Poor upkeep for decades hampers tourism in Darjeeling

FROM INDIA eNEWS

By Aparajita Gupta

The full tourism potential of this hill station in West Bengal remains untapped due to lack of planning, poor infrastructure and political short-sightedness over the decades, a visit to the town reveals.

Narrow and poorly maintained roads, inadequate water supply and garbage dumps at various places present a picture of neglect in the town known in this region as the ‘Queen of the Hills’ – and there is a lurking fear that the tourism industry could be permanently affected in the future.

Though the tourist flow has remained unaffected so far, except during periods of political turmoil, tour operators are apprehensive that the recent series of indefinite shutdowns could deliver a crippling blow to the industry.

Charges and counter-charges fly thick and fast.

The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), which is agitating for a separate Gorkhaland state in the hills, puts the blame squarely on the West Bengal government, which lobbed the ball back saying the political ups and downs have badly hit the tourism sector.

‘The West Bengal government did not do anything for developing the tourism sector here. It has huge potential but it has remained mostly unutilised,’ GJM general secretary Roshan Giri told IANS.

However, state Tourism Minister Manab Mukherjee claimed the government had constantly provided funds to the autonomous Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) and that ‘it was up to them to decide how to use it.’

‘All the industries in general and tourism in particular have incurred huge losses due to political ups and downs in Darjeeling,’ Mukherjee contended.

Former DGHC chairman Subhas Ghising, who led the Gorkhaland movement in the 1980s and 1990s but has now faded into the background after the emergence of the GJM, also drew flak.

According to Pradip Singh Arora, vice president of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hotel Owners’ Association, ‘Darjeeling is an extremely neglected area. The road conditions are very bad – narrow and without fencing.

‘Infrastructure-wise, the DGHC has not done anything,’ he maintained, adding: ‘Ghising did not spend any money for the beautification of Darjeeling, which could have attracted more tourists.’

‘(The neighbouring state of) Sikkim has done extremely well in tourism. Despite having the potential, we could not do so well. The potential of this region has remained untapped,’ Arora lamented.

On the inadequacy of water supplies, Arora said: ‘There is only one water reservoir for the entire Darjeeling town catering to more than more than 200,000 residents.’

The numbers go up considerably during the peak season when tourists come flowing in.

Arora said the DGHC failed to construct a second reservoir – and there are no means of storing the rain that falls during the monsoon.

Buddha seeks tripartite meet on Darjeeling

FROM PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

The West Bengal government has requested the Centre to arrange a tripartite meeting with Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) to resolve the Darjeeling crisis, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on Thursday.

“I talked with Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil yesterday over phone and requested him to arrange a tripartite meeting involving the Centre, state and GJM. The state government is also writing a letter to the Centre in this regard,” he told the assembly.
The GJM chief Bimal Gurung had earlier requested him to take the initiative for the tripartite talks in New Delhi at the earliest, he said while replying to a calling attention motion by Trinamool Congress legislator Saugata Roy.

Bhattacharjee said he had told the GJM leadership on June 27 that there was no need for a separate state as demanded by them.

“I said there is need for more economic and social development in Darjeeling and perhaps more autonomy can be given to the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council,” he said.

HP seeks national level status for Mountaineering inst, Manali

FROM PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Shimla, Jul 10 (PTI) Himachal Pradesh today requested the Centre to accord the status of national sports institution to the Mountaineering and Allied Sports Institution, Manali.

“The-Manali based institute is bigger than IMF Delhi, HMI Darjeeling and JIM Pahalgam. Hence,it should be accorded status of national sports institution,” Sports Minister Ravinder Singh Ravi said at a seminar in New Delhi.

The HP minister demanded an amount of Rs three crore for construction of a sport climbing wall in the institute.

The minister also sought facilities of astroturf in three hockey grounds in the state, teraflakes in four indoor halls, three synthetic atheletic tracks and five artificial ski grass slopes.

Mountaineering and Allied sports institution built in 1961 provides training in mountaineering and sports like skiing. It is planning to start a course in paragliding, Rajeev Sharma, Deputy Director of the institute told PTI over phone.

