Policemen extinguishing fire set by students during an anti-Hindi protest rally in Kathmandu, in Nepal, yesterday. (EPA)
Kathmandu: The raging row in Nepal sparked by the vice-president taking his oath of office in Hindi last week turned into war yesterday with the rift between the hill people and Indian-origin plains community widening and protesters from both sides going on the rampage.
Nearly three dozen vehicles were vandalised in the capital and the turbulent Terai plains along the India-Nepal border, while closures were called in border towns.
Ignoring lawmakers’ appeals to maintain harmony and national unity, angry crowds kept up demonstrations here as well as in southern districts, burning tyres and the effigy of Vice President Parmanand Jha for the sixth consecutive day.
They are demanding either the Indian-origin official’s resignation or a fresh oath-taking in Nepali instead of the Hindi used by him on last Wednesday.
The eight student organisations, who had begun the protests last week branding Jha an anti-national for taking his oath in a language identified as the national tongue of neighbour India, said they would call off their stir yesterday out of deference to the Supreme Court. Read the rest of this entry »
KATHMANDU: Climbers aspiring to scale the 8848-meter high Mount Everest will now have yet another challenge to contend with: the rocky surface. For the snow cover has melted rapidly at many point on Everest and bare rock that used be under snow are now distinctly visible . [Inset: Mount Everest. Source Lets Go Digital.com]
“Climbing is becoming more dangerous, and I think we will start to see more injuries and even fatalities because of the difficult terrain,” said Dawa Steven Sherpa, team leader of Eco-Everest Expedition 2008, who successfully ascended Everest for the second time this May.
According to him, there was only 50 meters of rock to climb on the famous Hillary Step last year. This year, there was about 150 meters of rock. “Wearing crampons (metal shoes made for climbing in snow and ice) and standing on the bare rock at over 8,600 meters was a very scary experience,” said Sherpa. “At one point I slipped and if I hadn’t been clipped in I would have fallen 2,000 meters to Camp Two.
Dawa and his team experienced a rock fall when they were on Mt.Lhotse, in the Everest area. The rocks were the size of footballs and a Spanish climber who was hit broke his leg. According to Sherpas who accompanied the expedition, they had never seen or heard of anything like this on Lhotse.
Sushmita Maskey, member of the Inclusive Womens Team that climbed Everest this monsoon had a similar experience. “While climbing Everest this time, I felt I was climbing a rocky mountain rather than the snow capped one it used Read the rest of this entry »
Darjeeling (West Bengal), July 31 : While Indian sportspersons would compete with the finest sportspersons, during the Beijing Olympics in China, Darjeeling’s famous two leaves and a bud would contest with international flavours.
Sports lovers from across the globe converging for the Beijing Olympics will be able to relish the special variety of Darjeeling tea known for its remarkable flavour from Makaibari Tea Estate.
Makaibari Tea Estate is spread out in the hilly slopes of Darjeeling in West Bengal serve the taste buds of guests and participants at the Beijing Olympics.
Makaibari Tea Estate is one of the most reputed tea companies in the world for quality produce and also one among the pioneer tea estates opt for organic techniques.
The company is to supply 333 kilograms of this export quality tea priced at rupees 8,000 per kilogram.
The first lot of the consignment of Makaibari green tea has already been shipped for the Beijing Olympic Games, which is scheduled to take place between August 8 and 24. Read the rest of this entry »
Siliguri, Jul 31 (PTI) Forced to leave the Darjeeling Hills by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), GNLF leader Subash Ghising who is holed up at a government bungalow here under security cover, faced demonstrations from anti-Gorkhaland activists who want him to be sent back to Darjeeling.
Taking the security staff by surprise, the activists under the banner of Bangla O Bangla Bhasha Bachao Committee gathered in front of the Teesta project bungalow at Tinbati More, where the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) leader was staying, and shouted slogans demanding that Ghising be sent back to Darjeeling.
The protestors, who were advancing towards the bungalow, were stopped by the police. Eight activists were arrested but later released yesterday.
According to Inspector General of Police (North Bengal) K.L. Tamta, security was further tightened at the bungalow.
The central committee president of the Bachaon Committee Mukunda Mazumder told PTI today that it would continue its protest against Ghising’s stay in Siliguri or any other place in the state except Darjeeling Hills till he formaly opposed the demand for a separate Gorkhaland.
