Veterinary Council of India has notified the All India Pre-Veterinary Test-2009 (AIPVT -2009), the Entrance examination for admission to 15% of the total number of seats to be filled on Merit in Veterinary Colleges in India (except Jammu & Kashmir State) for the academic session 2009-10, to the 1st year of Bachelor of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry (B.V.Sc. & A.H) Degree course spread over five complete academic years including a compulsory rotating internship of six months.
The Examination will be held on 9th May, 2009 (Saturday) from 2 pm to 5 pm at the centers stated in the Information Bulletin/Website.
Applicant should be an Indian National and must have passed the Higher Secondary Examination or the Indian School Certificate Examination equivalent to 10+2 Higher Secondary Examination (after a period of 12 years of study) the last two years of study with Physics, Chemistry, Biology and any other elective subject with English at a level not less than the core course for English as recommended by the National Committee on Education and prescribed by NCERT OR should have passed the Intermediate Science examination of a recognized Board/University with Physics, Chemistry and Biology (including practical) and English.
Applicants in the General category must have passed the qualifying Examination obtaining not less than 50% of the aggregate marks in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and English and should have passed individually in each of these subjects. In respect of applicants belonging to the SC/ST or other special category of students (Other Backward Classes) as specified by the Government from time to time, marks required at the qualifying examination is 10% less than that prescribed for General Category. Read the rest of this entry »
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha declared closure leads to West Bengal Government, Central Government and DGHC office closure. Seen from (top left to bottom lef) are District Magistrate's office, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, Rural Development Cell and District Magistrate's personal office. Photo by Himalaya Darpan
KOLKATA: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) resumed its “non-cooperation movement” with the West Bengal government in the three hill sub-divisions of Darjeeling district on Wednesday with activists forcing the closure of Central, State and Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council offices.
Banks, post-offices and emergency services, however, have been exempted from the agitation. “The non-cooperation movement will continue indefinitely. We have resumed it as part of our agitation for a separate State of Gorkhaland,” GJM general secretary Roshan Giri told The Hindu from Darjeeling.
Conducive
Earlier, the agitation for a separate State to be carved out of Darjeeling district and certain areas contiguous to it was suspended after weeks on December 26, 2008, to create a situation “conducive” to the second round of tripartite talks on the situation in the region among the Centre, the State and the GJM leadership on December 29 The talks had ended inconclusively. Read the rest of this entry »
Siliguri, Jan. 7: Several political leaders, including those of the Opposition Trinamul Congress and the Congress, slammed the state government for “keeping police in limbo while separatist forces are desperately targeting the unity of West Bengal.”
This criticism of the state government has assumed significance in view of the reported discontent in the higher echelons of the north Bengal police force in the wake of the state’s repeated “neutralising” intervention in tackling the growing cult of political violence in the region, particularly in the strife-torn Darjeeling district. There are indications that discontent is percolating down the line, resulting in “fast setting demoralisation in the police force” in the sensitive region.
Topping the list, the state PWD minister, Mr Kshiti Goswami, said that the state government should have the modicum of discrimination in differentiating between tolerance shown to the cause behind a people’s movement and the cult of violence often overshadowing the cause. “As far as the Darjeeling impasse is concerned my party fully supports the softness the state government has been showing to the statehood movement. Yet, when a cult of violence tends to usurp ascendancy in the name of a political cause, the government cannot remain an idle spectator. Unfortunately this is what is happening in Darjeeling,” the minister remarked.
Taking a dig at the state government and its police, the leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Mr Partha Chatterjee said that a major section of the state police had sold its conscience to the ruling party’s bossy satraps. “They have allowed themselves to be thoroughly politicised for the sake of the left overs of government favours. The real malady behind the so-called demoralisation of the Darjeelingdistrict police force is here,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »
Yumthang valley is mesmerising, with yaks grazing and carpeted meadows against a backdrop of towering peaks. It has breathtaking views where one can become part of a timeless scene with no fear of intrusion, writes Sudipta Chatterjee
Five days’ break at the end of the year and one can plan to experience the magic of snow-clad hills. It all comes in a close-knit self-planned package of the snowy hills of Lachen, Lachung and Katau along with the magnificent peaks and pristine valley of Yumthang, the glory of North Sikkim, lying just 140 km north of Gangtok.
