Prison inmates say ‘I decide, I won’t take drugs’

FROM SOLIDARITY FOR DEVELOPMENT 

BY PINKY PRADHAN 

AS THE big doors of gate no 1 of Tihar prison, in New Delhi, opened my spirits sank. I was living my worst fear — a visit to the prison. But, as I walked in clear open sky, lush green landscape, a volleyball court and a drug rehabilitation centre welcomed me. This was my first ever visit to a prison, and thankfully, not as a convict. I was invited to be a part of a unique celebration — a celebration against drug abuse. World over, June 26, is observed as the International Day against drug abuse and illicit trafficking. My voice melted in unison along with the 3,000 voices of prison inmate — brought together from the nine prisons of Delhi — as we vowed to stay away from drugs and make the community drug free.

Out of the 13,000 inmates in Tihar, approximately eight per cent of them are drug users. Rajesh, a recovered drug user and an ex-convict, shared his experience, “I got addicted to heroin and took to crimes. Soon small petty crimes led to bigger ones. I wanted to stop, but couldn’t. But today, I am clean and for two and a half years haven’t touched any drugs- not even alcohol. The drug rehabilitation programme worked for me. I want others to learn from my drug abuse experience.” Rajesh, a father of two children, is now associated with an NGO engaged in the counseling and rehabilitation of drug users. According to prison inmate Mahdev, who is still trying to recover, “It’s a huge bottomless pit. Once you get sucked in, it is very difficult to come out of it. I want to leave it for my daughter.”

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Baraily responds to Press Club, says he had no intention to hurt the press fraternity

FROM SIKKIM EXPRESS

GANGTOK, July 22: AS Baraily, the MLA of Rateypani constituency has responded to the news reports published in various local dailies on the derogatory remarks made by him against local journalists.  In a press release issued from the office of the MLA here today, he said that he did not make the alleged statements.

It may be mentioned here that the MLA had in a meeting at Central Pendam last week had remarked that the local journalists in Gangtok took bribes to file news reports. In response to this remark, the Press Club of Sikkim had sought an explanation from him. Strongly condemning the allegations, the MLA clarified that he was instead responding to a letter to the editor published in one of the vernacular dailies published a few days back.

“I have no intention to the hurt the press fraternity of Sikkim and would like to say that they should not have any misconceptions regarding me,” he said in the release.

CM visits Chorten Gonpa to meet the ailing Dodrupchen Rinpoche

FROM SIKKIM EXPRESS

GANGTOK, July 22: The Chief Minister, Pawan Chamling paid a visit to Deorali Chorten Gonpa on July 19 to enquire about the health condition of His Eminence, the Kyabji Dodrupchen Rinpoche who has been unwell for some time now and is in a critical condition.

The Chief Minister directed the State Ecclesiastical Affairs Department to extend every possible help to the Rinpoche. An IPR press release inform that the State Ecclesiastical Affairs Department discussed the matter with Dr. RL Sharma, Principal Director, State Health and Family Welfare Department on July 21 and a medical team has been formed to see and take care of the Rinpoches’ health.

The four-member medical team consists of Dr. IL Sharma, Medical Superintendent, Sir Thutob Namgyal Memorial STNM) Hospital as Chairman, Dr. BN Sharma as Physician Member, Dr.Yogesh Verma as Pathologist Member and Dr. Passang Phempo as Surgeon Member. One Medical Officer from STNM Hospital will also see his condition every day and report to the Committee. The above team of medical experts will visit the Rinpoche every alternative day and will look after his health.

If required, one nurse and a ward attendant will be posted to Deorali Chorten on shift basis, the release informed. Kyabje Dodrupchen Rinpoche, the fourth Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Tubten Trinle Pal Zangpo, is one of the most important living masters in the Nyingma and Dzogchen traditions. As the fourth incarnation of Dodrupchen Jikme Trinle Ozer, the heart-son of Jikme Lingpa who revealed the Longchen Nyingtik cycle, Dodrupchen Rinpoche is the principal holder of the Longchen Nyingthig teachings.