Ghising came down to the plains with his wife and son after violence gripped Darjeeling on July 25. The GJM activists had damaged his house by pelting stones and set on fire a few houses of GNLF leaders. Read the rest of this entry »
Ranchi, July 31 (PTI) Echoing Orissa’s apprehension on infiltration of Maoists from Nepal, Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda today did not rule out the possibility of Maoists criss-crossing borders.
”We cannot deny the possibility of Maoists, operating both in the country and outside, moving across the borders. The central and state intelligence agencies have been keeping a strict vigil and sharing information to foil their plans,” Koda told newsmen here.
”There are no two opinions on Maoists criss-crossing the borders and the police are keeping a strict watch on the to check their movement,” he said.
The Jharkhand police and the central security forces have apprehended hardcore Maoist leaders, including the banned CPI(Maoist) politburo member Pramod Mishra, in the past few months.
Koda said he would look into reports appearing in a section of the media that some activists of a newly floated underground outfit of Assam were taking training from the Maoists in Jharkhand allegedly to fight for the cause of the tribals.Read the rest of this entry »
Kolkata, July 30 (PTI) The Calcutta High Court today directed that use of coal at the central kitchen of the largest referral hospital in West Bengal be stopped within seven days as it is causing huge pollution in the area.
A division bench of Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharjee and Justice R N Banerjee gave a week to the cooperative society that runs the hosptial kitchen, where meals for 1,300 indoor patients are prepared daily, to start using LPG fuel.
Hearing a plea by environment activist Subhas Dutta that the use of coal at the kitchen was in violation of an earlier order that put an embargo on the use of fossil fuel within three km surrounding of Victorial Memorial Hall, the bench directed the hospital authorities to submit an ‘action taken report’ within 15 days before the court.
Dutta claimed that huge quantity of coal was used at the five big coal ovens at the kitchen which stands just at the southern side of the magnificent white marble edifice. Read the rest of this entry »
These days when I forget checking if the child has done his homework, my wife does not scream at me. She gives me ‘feedback’.
I am told that in most organisations, these ‘feedback’ sessions are particularly elaborate and gladiatorial. Teams are taken ‘offsite’, an outing to a charming and unsuspecting place like Goa, holed up in a five-star hotel throughout the stay, and encouraged to give trenchant ‘feedback’ about one another. Success stories The scene soon turns into a bloody rink of jibes, jealousy and finally unrestrained catfights and humiliation, with human resource flunkeys cheering from the sides. That’s ‘feedback’ for you.
As India becomes the post-global India Inc, the English it speaks is suddenly becoming unrecognisable. Thousands of people, especially the poor losers who know the language otherwise but are not part of the boardroom and hence the great success story, are alienated from it.
You no longer speak to explain. You speak to hide, baffle, impress, belong, and most often, bore. This is a vocabulary hurriedly curried up for Powerpoint presentations and meetings, at boardrooms and over ‘power’ lunches chiefly by the engines of the industry – the MBAs a.k.a. widely known and respected as Mediocre But Arrogant.
Words of change, clear, simple words have suddenly become untouchable. You no longer start something, you ‘activate’. You don’t like each other, you ‘connect’. You cannot agree with me: you are either ‘in sync’, or to borrow a Bush-ism, ‘with me’.
People no longer reply or respond. They ‘revert’. At a lesser level of literacy, one ‘reverts back’. Just as one has ‘future plans’, thankfully , and not plans for the past or this moment. Change is no longer profound enough. Things must undergo a ‘paradigm shift’.
And smart people don’t think, they ‘ideate’. Nor do they write letters. They send communication’ . Getting a new customer is ‘acquisition’ , and working with somebody is ‘partnering’. Read the rest of this entry »
The Oxford Book and Stationery Co is the only Book House in Darjeeling where you can find all genres of Books ranging from Travel Books to Novels. You might also stumble in some of my books. A real paradise for book worms like me.