From Gangtok we reached Lachen in the evening. The tongue-in-cheek hill side signboards kept giving us sound advice and even tickled our funny bones a trifle. They went: “Be gentle on my curves”, “On my curves check your nerves”, No hurry no worry”, “Drink and drive, You won’t survive”. If you are married, divorce speed” (what about the single ones?) and so on.
Throughout the hilly roads of Sikkim, a happy combination of ruddy-cheeked babies, furry dogs, cows as robust as bulls and grazing army horses was a common sight. The river Teesta, with its emerald-green tributaries, accompanied all visitors with heart-warming tenacity, livening up the journeys up and down the hills. When the ear learnt to hear beyond the quiet, you realised that the trees and hills were filled with music. The valleys had mesmerising waterfalls along the hills.
Kurseong, Jan. 7: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) organised a public meeting at Kurseong today. Addressing the meeting, GJM spokesperson Mr Binay Tamang said that the GJM was following the Gandhian policy of non-violence, “but the state government with the help of the GNLF is trying to provoke us and divide the Gorkha community.”
Referring to the 2 January Kurseong court incident, the leader said that it was the failure of the administration to control the angry mob.
According to him, police were raiding GJM supporters’ houses after the Rohini and Kurseong court incident. “Our supporters fled their homes following the police raids and are scared to return. But let me tell them even Gandhiji was in jail to free India from the British. The youth should be alert and united, not frustrated,” Mr Tamang, said.
Mr Tamang also criticised CPI-M leader Mr Jibesh Sarkar, CPI-M Rajya Sabha member Mr Suraj Pathak and the Siliguri mahakuma parisad sabhadipati, Mrs Moni Thapa, against their activities, which to him was anti-Gorkha.
The GJM relaunched its non-cooperation movement against the state government and the Centre and kept all government offices closed in the proposed Gorkhaland area. Read the rest of this entry »
Gangtok, Jan. 7: Sikkim is enjoying a boom in tourism like never before. Contrary to the earlier trend when tourists came to this serene state in spring and autumn, tourists these days visit Sikkim almost throughout the year. When asked about the reasons for the increase in tourist inflow, Ms Prava Rai, joint secretary, department of tourism, said: “The credit goes to the Centre’s “look east policy”. Since the state is now a major destination in the Buddhist circuit, it helps attract Buddhist pilgrims. They come to see the lakes like Guru Dongmar, Tsongu, Khechuperi, Phur Tsa Chu which is known as the famous hot spring, all considered sacred both to the Buddhist and Hindus. The newly remodeled MG Marg Nayabazaar in the heart of Gangtok attracts tourists. Half of it is vehicle-free which allows people to roam around the place. It is unique in the country, she said.
She also said that the recently introduced winter skiing is attracting many tourists to the snow-capped region between Lachung, at an altitude of 8000 ft, and Yumthang at an altitude of 11,800 ft. “To promote tourism, the concept of village tourism has been introduced. Read the rest of this entry »
Siliguri, Jan. 7: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) supremo, Mr Bimal Gurung, today met BJP leader Mr LK Advani and the party president Mr Rajnath Singh in New Delhi asking for their support for a separate Gorkhaland state.
During the meetings, the GJM chief was accompanied by his party vice-president Mr Pradip Pradhan, leaders Mr Anmol Prashad, Mr Kamal Sharma, Mr Govind Prashad Sharma and Delhi based business journalist Mr Swaraj Thapa.
“Mr Gurung thanked both Mr Advani and Mr Singh for BJP’s proactive role in discarding the imposition of the Sixth Schedule status on Darjeeling and also urged for BJP’s support to the cause of Gorkhaland,” the GJM vice-president Pradip Pradhan told over phone from New Delhi.
He further said that the BJP leaders have advised the GJM to carry forward the ongoing dialogue with the Centre and the West Bengal government.
The GJM delegation, which arrived in Delhi on 5 January, had met BJP leaders Mr Ananth Kumar and the Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson Mri SS Ahluwalia yesterday and is scheduled to meet Mrs Sushma Swaraj tomorrow, Pradip Pradhan said. “We will be in Delhi for a few days more and meetings with many important political leaders both from the UPA and NDA camps are likely,” the GJM leader said while his party president was addressing a pro-Gorkhaland meeting at the Constitution Club in South Avenue, New Delhi this evening. Read the rest of this entry »
Gangtok, Jan. 7: The Sikkim chief minister, Mr Pawan Chamling, has urged the Centre to arrange commando training for 50 persons from Sikkim this year and increase the number to 100 from the next year. He has also appealed the Centre to set up a central forensic laboratory in the Himalayan state.
