GJM Delhi branch to hold protest rally in New Delhi

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Delhi branch has decided to organize a protest rally on 24th April 2008 against the recent human rights violation by the West Bengal police atrocities in Siliguri during the peace march by the Ex-Serviceman.

These types of racial atrocities only seem to be a back lash in the Gorkhaland hills if such ethnic violence does not end.

India is a land of diverse culture and ethnicity but these types of incidents only seems to trigger violence among the minority class through the use of force.

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Delhi branch requests every one to be present and express their support to the cause of Gorkhaland

Political solution to Darjeeling imbroglio?

By Shyamal Sarkar

THE POLITICAL mosaic in the hills of Darjeeling has undergone a sea change. The fledgling Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha is in absolute command and has wrested both influence and power over the hill people from the ageing supremo of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), Subhas Ghisingh who ran the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) as his fiefdom for over two decades.

While the GNLF resorted to road blocks and indefinite bandhs from the very beginning of its bloody agitation in the lush green hills and went into armed confrontations with the police, CRPF and the CPI (M), the Morcha, though its has taken a leaf out of the GNLF book, seems to be more inclined towards achieving their demand of a separate state of Gorkhaland through negotiations.

The Morcha President Bimal Gurung, a one time middle ranking leader of the GNLF broke away and formed the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha. In six months it became a force to reckon with when it took on Subhas Ghisingh and his powerful GNLF. Morcha members went for the jugular straightaway by stopping Ghisingh from climbing the hills after a visit to New Delhi for talks on bringing Darjeeling under the Sixth Schedule.

Roads were blocked and Ghisingh was virtually gheraoed when he was forced to put up in Pintail village in the foothills of Siliguri. He remained confined for nearly a week before leaving for Kolkata hoping that the Left Front government would intervene.

The Morcha had two basic demands at that stage. One that Ghisingh step down immediately as caretaker administrator of the DGHC and that Darjeeling should not be brought under the Sixth Schedule.

NA elected Speaker, deputy Speaker

THIMPHU: Jigme Tshultim has been elected as the National Assembly Speaker and Yangkhu Tshering Sherpa has been elected as the Deputy Speaker. They were elected through a secret ballot in the National Assembly Monday. Jigme Tshultim secured 46 yes votes and one no vote. Yangkhu Tshering Sherpa got 47 yes votes. Jigme Tshultim graduated with a bachelor’s degree in arts from St. Joseph’s College in Darjeeling, India. He underwent post graduate studies in Public Administration at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. Over a career spanning 32 years, he has served as the Managing Director of Tourism Corporation, Dzongda in Paro, Samtse, and Monger, Chief of Protocol in the Foreign Affairs Ministry and Ambassador of Bhutan to Bangladesh. Yangkhu Tshering Sherpa graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Dzongkha from Sherubtse College in Kanglung. He served as a Dzongkha teacher for more than 15 years before he resigned to join politics.  Between 1992 and 1996, he taught in Trashigang and admitted himself to Sherubtse College for graduation. [South Asian Media Net]

The last Shikar

Arjun Singh moved soundlessly across the edge of the glade , in camouflage clothing making sure he was not seen . He had been waiting for hours. Finally the tigress emerged from the cave and lay down ,

Two cubs came from behind and  jumped on her in mock attack . Arjun took his shot , several of them with his Cannon EOS digital and slowly backed away .

The pictures would make the front page  in Life magazine .

Arjun Singh was the most famous wildlife photographer  in recent years . A scion of a royal family from Rajasthan, his family was famous for its hunting prowess .

With a deep shame Arjun remembered his grandfather bragging about shooting down three tigers in one  day from the back of his favourite elephant .

And yet with all the hunting  the Maharajahs and the British Viceroys  did  ,there  used to be over a 100,000 tigers left in India one hundred years ago .

.

There has been a plague upon our  tigers in the form of unending appetites for their tiger parts by the Chinese .

The advent of Viagara has changed nothing . The money is so tempting that poachers have been multiplying faster than Al Queda .

Arjun was about to turn 45 and quite wealthy , From a very young age he had sworn to work for the tigers of India , to let them survive and multiply .

No one on earth knew or suspected that he had an alternate mission in life ,. Only his childhood servant Vishwanath  knew . The secret was well kept .