Sikkim University unveils its academic programme

“We are fully prepared”-Vice-Chancellor

FROM SIKKIM EXPRESS

GANGTOK, July 22: Amidst uncertainty over the affiliation issue, the Sikkim University unveiled the newly designed structure of undergraduate courses under the semester system to be introduced in the colleges of Sikkim along with the guidelines during a press conference held here today. [Inset: Sikkim University's first interactive session with the Media. Seen second from the right is Dr. Mahendra P. Lama. Photo by Sikkim Express]

The conference was chaired by the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Mahendra P. Lama along with SK Pradhan, Officer on Special Duty (I), S Gopinath, OSD (II), Jyoti Prakash Tamang, consulting fellow-cum-coordinator (academics) and other faculty members of the University. Dispelling the uncertainty surrounding the issue of the affiliation of the colleges in the State, which are now required to switch over to the Sikkim University this academic session beginning July 10, Prof. Lama said that the final decision lies with the Union Ministry of Human Resources and Development. Almost all colleges in the State are currently affiliated with the North Bengal University (NBU). “We have had extensive talks with the colleges regarding the switch-over to SU from this academic year. However, we were told by the State Government that Government Colleges are not prepared, in terms of administration and infrastructure, to be absorbed into SU. All colleges in the State have automatically come under the SU under an Act of Parliament. Still, if the State Government wants to de-affiliate and continue with NBU due to the reasons cited by them and need some more time, the decision lies with Ministry. We have no problems,” the VC said.

“We are fully prepared to start the courses,” he added.

Altogether nine of the existing colleges in Sikkim have been affiliated with SU presently. On the issue of cut-off marks for admissions, Prof. Lama said that the minimum percentage for admission in the colleges in the State had been kept at 33 percent till 2007.

“This low percentage severely affected the standard of the colleges. This also reflected in the results of the students in their final exams. We intend to stop this trend in order to raise the standards of our colleges,” he said. The University has proposed the raise the minimum percentage of marks required for admissions gradually to 50 percent by 2012.

Speaking on the vision and plans of the University, the VC said that the aim was to set up a University with an “inclusive institutional character,” known for its “academic excellence and research,” and a “strong instrument of regional development and cross-border integration.”

‘Please donate blood at least once a year’ – A Public Service Message

Mr. Arjun Prasad Mainali donating blood! 

Beacon Online offers a Blood Donor Programme and to be associated with it please click here: 

beacon-online-blood-bank-its-time-to-make-a-difference

 

Thank you Telangana Times – Let us set our selves to the future

Dear Mr. Deshpande, 

Greetings from Darjeeling! 

Thank you very much for the kind word of support. We, at Beacon Online have decided to publish stories offered by you regularly. A great deal of intellectual deliberation needs to be done in order to achieve a greater political consciousness. I hope the partnership between The Himalayan Beacon and Telangana Times will bring about a new dimension in the two movements and indeed all the Statehood Movements in India. A unified nationwide statehood movement is the only answer to the aspirations of the majority of marginalized Indians. 

With best wishes and deepest regards, 

yours faithfully, 

Barun Roy

Telangana Times Editor writes

Dear Friends, 

I am happy to inform you that an intellectual partnership and mutual coopeation  has been established with Gorkha movement. The Himalayan Beacon is a web magzine which is giving voice to  the people of Darjeeling Hills and beyond who are agitating for a seperate state of Gorkhaland. Barun Roy is the editor of The Himalayan Beacon. I have established a contact with him and an article on Gorkha movement from The Himalayan Beacon has been taken and published in Telangana Times in lataest 21st edition (May-July,2008 ) and I have expressed solidarity to their movement through the editorial. In response , Barun asked me to send an article on Telangana movement for publication in himalayan beacon.immediately i sent an article written by Ch.Hanumantha Rao. It is posted in Himalayan Beacon. The link being 

http://beacononline.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/statehood-for-telangana-new-imperatives/

Please browse their web site and express solidarity for Gorkhaland Movement which is quite similar to Telangana movement. 