Speaking at a conference on internal security in New Delhi yesterday, the chief minister said that Sikkim is normally a peaceful state and so far remained free from terrorist attacks. “But, there were instances when terrorists tried to take refuge in Sikkim. The arrest of a Bodo militant in 2003 followed by that of a Bangaldeshi ex-serviceman with suspected ISI links and the recovery of fake currencies, improvised explosive device and explosives during a public meeting thereafter, makes it mandatory to set up a mechanism against such threats,” the CM said. According to Mr Chamling, a batch of armed police personnel from Sikkim are currently undergoing training with the NSG and would be available for deployment by the end of February in the state. He also said that a police training centre was under construction at Yangang in South Sikkim. Read the rest of this entry »
Siliguri, Jan. 7: In a cunning gesture, the CPI-M Darjeeling district committee today made an appeal to the Governor, Mr Gopal Krishna Gandhi, to visit the Rohini village in Kurseong where the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM)had wreaked havoc on 1 January.
Irate GJM activists had torched 20 houses and a DGHC tourist bunglow at Rohini on the first day of the New Year allegedly to avenge the death of its leader, Subodh Pradhan, at the village on the night of 31 December.
“Despite our eagerness to show solidarity with families of the arson-victims and to extend them some help at this hour of crisis, we are unable to go to Rohini due to the GJM movement. But since our sensible Governor is here in north Bengal right now, we would like to appeal him through the media to visit the arson-victims at Rohini,” the CPI-M Darjeeling district secretariat member, Mr Jibesh Sarkar, said at a Press conference in Siliguri this morning.
Mr Sarkar, who also is also a member of the CPI-M state committee, said that they wanted Mr Gandhi to visit Rohini because “the Governor often reaches out to the victimised people” be it any place in the southern Bengal.
Political observers, however, are viewing this as the CPI-M’s gesture for political gains. “In case the Governor visits Rohini, he would have to condemn the arson act even in general terms and the CPI-M would use this to corner the GJM further,” one of them said. Read the rest of this entry »
A health worker sprinkles bleaching powder in Matigara block on Wednesday. (Kundan Yolmo)
Siliguri, Jan. 7: Culling of poultry birds was completed last night in the Siligurisubdivision and the Rajganj block in the adjoining Jalpaiguri district where avian influenza had been detected on January 3.
Sarad Dwivedi, the Siliguri subdivisional officer, said 30,556 birds had been culled in both the places over the past four days.
“After the completion of the culling, moping of poultry birds, eggs and the fodder commenced today and the process will end tomorrow,” said Dwibedi.
The government had engaged 26 teams to destroy 43,111 eggs and 1,481kg fodder in the affected areas.
The official said the administration had kept 14 villages in Phansidewa and Matigara blocks and some wards of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation under surveillance to check whether anyone had contracted the disease.
“A team of 20 health workers will monitor these places for the next seven days under the supervision of the child development project officers,” said Dwivedi. Read the rest of this entry »
Siliguri, Jan. 7: The Centre will sanction Rs 950 crore to form the National Blood Transfusion Authority, an autonomous body for monitoring and extending financial assistance to blood banks in the country.
“The proposal (to form the body) will be placed in the budget session of Parliament and probably will be implemented after April,” said Apurba Ghosh, the chairperson of the National Task Force on Augmentation of Voluntary Blood Donation Programme, today. “The authority will be an umbrella organisation to bring all private and government blood banks under one banner.”
The task force under the Union health ministry coordinates the activities of the blood banks in the country.
Currently, blood banks in the country are under the National Aids Control Organisation (Naco). The proposed body will look into all issues relating to blood transfusion and will be assisted by state-level bodies.
“Except for India, a national-level body for monitoring the blood banks has already been set up in all countries. Blood banks are of prime importance but so far we are functioning just as a wing under the Naco,” Ghosh added.
Ghosh was speaking at the inauguration of a state-sponsored internal blood safety programme. The three-month-long campaign, to be held in 19 districts of Bengal, will create awareness on safe blood transfusion and motivating blood donors.