Buddha asks Patil to convene tripartite meeting on Darjeeling

FROM PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kolkata, Jul 10 (PTI) The West Bengal government has requested the Centre to arrange a tripartite meeting with Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) to resolve the Darjeeling crisis, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said today.

“I talked with Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil yesterday over phone and requested him to arrange a tripartite meeting involving the Centre, state and GJM. The state government is also writing a letter to the Centre in this regard,” he told the assembly.

The GJM chief Bimal Gurung had earlier requested him to take the initiative for the tripartite talks in New Delhi at the earliest, he said while replying to a calling attention motion by Trinamool Congress legislator Saugata Roy.

Bhattacharjee said he had told the GJM leadership on June 27 that there was no need for a separate state as demanded by them.

Congress soft towards ISI, Bangla migrants in Assam: AASU

FROM INDIAN EXPRESS

By Samudra Gupta Kashyap

The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) hit out at the Congress governments at the Centre and in the state for being “soft” and “indifferent” towards the increasing threat from Bangladeshi infiltrators, the ISI and various fundamentalist forces. “Bangladeshi infiltrators, ISI agents and fundamentalist forces having links with the two are thriving just because they have the blessings of the Congress party. All these forces in return want the Congress to remain in power so that their dream of merger of Assam and the Northeast into a Greater Bangladesh is realised,” AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharyya said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The AASU tirade against the Congress came on the eve of the third anniversary of the Supreme Court quashing the notorious Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, popularly known as the IMDT Act. The student body asked the Government for an Action-Taken Report on the directives given in 2005 by the apex court while scrapping the Act.

Denied bail, Gorkha bandh-hit Czech scientists in jail till July 21

FROM INDIAN EXPRESS

The bail petition of Czech entomologist Petr Svacha, and his associate, Emil Kucera, arrested on June 22 for allegedly collecting specimens of rare insects from Singalila National Park, was rejected for the second time on Wednesday and their judicial remand was extended till July 21.

Svacha, 51, and Kucera, 52, had personally submitted a petition before the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court asking the court to open for a day so that their bail plea could be heard. In response to their petition, a “special hearing” was held in the CJM’s court, but they were denied bail, said Divisional Forest Officer Sumita Ghatak. “The JC period would be used for investigation and questioning,” he added.

The Czech entomologists have not been able to muster enough legal assistance because of an indefinite cease-work by Darjeeling lawyers and a strike in Government offices across the hills, including the district court.
Svacha, a biologist with Czech Academy of Sciences and Kucera, a forestry specialist, were held by the Forest Department with nearly 200 specimens of rare insects, both full-grown and in larva stage.

At Writers’ Buildings, quite a few red faces

FROM THE INDIAN EXPRESS

By Subrata Nagchoudhury

It might just have been a coincidence that West Bengal Chief Secretary Amit Kiron Deb was scheduled to meet Union Cabinet Secretary to discuss crucial border-management issues — along Bangladesh and Nepal — on Tuesday, the day the Left parties announced their withdrawal of support to the UPA Government. But what followed next was certainly no mere coincidence. The Chief Secretary was informed by the Cabinet Secretary’s office that the meeting has been called off and would be fixed at a later date.

The CPM stalwarts in Delhi will not admit it but ministers and bureaucrats in the Left Front Government in the state are wary of the bitterness that now marks the UPA-Left equation. Several key infrastructure and industry projects are in the pipeline — all at critical stages of implementation. While a “friendly government” at the Centre did help move things faster, now everyone is guessing.

Asked how the pullout would affect the relationship between the two governments, Industry Minister Nirupam Sen, one of the latest entrants to the CPM Politburo from Bengal, said: “I hope the Government at the Centre will not take such a narrow decision of blocking projects in Bengal just because we have withdrawn our support. I don’t think projects will suffer. Governments come and governments go. But projects continue. The projects we are pursuing with the Centre stand on merit. So why should these suffer,” asked Sen.