Sridhar Deshpande

Editor, 

Telangana Times

Peace process in peril: Prachanda

FROM SOUTH ASIA MEDIA NET

KATHMANDU: CPN-Maoist chairman Prachanda today said his party would sit on the opposition benches, as their presidential candidate lost yesterday’s historic run-off. Addressing a press conference of party secretariat organised in Singha Durbar, Prachanda termed the alliance between NC, CPN-UML and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum ‘unholy, revengeful and apolitical’ and warned of a political confrontation in the days ahead. 

Flanked by Dr Baburam Bhattarai and party chief whip Dina Nath Sharma, Prachanda said his party was committed to peace process but there was a danger of the peace process collapsing in case the Maoist army in cantonments were not paid their salaries. “The government has stopped providing allowances to the PLA. Our fighters are facing untold miseries and if that continued, it will exhaust our patience,” Prachanda warned and added that there was a danger of counter-revolution.

He said his party’s decision not to form a government could change in case such need arose and there was ethical ground for it. Prachanda said it was due to neo capitalists’ conspiracy and desire to stick to power that they began to place unnecessary conditions, including the demand to dissolve Maoist army and destroy their weapons. 

He said his party lost the presidential election but Yadav’s win was a victory for his party’s cause. “It is because of our decision to field Ram Raja Prasad Singh that a Madhesi became the first President of Nepal,” he said, adding that they stuck to value-based politics and lost the election, contrary to opponents’ politics of opportunism. Asked why they backed off from forging an alliance with the UML, Prachanda said he was disheartened by UML’s rumour mongering.

“We were prepared to back Madhav Kumar Nepal as President though we were yet to make a final decision on that, but the alliance was not possible as the UML began to seek the home portfolio as well,” he clarified. Prachanda said UML’s demands were akin to the story of a Lahure who gave all his belongings to a poor porter and the porter began calling himself the Lahure.

Nepali overseas workers double in five years

FROM GULF TIMES

KATHMANDU: The number of Nepali youths moving out for overseas jobs has more than doubled over the past five years, local newspaper The Kathmandu Post has reported. Slim domestic employment opportunities and greater access to labour destinations amid sprouting manpower agencies has contributed to the soaring number of workers leaving for overseas jobs.

The number of Nepalis going for foreign employment has grown at double-digit steadily over this period. In the fiscal year 2007/08, which ended last week, the number of overseas job goers grew by 20%, compared to the previous fiscal year.  Statistics of Department of Labour shows that a total of 239,637 Nepali job-seekers left for different destinations, mostly for blue-collar work, last fiscal year. The number was 199,191 during the fiscal year 2006/2007.

Only 106,660 workers in total had left for foreign jobs in fiscal year 2003/2004. Officials attribute such a remarkable growth of overseas employment to the positive impact of labour pacts signed by Nepal with four recipient countries. Over the last two years, Nepal has signed memorandum of understanding with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), South Korea, Qatar and Bahrain to ensure greater rights of Nepali workers there.

As a result of labour agreements and change in working environment, the preferences regarding different destinations have also changed over the period. Qatar became the most favored destination for Nepali workers during the last fiscal year receiving 85,411 workers, 47% up from the number recorded during a year earlier.

Maoists decide not to form government

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Kathmandu, July 22: The Maoists, who suffered a severe setback yesterday after their candidate was defeated in the presidential polls, today announced their decision to stay out of the government.

Addressing a news conference after the meeting of the party’s central secretariat here, Maoist chief Prachanda said the poll results effectively ended their bid to form the next government. “Since we have lost our moral right to form the government, we will prefer to sit in the Opposition,” he said.

 

The Maoists are the biggest group in the Assembly and Prachanda had been expected to be the next Prime Minister.

Prachanda described the new Nepali Congress-led alliance as unholy and unnatural and predicted that the coalition would fall apart. “The alliance has been formed at the instance of certain foreign powers who do not want to see us head the next government,” he said, refusing to name the powers.

The Maoist decision clears the field for the possible formation of a government led by the Nepali Congress. However, reports hint at the possibility of both the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) staking their claims to lead the next government.