For Arjun Singh was a hunter of men . Because of his profession , he was always seen with his big backpack and camera equipment . Nobody suspected that the backback carried a case within which was the most sophisticated rifle with silencer , ..in four parts.. which Arjun by now could assemble with eyes closed .

15-day extension for GJMM

SILIGURI, April. 22: Contrary to apprehensions, the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha has agreed to depose before the one-man inquiry commission set up to probe the 9 April lathi-charge against the ex-servicemen at Darjeeling More in Siliguri. The GJMM has sought a 15-day extension of the deposition period. The commission accepted the GJMM proposal and would sit again in the first week of May. The GJMM secretary and spokesman Mr Roshan Giri accompanied by ex-servicemen arrived at the Siliguri circuit house, the venue of deposition and sought the extension after meeting Mr ML Meena, principal secretary, department of environment and in charge of the probe. Reiterating the demand for a CBI probe into the 9 April incident Mr Giri, said that they have received the deposition intimation on 19 April from the Darjeeling district magistrate. “The deposition started on 20 April and was initially fixed for two days. It was extended by a day in view of the 21 April Trinamul Congress bandh. We should be given sufficient time for the issue involved is a very serious one. Under the circumstances the GJMM has sought a 15-day extension of the deposition period,” Mr Giri informed. Slamming the police for the lathi-charge, Mr NK Gurung, a retired Colonel and an eyewitness to the incident said that police ferocity on 9 April was incredible. “The law enforcers assaulted the ex-servicemen selectively,” he alleged. On behalf of the commission, the additional district magistrate, Darjeeling, Mr PK Chettri, who is assisting Mr Meena in the probe, said that they accepted the extension proposal. “We have time up to 15 May. There is no difficulty in sitting again in the first week of May to receive the GJMM depositions”. “We would submit the report to the state chief secretary any day after 15 May,” he added. [The Statesman]

Khelgaon by April 2009

Gangtok, April 22: A synthetic running track, a football ground of “international size” and training centres for athletes will be included in a sports complex in Sikkim that will be completed by April next year. Chief minister Pawan Chamling laid the foundation stone for the Rs 40-crore Khelgaon Complex today.

The complex is being built at Reshithang, about 10km below Gangtok. The Union sports and youth affairs ministry sanctioned the project and Rs 22.89 crore in the last financial year.

The Sikkim government has acquired 12 acres of land for the purpose and a nearby plot of 100 acres will be taken later. The National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) will construct the complex.

The project will be built in four phases. “In the initial phase, eight synthetic lanes each having 400-metre length will be laid encircling a football field of international size,” said A. K. Vasisth, the general manager of the NBCC. “Additional facilities like galleries and training centres will be constructed later.”

Chamling said the government has plans to make Khelgaon a complex of “international standard”. “We are developing infrastructure and creating assets for people who should utilise these and be custodians for its upkeep.”

The length and width of a football ground for international matches are in the range of 100-110m and 64-75m respectively.

According to the chief minister, a museum will also be set up at Sherathang near Nathu-la to present the history of Colonel Younghusband’s mission to Tibet via Nathu-la in 1904.

The government has also acquired 12 acres of land at Sokeythang on the outskirts of Gangtok for an amusement park comprising a children’s park, library and a culture hub. The place will be developed as a tourist spot. [The Telegraph]

Next march to Dzongu soon

Kalimpong, April 22: A Lepcha youth association in Kalimpong has decided to organise another march to Dzongu some time soon as part of its protests against the setting up of mega hydel power projects there.

The Rong Ong Prongzom will also take up the cause of Dzongu with like-minded organisations in different parts of the country. “Medha Patkar (activist) has invited us to take part in a joint dharna against the Land-Acquisition Bill, 2007 and the Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2007 in New Delhi from April 28 to 30. During our stay in the capital, we will interact with representatives of different organisations from various parts of the country who are expected to take part in the dharna,” said Dorjee Lepcha, the president of the association.

The proposed march comes close on the heels of the recent aborted pilgrimage-on-foot to Dzongu that was undertaken by the Lepchas of the Darjeeling hills and Sikkim. The residents of the hill state turned hostile and the Sikkim government persuaded the marchers to turn back.

Unlike the previous march, which began at Tribeni, the confluence of the Teesta and Rangit, 16km from here, the next march will start from Rangpo on the Bengal-Sikkim border. [The Telegraph]

New syllabus for GRP

Siliguri, April 22: Identification of bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and ways to defuse them have been included in this year’s annual sensitisation workshop for Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel in north Bengal.