But his bureaucracy knows the value of having a government at the Centre that had been part of the coalition and one that falls apart. And the stakes for the state are quite high:

• Airport modernisation scheme: The Rs 2300-crore modernisation scheme awaits approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. The bids for the schemes were invited and the firm has already been selected on the basis of the bids.

Gorkha Musical Instruments

Photo by Mohan Prasad [Himalaya Darpan]

Photo Feature

In Black and White

From Himalaya Darpan

Gorkhas campaign for new state in Darjeeling

FROM THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS

DARJEELING, India: Leaders of the ethnic Nepali-speaking minority in India’s mountainous and tea-rich northeast have started month-long prayers to press for their own federal state.

Ethnic Gorkhas – who number more than a million in the eastern state of West Bengal – have been demanding a separate state within India for decades, and renewed their movement last year under a new leader. More than a thousand people poured into the main square in the tea-producing and scenic town of Darjeeling, where the Gorkhas are concentrated, to join in the prayers on the first day on Monday.

“We want a peaceful protest. These prayers will give power to our movement,” said Bimal Gurung, the chief of the Gorkha People’s Liberation Front, who floated the idea. Separate prayers will be held for various castes among the Gorkhas and for other communities in the region, wedged between Nepal and Bhutan and overlooked by Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest mountain.

Many locals believe the gods will fulfil their wishes after the West Bengal government rejected demands for a separate Gorkhaland state last month.

“We don’t want any violence. That’s why we pray to our gods for our Gorkhaland,” said NK Kumai, one of the organisers of the prayers.

Last month, an indefinite strike in Darjeeling hills hit tourism and its famous tea industry — the mainstays of the local economy — as activists ratcheted up the pressure. The strike was called off temporarily and has now been postponed to August to facilitate school exams and the prayers. The fresh impetus for a new state comes almost two decades after an insurgency — in which more than 1,000 people died — ended with the government granting limited autonomy to the Gorkhas.

But people soon grew disenchanted with the hill council that was formed as a result, as its leaders were seen to be corrupt.

Raising of ‘Gorkhaland peacekeepers’ force

FROM DAILY INDIA.COM

Siliguri, July 9: The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), which has been demanding a separate State for Gorkhas, has embarked on recruitment of ‘Gorkhaland Peacekeepers’ (GLP) for keeping an eye on law and order situation during rallies.

The GJM has started the drive for the recruitment of Gorkha people to raise the GLP.

The secretary of the Ex-Armymen Association, Suren Pradhan said here that the process is intended to raise trained personnel for various purposes.

“We are recruiting personnel for custody of our people while organizing rally or any procession or public work. They will conduct themselves in a disciplined way and we will give them proper training to control the crowd. They will be our volunteers,” said Pradhan.

The leaders of the GJM say that the GLP personnel would not be given training to handle arms.

The GJM eyes to recruit about 2, 000 strong force which will be a kind of multitask force meant to deal with natural disasters as well as a host of responsibilities ranging from managing traffic control during rallies and helping tourists coming from outside to keep an eye on social ills like extortion.

The youth has so far responded well as they have thronged the recruitment centers in good numbers.

Apart from the compulsions of unemployment, the Gorkha youth echoed inclination to serve for the basic cause of the GJM that to fight for the separate Gorkha State.

Easy fire licences on the anvil

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Siliguri, July 9: A one-man taskforce has recommended to the Bengal government the setting-up of a single window system in Siliguri for processing fire licences so that people in northern parts of the state don’t have to travel all way to Calcutta.

The system, a long-standing demand by trade and builders’ organisations in the region, will enable the expeditious disposal of applications for fire licences, especially in Siliguri which is developing at a rapid pace.

Udayan Adhikary, a divisional officer of the fire department, had taken into consideration the trade hub’s geographical location and easy connectivity with other places before proposing in his report that the system be opened at the Siliguri Fire Station.

The officer had visited Siliguri at the end of April and served show-cause notices on the owners of 80 buildings that did not have proper fire safety measures.

Before leaving for Calcutta to file the report, he had asked the fire force personnel here to keep a close watch on buildings to see whether they were well equipped to prevent and fight fire mishaps.