“We will collaborate with NGOs to educate people on the safety and hygienic sense of blood donation. Workers will also be trained on technical aspects of blood transfusion,” the chairperson of the task force said.
According to Ghosh, the programme targets to replenish stocks by 50 per cent in north Bengal, considering the blood shortage in the region. “We intend to encourage voluntary donors so that blood stocks increase considerably,” Ghosh said. Read the rest of this entry »
Lucknow, Jan. 7: The body of a BTech student from Sikkim was found hanging in a hostel of Motilal Nehru College of Engineering in Allahabad where he was studying.
Shobhit Agarwal (18), the only son of a businessman at Rhenock in Sikkim, was a first year student of information technology in the government-run college. The body was found in his room at Raman Hostel on the institute campus around 1.30pm today.
On January 2, a second year BTech student of the college, Sonal alias Parul, had shot herself dead with a revolver in a bathroom at her uncle’s place at Varanasi. The 18-year-old girl had taken the extreme step after faring badly in the examinations, police said.
Today, the hostel authorities informed the police when Shobhit did not open the door of his room even after repeated knocks by his friends around 1.30pm. The law enforcers found the youth hanging from the ceiling of the room. No suicide note was found.
A magisterial inquiry has been ordered.
“The student’s family has been informed in Sikkim,” said Vinod Yadav, the hostel superintendent and a teacher of the college. “We have been told that his relatives are already on their way. But we are afraid that they won’t be able to reach Allahabad before tomorrow afternoon.”
According to the teachers, Shobhit had scored “very high” 8.4 cumulative progress index. “He was a brilliant student and we all liked him. But we don’t know why he ended his life,” said Yadav
Shobhit had returned to his room around 12.30 last night After that, he had watched a movie on his laptop till 3.30am and had gone to bed around 4am, a friend said.
“When we went to his room around 9am today, he told us he was not feeling well and would like to skip classes,” Devesh Rai, a friend, said. “Tum Log jao. Mere ko parshan na karo (Please leave me alone. Don’t disturb me),” he told us.
At 1.30pm, when the students came back to the hostel, they found Shobhit’s room locked from inside. “Our repeated knocks failed to fetch any reply. We then informed the authorities,” Devesh told The Telegraph over phone. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the leopards before it left the South Khairbari rescue centre for the Darjeeling hills on Wednesday. Picture by Anirban Choudhury
Alipurduar, Jan. 7: Two leopards from South Khairbari Rescue Centre were today sent to Padmaja Naidu Zoological Park in Darjeeling to reduce the pressure on the Dooars unit. Two more will be sent to the hill zoo in the next phase.
Another big cat, Jimmy, arrived in Khairbari, 46km from here, from Ramna Bagan in Burdwan this afternoon.
Despite the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) prohibiting the captive breeding of leopards, two cubs were born in September in the centre’s enclosure earmarked for leopard safari. Here, the animals roam freely for tourists, who come here in a battery-run vehicle for close views.
The birth of the cubs prompted the authorities to shift Binod, the adult male leopard, to a cage at the centre where already there were already 11 animals. With today’s departure of six-year-old Binod and two-and-a-half-year-old Karina and the new arrival Jimmy, the figure has come down to 10.
Jimmy, an adult female which once belonged to this centre, was brought back here because Jon, a male leopard at Ramna Bagan that kept her company, had died.
In the next shift, two leopards will be sent to the Darjeeling zoo after which a pair from the hills will be transferred to Ramna Bagan. Read the rest of this entry »
Kalimpong, Jan. 7: Taking a leaf out of the GNLF book, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has decided to practise fair politics by organising a 10-day Milan Mela at Upper Phagu near Gorubathan from January 13.
Gorkha-Adivasi Sanskritik Milan Mela, which is a brainchild of Morcha president Bimal Gurung, is being organised to highlight the close cultural ties between the two communities.
In the past, the GNLF had sought to use the annual Mange Mela, generally held in mid-January, to establish the tribal roots of the Gorkhas in the wake of its demand seeking Sixth Schedule status for the Darjeeling hills.
Kalyan Dewan, the Morcha’s Kalimpong branch president, said much like the Gorkhas, the Adivasis, too, had been deprived of their rights by the Bengal government.
“The mela will not only showcase the cultural integration of the Gorkhas and Adivasis, but is also aimed at raising awareness among the tribal community on Gorkhaland,” he added.