The MJF, which has 52 members in the Constituent Assembly, has already announced that it should be allowed to lead the government.

Yadav expects India to support Nepal

FROM PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kathmandu, July 22: Describing India as a great country, Nepal’s first President-elect Mr Ram Baran Yadav today said he hoped the Himalayan state’s giant southern neighbour would support its Constitution-making process.

“Our neighbour India is a great and democratic country, from where we can learn many things and also we expect good wishes and support for our Constitution making-process,” the 60-year-old doctor-turned politician told PTI in an interview.

Attired in a white ‘kurta-pajama’, Nepali Congress’ Indian-origin leader, who was elected to the coveted post in the presidential poll run-off yesterday, said passionately that he was “inspired by both Dr Rajendra Prasad and Dr Radhakrishnan.”

Mr Yadav, who got his medical degree from India, has a picture of Mahatma Gandhi in the living room of his humble two-storey house at Bagdol in Lalitpur district near here. On his election as the first President of Nepal, Mr Yadav said: “Naturally it’s a matter of happiness for me to reach at the top most position of the nation.”

Madhesi’s proud of Ram Baran Yadav

FROM THE PENINSULA

KATHMANDU • Nepal’s Maoists said yesterday they would not form the Himalayan nation’s first post-royal government after the defeat of their candidate for president, setting off a new political crisis here. [Inset: Maoists leader Prachanda (right) embracing the country's first post-royal president Ram Baran Yadav as another Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai looks on at the Constitutional Assembly building in Kathmandu yesterday. AFP] 

The former rebels’ decision, seen as a blow to Nepal’s peace process, came one day after rival parties in a constitutional assembly ganged up against the Maoists to elect a president allied to the main centrist party.

The party’s central committee… decided not to form the government under our leadership,” Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara said.

Elections to the assembly in April gave the Maoists the largest single bloc of seats, but not an outright majority. The Maoists had insisted their choice of president should be elected and that they form a new government. But a vote on Monday saw Ram Baran Yadav from the Nepali Congress party – the Maoists’ main rival – anointed the country’s first president.

“After the presidential election, it is certain that we do not have a majority. So we do not have any basis to form the next government,” said Mahara.

Woman’s idea saves thousands of Nepalese girls

Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service

Olga Murray of Sausalito, Calif. had been volunteering for five years in Nepal, helping abandoned and disabled children get an education, when she read something in the newspaper that she couldn’t believe.

In the southern Dang district, rural Tharu farming families trapped in extreme poverty — earning less than a dollar a day — were making horrible sacrifices: selling their daughters as domestic slaves to wealthy Kathmandu families for $35 to $75.

“These girls are 7, 8, 9 and 10, and no one was checking up on them,” said Murray, 83. “I was shocked.”

That was in 1989. Her solution to break the practice has since made her a philanthropic legend in the area.

Her ingenious idea? Piglets.

Murray asked the Tharu village fathers to keep their daughters home and send them to school instead of selling them at the annual Maghe Sakranti Festival every January. In exchange, families could raise the pigs and sell them for the same amount they could fetch for their daughters. Murray’s nonprofit organization, the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation, also would pay for the girls’ school expenses. Plus, it would kick in a kerosene lamp and 2 liters of kerosene a month — coveted items in an area without electricity.

It was an experiment based on Murray’s understanding of Nepali culture after living there off and on for five years and sponsoring the education of orphans and street children. She knew pork is a prized meat and that for some families, selling a daughter was the only way to afford food for the rest of the family.

Of the 37 families she and her Nepalese counterpart Som Paneru approached that first year, 32 took the deal. Some asked for and received a goat instead of a pig.

Murray and Paneru have since steered 3,000 girls away from slavery and all but eradicated the long-held tradition of indentured servitude in the Tharu village.

Instead of spending their lives washing, baby-sitting, cooking and — in the worst cases — working in brothels, the girls are getting an education. Many have also become vocal about their hardships, unveiling the horrors of domestic slavery on radio programs and in street plays and marches. Some have formed a watchdog committee to visit the Tharu village and monitor the bus stops to make sure girls aren’t being sold.