The field has now been set for the two Governments – Central and the State to react on the Gorkhaland Movement II in Darjeeling Hills. As per the Darjeeling Member of Parliament’s resolute statement to the press and to Beacon Online that he has met the UPA Chairman Sonia Gandhi, the Defence Minister and the Home Minister who have ‘kindly’ agreed to attend the tripartite meeting to be held in New Delhi between the Central Government, West Bengal State Government and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the West Bengal Government itself is set to place a ‘unofficial’ Bill in the State Legislature vis-a-vis Darjeeling Hills today. If history is anything to go by, the West Bengal Government could carefully draft a Bill on granting more autonomy to the Darjeeling Hills in the form of Gorkha Autonomous Council, increasing the size of the area now coming under Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) and offering more powers including Taxation, Higher Secondary Education, Land and Land Reform, a revamped Council of Representatives to be elected through adult franchise, ’sweeping powers’ over animal husbandary, cottage industries, small scale industries, sericulture, mining, timber and other forest products etc. It could also be possible that the Tripartite Meeting may be held after the passing of the said ‘unofficial’ Bill by the West Bengal State Legislature. The contents of the said Bill may after its passing by the State Legislature may first be placed on the table at the Tripartite Agreement and then its contents made public.
According to sources close to the Congress Party, the AICC and Sonia Gandhi is not particularly in favour of the creation of Gorkhaland at this moment when the nation is going through crisis both in economic terms and security.’ As had been the view held by the Late Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi ‘may not as yet want to commit herself in favour of Gorkhaland’. “She is all out in the favour of Regional Autonomy but hoping for Gorkhaland might be a bit too much at this moment,” a party source close to the leader said from New Delhi. Does Dawa Narbula, who have been for some time dodging vital questions on Gorkhaland and more specifically – where and how the All India Congress Committee and especially Sonia Gandhi stood on Gorkhaland – The Darjeeling MP is now positive about the tripartite meeting yet why is he not coming out clean before the public. Read the rest of this entry »
“PEOPLE AND THE PARTIES FIGHTING FOR GORKHALAND SHOULD NOT ONCE AGAIN FALL FOR THE TRAP OF GORKHA AUTONOMOUS COUNCIL. THIS WILL BE A GREATER BETRAYAL THAN THAT COMMITTED BY SUBASH GHISINGH” MADAN TAMANG
“THE WEST BENGAL GOVERNMENT IS ATTEMPTING TO WOO US AGAIN WITH A CARROT OF GORKHA AUTONOMOUS COUNCIL, WE MUST REJECT IT FORTHWITH.” MADAN TAMANG
“DAWA NARBULA KNOWS VERY WELL WHAT IS IN THE PLATE BEING OFFERED BY THE CENTRAL AND THE STATE GOVERNMENT BUT EVEN THEN HE DOES NOT WANT TO TELL ANYTHING TO THE PEOPLE.” MADAN TAMANG
Darjeeling: “Are the Central Government and the Left Front led State Government conspiring to counter the demand for Gorkhaland again?” Speaking to the press the All India Gorkha League (AIGL) President, Madan Tamang stated. “We have found out through the news circulating in the Press that the West Bengal State Legislature will be placing a ‘unofficial’ Bill in the House. However, we are deeply suspicious of this Bill.” Inquired if there would be any Government sponsored Bill in the house, the AIGL President said, “The Communist Party of India (Marxist) will now have to show its political will. If they really follow the Leninist tenet of Right to Self Determination then they will translate that into reality and give us that Right to Self Determination. If they are not true Communists then they won’t. They must work towards creating a separate state of Gorkhaland by bringing together parts of Jalpaiguri district and the Dooars Terai with the Darjeeling District.”
When asked what could be the move made by the West Bengal Government, he said, “The West Bengal Government is crocked, sly and filled with conspirators. I appeal to the Government to once again not try to cheat the people by purposing a ‘Gorkha Autonomous Council’. I also appeal to all political parties in Darjeeling Hills who have been struggling for Gorkhaland to be careful of the West Bengal Government. If they accept that will be a greater betrayal than that committed by Subash Ghisingh. Dawa Narbula knows everything about what is being offered in the plate by the Central Government and the State Government but even then he is not telling the people anything about it. He knows very well that the smell of Gorkha Autonomous Council is coming sharp and deep, yet he wants to keep the people in the dark. He should address the people at the Chowk Bazaar in Darjeeling and spill everything. He should now not be whispering things in others ears.” Read the rest of this entry »
Siliguri: Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s ally RSP has alleged that the CPI(M) politburo member and State Municipal and Urban Development Minister Asok Bhattacharya is treating Subash Ghisingh as the party’s son-in-law and giving to all his whims. Speaking to the press, RSP Darjeeling District Committee Secretary Binay Chakraborty said, “First of all the party (CPIM) and the Government has offered all assistance to Ghisingh and treated him to the best of accommodation, protection and services the Administration has to offer. This is the man (Ghisingh) who has cheated the people in the Hills. The situation that prevails today in the Hills is due to the number of elections that he never allowed to be conducted. Whatever has happened or is happening, Subash Ghisingh is solely responsible.”