The Morcha wants the Adivasi-dominated areas of the Dooars and the Terai included in Gorkhaland. The party had, in fact, included three members of the Adivasi and Rajbongshi communities in its delegation during the second round of tripartite talks that was held in Delhi late last month.
The Milan Mela will be held at the football grounds of the Upper Phagu tea estate, 60km from here, and comprise cultural programmes, exhibitions and sporting activities.
In the football tournament that began yesterday, 11 teams from the Dooars, Terai and the Darjeeling hills are vying for the Shaheed Pramila Sharma Trophy. The final is slated for January 16.
Raju Ghimeray, the vice-president of Morcha’s Gorubathan unit, said the trophy has been named after Sharma, who is considered the first martyr of the party’s movement for Gorkhaland. The winner will walk away with Rs 50,000, while the runners-up will take home Rs 25,000. Read the rest of this entry »
Siliguri, Jan. 7: The district CPM leaders of Darjeeling are at a loss trying to explain the difference in the stands taken by the party and the state government with the Trinamul Congress accusing them of doublespeak.
“We do not have any clue as to who stopped police from arresting a prominent leader of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) at Bagdogra Airport on Monday,” said Jibitesh Sarkar, a state committee member of the CPM that runs the state government. “The party is not aware of any such administrative instruction but wants the police to arrest all those named in the complaints lodged after violence at Rohini and on the Kurseong court premises last week.”
On Monday, the police had gone to Bagdogra to arrest Morcha vice-president Pradeep Pradhan, but retreated after instructions from “higher levels”. Morchasupporters torched a house at Rohini last week after one of their leaders had been lynched a few hours earlier. They also beat up the murder accused the next day in court. Pradhan’s name figures both in the arson and the assault cases.
The district Trinamul has accused the CPM of double standards. “On one hand, the CPM-led state government is preventing the police from discharging their duty. On the other, party leaders are submitting memorandums urging arrest,” said Gautam Deb, the Darjeeling district Trinamul president. “It is because of such doublespeak that the police spirit has dampened.”
The inspector-general of police, north Bengal, K.L. Tamta, had yesterday said the Bagdogra retreat had left his force depressed.
Darjeeling, Jan. 7: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM)has decided to withdraw its hunger strikes in front of police stations across the hills this evening even as most government offices remained shut as part of the non-cooperation movement that was resumed today.
Like in the last phase, there were no Morcha picketers in town, but the state and the central government offices were deserted.
“No untoward incident was reported. Those in the election office had reported for duty. A meeting to discuss culling operations in Pubong was also held,” said Surendra Gupta, the district magistrate of Darjeeling.
Culling was expected to start at 4.30pm following the confirmation of the outbreak of bird flu in Pubong village in Rangli-Rungliot block, 45km from Darjeeling. Around 8,000 birds will be culled.
Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said: “We decided to lift the relay hunger strike to concentrate on our party activities, scheduled to start in the Dooars soon.”
After Christmas break, the fast had resumed on January 2 to protest against alleged police atrocities when pro and anti-Gorkhaland supporters clashed at Kalchini last month.
The Morcha has already announced a five-day programme for the women’s wing in various parts of the Dooars from January 15. Read the rest of this entry »
The closed district magistrate’s office in Darjeeling (below) and the forest office at Sukna on Wednesday after the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha resumed its movement to shut down all government offices. Pictures by Suman Tamang and Kundan Yolmo
Darjeeling, Jan. 7: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) president Bimal Gurung today met senior BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Rajnath Singh in New Delhi, in what the hill outfit said was a goodwill gesture, coming as it does before the Lok Sabha elections.
“It was more of a courtesy call. After the BJP helped us shelve the Sixth Schedule bill, we had not thanked the party. We did that today,” Morcha vice-president Pradeep Pradhan said over the phone from Delhi.
The Morcha leaders had yesterday met S.S. Ahluwalia and Ananth Kumar.
Advani reportedly told the delegation that he was aware of the Gorkhaland demand and after the elections it would be discussed at the political-level.
“Till then, secretary-level discussions are important, he told us,” said Pradhan.
The delegation, which is expected to stay in Delhi for the next three-four days, has fixed an appointment with Sushma Swaraj tomorrow. Efforts are also on to meet external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
Political observers in the hills said the Morcha trip had been organised to feel the pulse of the national parties on Gorkhaland. Read the rest of this entry »