“The local schools are full of former kamlaris (girl slaves), and the size of the classrooms are swollen, and girls are outnumbering boys,” Paneru wrote in an e-mail to the San Francisco Chronicle. “We’ve already built over 35 new classrooms, but the need is still not fully met.”

It’s illegal to employ children younger than 14 outside the home in Nepal, but in Tharu, one of the country’s poorest villages, some fathers persist. In those cases, Murray, an attorney who worked for 37 years helping write opinions for two California Supreme Court chief justices in San Francisco, files a lawsuit in Nepal.

Typically, a warning letter persuades the father to keep his daughter home, Murray said. She has had to go to court only a few times, and she has won every time.

Nepal may slip into political uncertainty

FROM XINHUANET

KATHMANDU, July 22 (Xinhua) — The world’s youngest republic Nepal faces a political uncertainty after the largest party in the Constituent Assembly (CA), the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN-M) decided not to form the new government Tuesday.

The decision came after their presidential candidate Ram Raja Prasad Singh lost to Nepali Congress (NC) candidate Ram Baran Yadhav in the presidential run up elections on Monday.

“After the defeat in the presidential election, our moral base to make the new government has totally come up to the end. So we have decided to stay in opposition,” the chairman of the CPN-M Prachanda said at a press conference in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu.

The CPN-M, which bagged 227 seats in the CA, has regarded the new alliance formed between the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Lennist) (CPN-UML) and the Madhesi People’s Rights Forum (MPRF) during the presidential election as “unholy and unneutral.”

The newly elected president Ram Baran Yadav was expected to invite the CPN-M to form the new government soon after taking office after a swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday.

“Our all efforts to make a new government in the past three and half months have been over. Now in accordance to the new equation we gladly accept the place of opposition in Nepali politics,” Prachanda said, requesting the new president to call on the new alliance to make the new government.

“We will determine our support or oppose the new government on the basis of their qualities or misdemeanor,” he added.

The CPN-M leader also threatened that there was “a great danger of the anti-revolution to make Nepal a failed state.”

“There is a big reactionary conspiracy of foreign powers after we won the faith and belief of large crowd of people. Nepal’s politics has clearly signified a great danger of anti-revolution,” Prachanda said, appealing the people to be united against the conspiracies of foreign powers whom he didn’t want to name.

He also criticized the new government for stopping the allowance to the CPN-M armed force sitting inside the monitored cantonments and warned that if the present situation continues, patience and tolerance will soon run out.

Siliguri hospital hit by blood crisis

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

SILIGURI, July 22: The Siliguri district hospital staff associated with the Blood Bank alleged today that the hospital Blood Bank was being subjected to a slander campaign over the blood crisis. “We are having an acute blood crisis for some time. But some people are reluctant to listen to our argument and are abusing us. They are mainly touts doing business with blood,” they alleged. 

With a severe blood crisis haunting the hospital the public resentment against the Blood Bank authority is rising. Even the Thalassaemia patients are being denied blood. Mrs Fullu Modak, mother of Subhajit Modak (9), a Thalassaemia patient, was found begging for a bottle of blood today, as her son needed blood transfusion. 

Mrs Tripti Basu, a sister working in the hospital Blood Bank, said that Mrs Fullu Modak had been asked to collect a donor. “But she is unable to do it. We are helpless as the Blood Bank is dry,” she said. Referring to this case, Dr T K Das, an attending Medical Officer, said that this was a genuine case. “But there are instances where some touts masquerading as relations of patients are humiliating us. They are charging us with doing business with blood. How can we do business with blood as there is no blood at all?” Dr Das asked. 

He further stated that one of the reasons behind the blood crisis was the diminishing number of blood donation camps in and around Siliguri. “Besides, we are not getting benefited by the camps as a greater part of the collected blood is going to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. Our hospital being the district hospital deserves a better treatment on this matter,” Dr Das said.

Training programme for scribes in Gangtok

FROM THE STATESMAN

GANGTOK, July 22: The state Information and Public Relations (I & PR) department is organising a weeklong training programme on Journalism as part of the ‘Skill Development and Capacity Building Programme’, in Gangtok from today.