“If a person in north Bengal has to get fire licences, he needs to make many travels to the Writers’ Building for collecting the application forms and then submitting them. A single window system in Siliguri will avoid such arduous journeys,” Adhikary said over phone from Calcutta.

Classes off as teachers strike

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Siliguri, July 9: Over 40 ad-hoc teachers of Margaret (Sister Nivedita) English School in Pradhannagar have started an indefinite “pen-down”, putting almost 3,000 students in the lurch.

The teachers, who will attend school but not take classes, said they were protesting against the authorities who have not given them the minimum basic pay. The school has 75 teachers including the 42 who are on protest.

“Some of us have been serving here as part-time teachers for more than 14-15 years and still get Rs 2,000-2,500 each month. That is why we resorted to a pen down,” said one of the protesters.

Earlier, the teachers had several meetings with the school authorities, the Ramakrishna Vedanta Ashram Trustee Board, which assured them that some changes would be made soon in the pay structure. “But till date, our salaries have not increased,” a teacher said.

The protesters said this time, they would continue with the agitation till they get some concrete assurance from the authorities.

But the movement of the part-time teachers has put the students in a spot. “More than half the teachers are not attending classes since yesterday,” said Manoj Laha, the head master of the school that has classes from V to XII. He added that the protest was not unjustified and that the problem could have been avoided if the authorities had done something concrete earlier.

“I had requested them (the managing committee) several times to re-structure the pay scale, but failed to convince them. Now it is the students who are suffering,” Laha said.

Tourist dead in hotel, cops suspect suicide

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

The front of the Continuous Discharge Certificate Cum-Seafarers’ Identity Document. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, July 9: A merchant navy officer from Amritsar was found dead in a hotel room in Darjeeling this morning with police claiming to have found a bottle of “aluminium sulphide” and a suicide note written in Hindi from his bedside.

Nardev Singh Mehra, 44, had been staying at the hotel on Robertson Road since June 29, paying Rs 250 a day.

“He used to bring food from outside and visited Mahakal Mandir, Japanese temple and Eden Dham in town. He used to say that he was writing about the history of Darjeeling,” said Bipen Sharma, the manager of the hotel.

In the hotel register, Mehra had said he was from the “merchant navy” and had given his address as House No. 609/279, Royal Ludhiana, 1140001, Amritsar, Punjab.

The police also recovered a Continuous Discharge Certificate Cum-Seafarers’ Identity Document, issued in Mumbai in 1993, which says Mehra was the son of Mohinder Singh (in picture by Suman Tamang).

Last night, hotel employees saw Mehra laughing as he watched cartoon on the TV set in his room. “He usually woke up between 6am and 7am. But today, he did not wake up till 10am, despite us banging on the door and sprinkling water through the ventilator. That is when we called the police,” said the hotel manager.

The police broke open the door and found Mehra dead in his bed. “We also found a bottle with ‘aluminium sulphide’ written on it, along with packed food and a few banana skins,” said a police officer. “This looks like a suicide. We are trying to get in touch with the police in Punjab. No contact number is available as he had no mobile phone.”

The police also claimed to have found a suicide note in Hindi. “The note says he had been happy with his life and that no one was to be blamed for his death. It was pretty poetic,” the officer said.

CPM rejects RSP call to oust Asok

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Siliguri, July 9: Darjeeling district CPM leaders today accused the RSP of adopting a “suicidal path” by calling for the removal of Bengal minister Asok Bhattacharya from the post of the district convener of the Left Front.

RSP district secretary Benoy Chakraborty had on Monday sent a letter to state Front chairman Biman Bose with the demand of ousting the CPM leader. Chakraborty had proposed Darjeeling district secretary of the CPM S.P. Lepcha’s name for the Front convner’s post.

“It is not desirable to speak against any Front partner, especially when in the national political scenario, we need to strengthen our unity. But this discourteous act by the RSP district secretary, which will only encourage anti-Left forces, has prompted us to respond,” Jibitesh Sarkar, a CPM district committee member, said at a news meet today.