In the wake of the recent blasts at Champasari and the recovery of several kilograms of explosives from three sites, the force’s Siliguri division has included new subjects in the four-day workshop, which began today at the office of the superintendent of the GRP.

The other new topics include sensitisation on trafficking, new laws and amendments, crimes against women, how to interrogate criminals, detection of frauds relating to railway tickets and safety of passengers.

“The aim is to make the GRP personnel aware of their duties. Specialists in different subjects will explain to the police what they should do and what they should not when they are performing their duties,” said Rabindramoni Gurung, the deputy superintendent of the GRP’s Siliguri division.

Besides 20 GRP personnel, representatives of different NGOs are also taking part in the workshop.

The Siliguri division currently guards about 1,200km of tracks from Farakka in Malda to the Sankosh on the Assam-Bengal border. [The Telegraph]

CPM lines up job campaign

Siliguri, April 22: The DYFI and SFI, the youth and student wings of the CPM, have decided to launch an intensive campaign on job opportunities available in Siliguri and the hills to make people aware that a volatile political situation would affect growth.

The idea is to send a message to the youths in the Darjeeling hills, said Shankar Ghosh, the district secretary of the DYFI. “If the total workforce engaged in emerging sectors like IT, tourism, retail and hospitality industries of the region are considered, more than 70 per cent of the employees are from the hills. Any political tension that persists over months is bound to affect this overall development process, which includes the creation of job opportunities.”

The CPM units were hinting at the political turmoil that has hit the hills in the past few months over the revival of the Gorkhaland demand. The plains, especially Siliguri and the Dooars, too, have not been spared. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, spearheading the new agitation, wants both these areas to be made part of the new state that it is demanding.

Call to workers to join hands- Forget party affiliation and come together for Gorkhaland, says Morcha leader

Kurseong, April 22: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has called upon all government employees owing allegiance to CPM and Congress-dominated associations to join the new coordination committee in the hills and work together for a separate state of Gorkhaland.

“The Janmukti Employees’ Coordination Committee has been formed to create a common platform for members of different employees’ unions and associations. The two biggest ’ unions — the Hill Employees’ Association and the Hill Employees and Workers’ Trade Union — have already agreed to join hands at a meeting called by us,” said Pradeep Pradhan, the vice-president of the Morcha.

“The associations dominated by the CPM and the Congress have failed to fulfil the aspirations of the hill employees. Since the members of these two unions are also Gorkhas, they should join the coordination committee to strengthen the unity of the hill people,” Pradhan added.

Panel head to be back in May

Siliguri, April 22: The one-man commission probing the lathicharge on a rally of ex-servicemen at Darjeeling More on April 9 has agreed to be back here next month to hear more witnesses. M.L. Meena, who heads the panel, has heard 20 people in the three-day hearing that ended today.

A team of ex-servicemen, led by Roshan Giri, the general secretary of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, met Meena at the Siliguri circuit house today. “We have requested him to give us more time, so that we can ask all our members to depose before the commission. The chairman has agreed,” Giri said. [Inset: The ex-servicemen and Morcha leaders at the circuit house on Tuesday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo]

The Morcha leader claimed that the former jawans had received the letter for appearing before the commission from the Darjeeling district magistrate’s office on April 19. “It was not possible for us to appear within the short period.”

Meena visited Kalimpong and Algarah yesterday and met a few ex-servicemen at the Kalimpong circuit house. “I met Dhanbahadur Rai, who is currently recuperating at a nursing home at Algarah,” said Meena. He also met D.B.Thakuri, D.K. Gautam and Rikiraj Gajmer, the three former soldiers who were hurt during the lathicharge, Meena said. “I have decided to give them more time so that they can depose according to their convenience,” Meena said after the meeting. “I will be back here in the first week of May,” he added.

Varsity ‘hospital’ to restore history

Siliguri, April 22: If the painting that you had inherited from your great-grandfather has blackened over the years or termites are feeding on the newspapers of pre-Independence period, don’t scratch your head.

You can soon take them to a “hospital” and get them restored — just as you get cured when you are ill. [Inset: The Akshay Kumar Maitreya Heritage Museum]

After a preliminary round of discussion between the Intach Indian Council of Conservation Institutes (IICCI) and North Bengal University, it has been decided that both will work towards setting up such a centre at the varsity. The IICCI is run by the Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (Intach).