The training programme includes short term courses on Journalism, Videography and Photography for the educated unemployed youth in Gangtok.

“About fifty participants from different parts of the state have enrolled for the programme in the first day itself” said Mr Subash Sharma one of the resource person from the department. “The training also includes theoritical as well as practical classes dealing with the ethics of journalism to providing the right information” he added.

It may be recalled that during the last financial year, the department had conducted a similar training programme in all the four districts of the state and results were positive and encouraging.
The department has also proposed to organise such training in future with additional subjects. Apart from Mr Sharma the faculty included Mr CK Dahal, Mr Vishal Khawas, Mr Keshav Chhetri.

DBA to lift cease-work today

FROM THE STATESMAN

DARJEELING, July 22: After an assurance from the home secretary, Mr Ashok Mohan Chakraborty and Chief Justice Mr S.S. Nijjar, the Darjeeling Bar Association (DBA), unanimously decided to withdraw its indefinite cease-work from tomorrow. “Respecting the home secretary and honourable chief justice’s request the cease-work will be lifted from tomorrow. They assured us that the government has not taken any steps or is contemplating to act on the proposal passed by the Siliguri Bar Association”, confirmed Mr. Rajesh Chettri, executive member of the DBA.

The DBA’s indefinite cease work commenced from 25 June protesting against the Siliguri Bar Associations proposal to transfer important powers of the District Judge to the additional court in Siliguri. A seven member joint action committee comprising of lawyers from the 3 Hill subdivisions that met the home secretary and the Chief Justice last week submitted its report at the meeting of the DBA today. “The meetings proved fruitful so the joint action committee formed specifically to pursue this issue of transfer of powers has been dissolved,” Mr Chettri stated.

The development is a reprieve for the two Czech nationals who were unable to move their bail plea on three earlier hearings in the absence of a defence lawyer. The duo even participated in the token hunger strike on 17 July with 62 other inmates protesting the cease work that delayed their case proceedings. The cease work continued for 28 days despite the High Court’s directive to the State Government to restore normal functioning of the Darjeeling courts recently. “All the courts of Darjeeling will start functioning from tomorrow. However the Darjeeling Bar Association along with Kurseong and Kalimpong will resist if any issue arises in the future”, Mr. Chettri said.

Train knocks down elephant

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

The elephant run over by the train. (Kundan Yolmo) Sukna, July 22: A male elephant, aged around seven-eight years, was knocked down by a passenger train near Gulma railway station last night. The pachyderm, foresters said, was attempting to cross the broad-gauge track when the 5624 Guwahati-Jhajha Express hit the animal and dragged it about 100metres before stopping. “The accident occurred at 2.46am today. The train left Sevoke at 2.37am and was approaching the Gulma station, around 7km from here, when the solitary elephant came in front of the engine,” said Sumita Ghatak, the divisional forest officer (wildlife-1). According to the officer, the thrust was so intense that the animal virtually coiled and died. Many parts of its body were lying on and along the track. The train resumed its journey at 6.45am after the body had been removed. The entire stretch in the Dooars has been a death trap for animals ever since the track was converted from metre to broad gauge a few years ago. The broad gauge trains run at higher speed and the drivers cannot stop them on seeing animals crossing the track. With the last night’s incident, the number of elephants mowed down by trains on a 400metre stretch between Sevoke and Gulma in the past one year has reached two. While today’s accident occurred between track pillars 21/6 and 21.7, a two-year-old male calf had been run over by the 5623 Up Guwahati-Jhajha Express between pillars 21/4 and 21/7 on July 25 last year. The DFO said her department was concerned about frequent elephant fatalities in the area. The forest guards had come to know about the accident from Gulma station at 3.15am. “When they reached the spot around 4am, the mutilated body was lying there,” Ghatak said. The foresters have inspected the nearby areas of the sanctuary to see whether more pachyderms were roaming there. “So far, we have found three or four stray elephants. We did not see any herd,” the DFO said.

