the meeting they resolved to set up a Hydro Power Station to light up Darjeeling Town by seeking a loan of Rs. 1. Lakhs from Government. A site for the Power Station was selected at the foot of the Arya Tea Estate at Sidrapong. What was then a fine orchard of the Maharajah of Burdwan and considering the importance of the scheme in the public interest, Maharajahdiraja Sir Bijoy Chand Mahatab Bahadur, G.C.I.E.K.C.S.I., I.O.M. was pleased to make it over to the Municipality. The work of installation of power station was started immediately. The Machines and Equipment came from Britain. There being no proper road communication all the Equipment, Machinaries and construction materials had to be transported manually.

The first plant consisted of two 65 KW Crompton-Brunton Single Phase 2300 volts and 83.3 cycles alternators coupled with two Gunther’s Turbines. The country’s first Hydro-Electric Power Station with 2 x 65 KW capacity was commissioned on the 10^th November, 1897 by C. C. Stevens the then Acting Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. It is a noteworthy fact that the first power utility run on commercial basis for use of general public sector under state patronage. The total initial cost of installation of this power station had been only Rs. 1.2 Lakhs. In 1905 one 135 KW set was installed in 1909 in the same power house. The place being too small a new power house was built in 1916 at a higher location, now known as Jubilee Power House. In this way the total capacity of the station grew from 130 KW to 1000 KW. But owing to the limited supply of water the generation could not be increased to match the growing demand of the town and of the neighbouring tea gardens to run their factories with electricity. Various schemes were prepared to install larger power station elsewhere. The present installation, therefore, consist of 3 sets of 200 KW at Sidrapong power house besides one D. C. hydel generating set and 20 KW for auxiliary power.

West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB) inherited Sidrapong hydel power station by taking over the Darjeeling Electric Supply undertaking from Darjeeling Municipality on January 30, 1978. And has since been under WBSEB.