Chakraborty further said, “Asok Bhattacharya has kept Subash Ghisingh in Siliguri as if he was a son-in-law. Asok Bhattacharya is not a true communist. He is simply an individual who wants to gather vote to win elections. How can he be so friendly with Subash Ghisingh? It was during the previous Gorkhaland movement initiated by Subash Ghisingh when more than 600 Communist Party cadres and functionaries were martyred. Almost all Communists from the hills had been forced to take shelter in Siliguri. Even Anand Pathak were one of those who came to Siliguri. But today, strangely the person who was responsible for so Communists’ death is being given a favourable treatment by the Party and a Minister of the Government.” Read the rest of this entry »
Subash Ghisingh’s family house taken over by GJM at Manju Tea Estate situated in Mirik Sub-division. Photo by Himalaya Darpan
Siliguri (WB), July 30: The two-storey building of GNLF chief Subash Ghising at Mirik near Darjeeling was taken over by the activists of Gorkha Janamukti Morch (GJM) to convert it into party office, police said on Wednesday.
Activists of GJM local unit occupied the building at Manju tea estate in Kurseong sub-division on July 28, unit president Roshan Thapa said.
“It was built with public money and we have returned the money to them by taking it over,” Thapa said, adding the cost of Rs 50 lakh needed to build the house in 1999 was not earned by Ghising.
According to him, three large rooms of the house would be used for community welfare purpose. The offices of the GJM Manju unit, women and youth wings of the party would also be housed here, he said.
Ghising who has been living in a Teesta Project guest house here after he was driven out of Darjeeling hills on July 25 declined to comment on the capture of the house named “White House”.
West Bengal’s Urban Development Minister, Asok Bhattacharya described the incident as “an example of fascism”.
The police said 35-40 youths coming in vehicles and motor cycles raided the house of Ghising’s brother-in-law K P Alley and demanded the key of the house on July 28 morning. Read the rest of this entry »
Vikram India Limited has taken the initiative to produce machinery for the hill stations’ most celebrated crop. It has been instrumental in establishing a tea factory in North Dinajpur and two manufacturing units each in the Terai region of North Bengal. Swaati Chaudhury reports for The Statesman
The past year has been very exciting for the tea industry. Tea has grown incredibly through the efforts of passionate visionaries and entrepreneurs that have appealed to consumers within all segments—from the hip younger trendy consumer to the more-experienced tea consumer. Here’s something waiting to be highlighted for the Indian tea industry. A Kolkata-based organisation that is forever ready to take up challenges in newer areas and establish industrial ventures with sound export potential. It can only be Vikram India Limited that is into making tea machinery and had taken the first plunge in manufacturing tea machinery across the globe.
The organisation is incidentally the only one-of-a-kind in the eastern region to commence export within a year of its establishment. It aims to blend technology, innovation, experience and managerial skills to provide complete customer satisfaction. Looking back through the portals of time, it all began in 1975 when the company made a sincere effort to produce tea making machinery, in the name of Vikram Forging and Allied Industries and today it owns three manufacturing factories in Howrah that is in accordance with global norms. The organisation takes up projects on turnkey basis and is reputed to provide solutions right from conceptualising to coming up with automatic tea processing plants. The largest tea machinery-exporting destination of the corporate entity is Kenya along with Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Brunei, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The organisation has diversified its activities in the textile arena and it was sometime in 1979, it stepped in Surat in dyeing, processing and garment manufacturing. As of now, the organisation ranks as running the largest textile industry in Gujarat. It later made inroads in Indore to set up a base for retail and textile manufacturing.Read the rest of this entry »
SILIGURI, July 30: Mungpoo in Kalimpong sub-division ~ redolent to Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, would give his death anniversary observations a miss this year due to the political situation in the Darjeeling hills. In view of the ongoing turmoil in the hills, the state information and cultural affairs department has decided not to observe the poet’s 67th death anniversary at Mungpoo on 7 August. Instead, the official remembrance would be organised at Chathat High School in Siliguri sub-division.