“It would have been decent of them (RSP) to wait till the next Front meeting before making the demand public. We consider it as an anti-Front move and will ask these RSP leaders to abstain from the suicidal path they have adopted,” Sarkar said.

Lepcha, too, toed the party line. “I spend most of my time in the hills and come down to Siliguri only when required,” he said. “About a decade ago, Asok Bhattacharya was selected to function as the district Front convener. He has successfully served in the post and will continue to do so. Also, it is the CPM’s prerogative to select the incumbent and other Front partners have no right to comment on it.”

Woman ‘recruiter’ arrested

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Siliguri, July 9: Kiran Ekka, a middle-aged woman, was arrested from Kamla Tea Garden near Phansidewa today on charges of abduction and trafficking. She is allegedly responsible for “recruiting” Rojalina Kujur (19), who was found hanging at the house, where she worked in Faridabad, on June 3.

The action was taken on the basis of an FIR lodged by the woman’s brother Raimon and uncle Libunus Kujur, who have alleged that Ekka was also behind recruiting at least five more girls from their area for working as domestic helps in and around Delhi.

This FIR and two others by the relatives of girls dead or missing from Oodlabari in Jalpaiguri were lodged at the intervention of the National Commission for Women, a member of which concluded a two-day visit today to a region where trafficking has become an acute problem.

While Noni Baski (17) has been missing for the past one year, Nachon Besra (16) is untraced even eight years after she had left.

The others among the 45 young women trafficked from a single gram panchayat in the eastern Dooars are Chuni Baski (16) and Fulti Khatun (18).

All had been lured away with the promise of jobs by dubious placement agencies. There is no news on most of them.

Three young girls have either committed suicide or have been murdered in Faridabad and Haryana, drawing the attention of the commission and the Eastern Himalayan Network on Anti-trafficking and Gender Violence (Erthnet).

Czech duo ask judge to open court for a day

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Darjeeling, July 9: Czech scientist Petr Svacha and his associate Emil Kucera, who have been in jail since June 22, have submitted a petition to the chief judicial magistrate of Darjeeling, requesting him to open the court for “one day” so that their bail plea can be moved.

The duo were arrested for allegedly collecting insects inside Singalila National Park. Foresters found more than 200 beetles and other insects in their possession. Since then, a ceasework by lawyers in Darjeeling and a strike in government offices in the hills have combined to keep Svacha, 51, and kucera, 52, in custody without their case being heard in court.

Chief judicial magistrate N. Dey received the petition, sent to him today by the jail authorities, but a source said it had been filed to the wrong authority. “It is not the duty of the CJM to open the court. The judge is attending court. Those responsible for the closure must be approached,” said the source.

The next hearing of the case, scheduled for July 21, is also expected to be affected with Darjeeling Bar Association sticking to its agitation and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha continuing its indefinite closure of government offices.

The Morcha is spearheading a non-cooperation movement in the hills to press for its demand for a separate state. The lawyers, on the other hand, want an assurance from the government that a parallel chief judicial magistrate’s court will not be set up in Siliguri because of the unrest in the hills.

Nod to 3-way talks, finally – Letter soon to Delhi on Darjeeling discussions

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Bimal Gurung

Calcutta/Darjeeling, June 9: The Bengal government is going to urge the Union home ministry “in a day or two” to convene a tripartite meeting on Darjeeling.

The decision follows the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s refusal to attend meetings at the bipartite level.

“It will happen in a day or two. However, there is no reason to believe that bipartite talks cannot be held after a tripartite discussion. Now, it would be for the Centre to decide on the date and venue. As for participation, it would be too premature to say whether the chief minister would attend or not,” state home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said at Writers’ Buildings this evening.

In Darjeeling, Morcha chief Bimal Gurung said it is a “good thing” that the government had accepted the demand for tripartite talks. “I will personally attend the meeting,” he added.

Three days ago, Bhattacharjee sent a letter to Gurung, thanking him for extending the bandh breather while urging that he join bipartite talks. The Morcha shot down the offer, stressing instead on the tripartite meeting.