“We have agreed to collaborate in setting up such a centre at the Akshay Kumar Maitreya Heritage Museum on the campus,” said vice-chancellor Arunabha Basumajumdar. “A proposal came from them and we readily agreed because we want to upgrade and expand our museum. We have already started preparing a master-plan,” he added.

Basumajumdar said a committee has been formed to work on the master plan. “We want to diversify the role of our museum. It will not just be a centre where rare collections are displayed, but a place for study and research as well. It should also serve as a link with the community.”

“There is no such conservation centre in north Bengal despite the fact that the region is a rich storehouse of artefacts,” said O.P. Agarwal, the director general of the IICCI. “A conservation centre is like a hospital where anybody can take their damaged artefacts and get them restored to the original form. The services will be against a payment, the amount of which will be decided later,” he added.

A tie-up will also help in starting a department of museology which will offer diploma and degree courses. “We have also offered the university faculty-members for the courses,” said Kanchana Mukhopadhyay, co-ordinator of the Kolkata Art Conservation Centre run by Intach.

“Even today, north Bengal has a lot of objects of the Pala and Sena dynasties buried under earth. Many homes have objects that are of tremendous interest to conservationists. We plan to create awareness among the people of the need to protect artefacts through preventive and curative conservation,” said Mukhopadhyay.

As the first step, IICCI today began a three-day workshop on preventive conservation of art objects at NBU.

The workshop was attended by people from different walks of life, including students and librarians.

While the preventive conservation is to ensure that art objects are protected, the curative conservation is the restoration of the damaged ones. [The Telegraph]

Green brakes on tourist hotspots

Siliguri, April 22: The new environment directive is expected to cut down on reckless growth of tourist destinations that is threatening to spoil the beauty of north Bengal’s green tracts, foresters believe.

The directive states that all hotels, resorts and even tents for tourists within a kilometre of forest areas will have to apply afresh for the state pollution control board’s permission to continue operations. The PCB will give the permission only after consulting the tourism department. Those within the forest area will have to get the forest department’s approval first.

“Earlier, if anybody owned a plot close to the reserve forests and wanted to build a five star hotel there for instance, we had no law to stop them. At least, now there is a notification and the PCB can withhold permission,” said S.B. Patel, the chief conservator of forests (north Bengal). He said destinations like Lataguri, close to Gorumara National Park, and Lava, one of the entry points to Neora Valley National Park, are becoming crowded by the day (see chart).

Red panda stars in 15-minute film

Siliguri, April 22: The shy and reclusive red panda faces the camera once again, having won 11 international awards in its very first screen appearance.

This time, the endangered species will appear in a yet-to-be-named short film by the Association for Conservation and Tourism (ACT) that aims to showcase north Bengal and Sikkim’s rare asset in front of a global audience.

“Our film is about the community’s role in red panda conservation,” Ajoy Roy, the director, said about the film, which is in the post-production stage. “ACT is promoting the region surrounding the red panda habitat as a separate tourism circuit. The aim is to help the local people find alternative revenue-generation sources so that they are motivated in conserving the habitat.”

About four years ago, the Bedi twins — Ajay and Vijay — were the first to make a documentary film, Cherub of the Mist, on the red pandas of the region. The film was aired on Animal Planet and created history of sorts by bagging 11 international awards, including the Green Oscar.

Roy has shot the docile, cuddly animal at the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Darjeeling, which runs Asia’s only red panda conservation project through captive breeding. Over the years, several zoo-bred red pandas have been released into the wild.

The 15-minute film will be screened worldwide, Roy said, after it is premiered at Hee in West Sikkim, where parts of it were shot. The film also focuses on the other two major red panda habitats: Singalila Wildlife Sanctuary and Neora Valley National Park.

“The relationship between the community and the animal — be it the way they are taken care of at the zoo or the way people have made small ‘homes’ on trees for the red pandas — is the main highlight of the film,” Roy said.

“We will distribute DVDs of our film at the annual Banga Sammelan that will be held in Canada in July,” the film-maker said. “We will also give copies to NGOs and tourism agencies all over India so that we are able to reach out to a lot of people.” [The Telegraph | Anuradha Sharma]