Father holds girl hostage in house

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Siliguri, July 22: A bank employee here has shoved his wife out of the house and kept himself confined indoors with their mentally retarded 12-year-old daughter for the past 36 hours, threatening to kill himself and the girl if police try to break open the doors. “I will not allow my wife to enter the house. If anybody else tries to do so, I will kill the girl and myself,” Biswaram Mondal was heard shouting from the window. Mondal’s wife Dipti asked the police to take the threat seriously and not try to force their way in. As a result, the father and daughter are still holed up in the house in East Vivekanandapally of the town. The drama unfolded last night when Mondal pushed Dipti, an employee of Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad, out of the house, accusing her family members of misbehaving with him. “The man had locked the door from inside. Neighbours heard his wife wailing outside and banging on the door and informed me,” said Dulal Dutta, the local councillor. “I went to the spot to find Dipti weeping and calling out her daughter’s name.” Mondal refused to budge from his stance and kept the door closed. Dipti, who appeared equally determined to get in, stood and later squatted in front of the house, calling Debarati, their daughter. Informed about the incident, policemen from the Bhaktinagar police station soon arrived on the spot and tried to convince the husband to open up. Mondal refused. “So we left for the night, deciding to give it another try in the morning. A few constables were, however, posted in front of the house,” said a police officer. This morning, the residents and the police went back to the house. When they threatened to break down the door, Mondal shouted out the threats.

Tirkey flashes highway hope

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

A file picture of a pot-holed stretch of the highway Siliguri, July 22: The pot-holed national highways that interweave north Bengal will be repaired soon, Manohar Tirkey, the Bengal minister of state for public works, said today. A high-level meeting that Tirkey had with Union surface transport secretary Brahma Dutt and other officials in Darjeeling yesterday decided that the state public works department would repair the national highways with Central funds soon. “The change in alignment of the East-West corridor connecting Assam with Gujarat has led to problems,” Tirkey said. “Both the Union ministry and the state were confused over the responsibility of maintaining the roads. However, things have been sorted out in the meeting.” According to Tirkey, his department will start repairing NH31 from Bagdogra to Kalchini, covering Sevoke-Malbazar-Chulsa-Binnaguri-Banarhat-Birpara-Madarihat, after receiving Central funds. “Also, the repairing of NH55, connecting Darjeeling More on the outskirts of Siliguri with Chowk Bazar in Darjeeling town through Tindharia-Kurseong-Ghum will commence shortly. At many places in the hills, the highway is lower than the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway tracks which causes water logging on the road. We plan to raise the level of the road and put on mastic layers in congested areas,” the minister said. “We have been asked to submit revised estimates.” Tirkey said earlier the National Highways Authority of India had decided to build the four-lane corridor through the Dooars. “The responsibility of maintaining the highway thus went to the NHAI. We continued maintaining the Siliguri-Jalpaiguri-Mainaguri-Dhupguri-Falakata-Cooch Behar route which was a state highway earlier but has now been declared NH31D.”

Hill varsity offers new courses

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Gangtok, July 22: Sikkim University will introduce a number of new courses by setting up separate schools of indigenous and folk studies, sustainable development and livelihood management, peace, conflict and human security studies and policy planning, vice-chancellor Mahendra P. Lama said today. This was the vice-chancellor’s first interaction with reporters since all colleges and institutes of higher learning in the state came under the purview of Sikkim University earlier this month. Lama said some of the courses were being introduced in the country for the first time. For example, the School of Indigenous and Folk Studies will have five centres focusing on everything from handicrafts and fashion technology to food science and energy studies. The School of Peace, Conflict and Human Security Studies, on the other hand, will cover a wide variety of subjects including military science and defence, border history and conflict studies, said the vice-chancellor. Lama added that the varsity expected to attract students and faculty members from within the country as well as neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Myanmar, Nepal and Thailand. “We will also take up cross-border dialogues with the neighbouring countries and have collaborations with national and international institutes,” he said. “We want the varsity to be known for its academic excellence and research and as a strong instrument of regional development and cross-border integration.” The vice-chancellor said Sikkim University was trying to bring in the best practices of academic programmes, teaching methods and curriculum designs from within and outside India. The varsity also plans to build infrastructure that is friendly to the fabulous and unparalleled environmental settings of Sikkim and the neighbouring regions, he said. “From the beginning, Sikkim University is trying to ensure that there is complete transparency, discreet individual accountability, targeted performance and no red-tape in this institution,” the vice-chancellor said. Sikkim University is a central varsity that came into existence on July 2, 2007. Its office is located at 6th Mile, Tadong, while 300 acres of land has been acquired at Yangang in South Sikkim, 56km from Gangtok, for the main campus. Lama today thanked Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling and his government for donating the land.