This is a deviation from the ‘official tradition’ as since 2002, the information and cultural affairs department was observing ‘Baishe Shrabon’ at Mungpoo. According to the sub-divisional information officer, Siliguri, Mr Jagadish Roy, the department had to take the ‘unwilling decision’ as the prevailing hill situation was ‘not favorable.’Read the rest of this entry »
SILIGURI, July 30: The RSP is not giving up its demand to change the convener of the Darjeeling district Left Front, though it prefers to adopt a wait and watch line for the time being with other Front constituents like the CPI and the Forward Bloc not taking interest. Mr Tapas Goswami, a district RSP leader, said that a letter demanding the issue to be discussed in the district Front meeting was pending with the district CPI-M leadership. The CPI and the FB, however, asked the RSP leadership to settle the issue through bilateral discussion with the CPI-M.
Mr Goswami said that the issue had not been included in the agenda of today’s district Left Front meeting. “Today’s meeting was concerned principally with programmes meant for making the 20 August all-India strike a success. We expect that the issue would be taken up at the next Front meeting,” he said. It may be mentioned here that the RSP leadership had demanded the replacement of the present convener state urban development minister Mr Asok Bhattacharya from the disitrict Left Front convenor’s post.Read the rest of this entry »
SILIGURI, July 30: The spotting of a rare animal in the Bowbazar area of Samarnagar in Siliguri around 8:00 a.m. brought life to a standstill in the locality for over three hours in the morning today. People gathered in large numbers at the spot where the two-feet-long mammal was first spotted by Ravi Roy, a student of class-IX of the nearby Baghajatin Vidyapith in Pradhannagar.
The crowd tied the animal with ropes and started pelting stones at it and sprinkled water on its body. It was then taken to the nearby Mahananda river by the curious onlookers, who wanted to find out whether it was an aquatic or a terrestrial animal.
Roy informed the Zoology teacher of his school, Mr Debapratim Saha, who rushed to the spot to rescue the animal from its ordeal but the residents of the area refused to hand over the mammal to Mr Saha. It was then taken to the house of the local panchayat at the insistence of Mr Saha and later handed over to a team of officials from the Sukna Rescue Centre of the forest department.
The animal was later identified by Mr NC Bahuguna, chief conservator of forests, north Bengal, as a Chinese Pangolin, which might have strayed into the area from the adjacent forests, wastelands or some other abandoned areas, where they are normally found. The mammal has been safely released into the forest, he informed.
DARJEELING, July 30: The All India Gorkha League president Mr Madan Tamang has cautioned chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee against trying to make an all-party proposal in the West Bengal Assembly regarding the issue of Darjeeling. “Media reports suggest that the CM is trying to make a proposal in the Legislative Assembly on Darjeeling issue tomorrow. The AIGL requests the CM and the Left Front government that as Leninist’s if they really abide by the right to self determination, they should place a proposal of a separate state rather than an alternative arrangement in the form of Gorkhaland Autonomous Council,” Mr Tamang said.
With the Centre willing to hold a tripartite meeting on the Gorkhaland issue, the GJMM is waiting for a date, which is likely to be on the first week of August. However, the AIGL leadership also cautioned the Hill parties to remain alert on “tactics” of the state government regarding Darjeeling. “The Hill parties who are demanding Gorkhaland should not fall for the devious tactics of the state government. They should not compromise on the Gorkhaland issue for they would be fooling the people then,” Mr Tamang said.
The leader alleged that the Darjeeling MP Mr Dawa Narbula is aware of the fact that the Centre is trying to make alternative arrangements for Darjeeling other than Gorkhaland. “The MP is aware of all that the government is cooking in Delhi. If he really cares about the Hill peoples’ aspiration, he should tell the people everything. The Monsoon Session of Parliament is very crucial. I appeal the people to remain wary of the events that follow,” Mr Tamang said.