Hill courts to reopen today

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Darjeeling, July 22: The Darjeeling Bar Association has decided to withdraw its indefinite ceasework from tomorrow following a written assurance from the Bengal home secretary that the powers of the district court located here would not be vested in the courts in Siliguri. The decision to withdraw the ceasework, which had begun on June 25, was taken after a delegation of the association visited Calcutta. The seven-member delegation had met home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti and Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court S.S. Nijjar. Both of them had allayed fears that there was no such move being mooted either by the state government or the high court. Darjeeling has seven courts. “The association also received a letter from the home secretary with an assurance that the state government has neither proposed, nor is contemplating any move to act on a resolution of the Siliguri Bar Association,” said Rajesh Chhetri, a member of the delegation. The Darjeeling Bar Association had decided to shut the hill courts after its Siliguri counterpart adopted a resolution, demanding that the filing and other powers of the district and sessions court in Darjeeling should be vested in the additional courts in Siliguri. The Siliguri association had maintained that the agitation for Gorkhaland in the hills was hampering the smooth functioning of the judiciary system there. It had also submitted the resolution to the high court, creating uproar in the hills. “A district and sessions court can only be set up at the district headquarters. Siliguri is a mere subdivision of Darjeeling district and nowhere in the country does a subdivision have such a court. This is why we vehemently protest the Siliguri Bar Association resolution,” said Chhetri. With the courts scheduled to reopen from tomorrow, Czech entomologist Petr Svacha and his companion Emil Kucera will be able to utilise the services of their lawyers.

Bus mows down 12-yr-old – Mob on ransack spree does not spare school

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

The bus that rammed into the schoolboy. Picture by Kundan Yolmo Siliguri, July 22: A 12-year-old was run over by a speeding bus a few yards from his school today, prompting a mob to go on the rampage, pelt vehicles with stones and set up blockades on PWD Road for half an hour. Traffic was thrown out of gear and around 30 policemen from Bagdogra and Phansidewa along with the combat force personnel were rushed to Kalaram, 15km from here, to bring the crowd of over 200 people under control. Rajib Barman, a Class VI student, was cycling to Ranidanga Kalaram High School along PWD Road when a minibus (WB780031) rammed into him. “He was going in the same direction as the bus that was going towards Phansidewa from Siliguri. It was around 10.15am. The boy tried to cross over to the other side of the road in front of the bus,” said Durbal Ghosh, an eyewitness to the accident. The driver of the bus, Ranjit Singha, has been arrested. Teachers and students of Rajib’s school took him to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, 10km away, where he was declared brought dead. As soon as news of the death reached the school, hundreds of students took to the street blocking the Siliguri-Chathat stretch for about 30 minutes from 11.30am. Later a group of residents joined them and ransacked around 10 vehicles including the minibus. Asit Dutta, the principal of that school, however, denied the involvement of his students in the rampage. “It is the local people who did it,” Dutta said. He also alleged that the mob had raided the school campus and heckled him and an employee. “It shocked us to see a mob of about 200 people enter our school,” he said. “The mob demanded the teachers join them and participate in the road blockade. But we preferred to concentrate on taking the student to the medical college,” he said. Dutta later lodged a complaint with the Bagdogra police station. Biswajit Das, the circle inspector of Bagdogra, confirmed that the crowd had tried to attack the school building. “Ten vehicles were damaged when the mob went on the rampage,” said Das.