Greetings from Darjeeling! I hope you are all doing well. Please do accept my best wishes and deepest regards. Today a great friend and a patron of Beacon Online intimated of Beacon Online’s unfledging stand for Kapil Thapa. Kapil Thapa was very much will be coming to Beacon Online. Lets give him a warm welcome so that when he comes to use he can see how much we love him.
Please fill up the comment threads below wishing our Gorkha brother a very best and pledge our support to him.
Students of Siliguri College performing during the Republic Day Celebrations. Photo by Vikram Sashankar, Himalaya Darpan
Darjeeling District Magistrate take a Guard of Honour at Chowrasta during Republic Day celebrations. Photo by Himalaya Darpan
Children performing cultural dance during the Republic Day celebration at Darjeeling. Photo by Himalaya Darpan
Tibetan Yak dance during the occasion of the Republic Day Celebrations at Kurseong. Photo from Himalaya Darpan
The Governor of Sikkim Balmiki Prasad Singh taking the Guard of Honour at Palzor Stadium, Gangtok on the occasion of the Republic Day Celebrations. Photo by Himalaya Darpan
“Can Slumdog Millionaire’s Hollywood dream come true for Sunil Chhetri” -THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
“I am really optimistic and I am looking forward to the trial. I just want to come here and give 100 per cent”. CHHETRI TO SKY SPORTS NEWS
FROM HINDUSTAN TIMES
NEWS SHARED BY AARDEE
Sunil Chettri. Photo from The Indian Tribune
COVENTRY CITY are silent but Sunil Chhetri’s arrival in England generated a buzz in the media there. An article in the Daily Telegraph’s website even found a similarity between the India and East Bengal striker’s going for trials and Slumdog Millionaire, the film with multiple Oscar nominations this year.
“Can he break the mould? Can he become the one in a bil- lion Indian?” Daily Telegraph asked on Monday. “Can Slumdog Millionaire’s Hollywood dream come true for Sunil Chhetri?” read the headline in the website. “I am optimistic and looking forward to the trial. I just want to come here and give my 100%,” Sky Sports quoted Chhetri as saying ahead of his one-week trip one that could be extended to accommodate a courtesy call to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.
Chhetri reached England on Sunday and unconfirmed reports said the player had two training sessions with the first team which play Cardiff City in The Championship on Wednesday City though hasn’t . yet spoken about him. From 1999 to 2002, Bhaichung Bhutia was signed by Bury making him the first , Indian-born to play profes- sionally in Europe. Read the rest of this entry »
Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)
Dholpur House, Shahjahan Road, New Delhi-110069
UPSC Advt. No. 2/2009
Job Description : UPSC invites application on prescribed forms by 12/02/2009 (19/02/09 for the candidates from far flung areas) for various posts in various Government of India Ministries and Departments in the prescribed format. The post are :
Lecturer (Electronics/ Telecommunicaiton Engineering) : 01 post in MCTE, Ministry of Defence Pay Scale : Rs. 8000-13500 Age : 35 years.
Programmer : 01 post (OBC) in Joint Cipher Bureau (JCB) Ministry of Defence Pay Scale : Rs. 7450-11500 Age : 33 years.
Director, Central Drug Testing Laboratory, Mumbai : 01 post in Ministry of Health & Familiy Welfare Pay Scale : Rs. 14300-18300 Age : 50 years.
Specialist Gr. II (Jr. Scale) (Anaesthesia) : 05 posts (OBC-5), Ministry of Health & Familiy Welfare Pay Scale : Rs. 10000-15200 + NPA Age : 48 years.
Deputy Government Examiner of Questioned Documents : 02 posts in Directorate of Forensic Science, Ministry of Home Affairs Pay Scale : Rs. 10000-15200 Age : 40 years.
Nautical Surveyor : 08 posts (SC-2, ST-1,OBc-2) in Directorate General of Shipping, Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways
Pay Scale : Rs. 12000-16500 Age : 50 years.
Technical Officers : 26 posts (ST-2, OBC-9) in Directorate of Printing, Ministry of Urban Development Pay Scale : Rs. 6500-10500 Age : 30 years. Lecturers (Electrical Enginerring) : 20 posts (SC-3,ST-1, OBC-7, UR-8) in Government Polytechnics under Directorate of Training and Technical Education, Govt. of NCT Delhi Pay Scale : Rs. 8000-13500 Age : 35 years. Read the rest of this entry »
Job Description : Recruitment of Professors in various categories in Higher Education Department of Govt. of MP
Applications are invited from Indian Nationals for the following vacancy of
Readers :
Professor (Pradhyapak) : 385 posts in various subjects
Pay Scale : Rs.12000-18300/-
Age : 21-45 years as on 01/01/2010. Relaxation age as per MP Govt. rules.
Qualification : Ph.D. in concern subject and 10 years experience of teaching in Graduae/ Post Graduate classes.
Selection Procedure : By Interview.
Application Fee : Rs.180/- (Rs.90/- for SC/ST/OBC/PH of MP only) for all candidates and outside of MP candidates in the form of DD in favour of Secretary, Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission, Indore payable at Indore. Write your name, address and name of the post on the back of the DD. Read the rest of this entry »
The fragile peace in the Dooars is once again in danger with Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) threatening to enter the area to hold a rally despite prohibitory orders.
Slamming Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for “not keeping his word” given at the meeting in Kolkata on January 20, GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said the Morcha would go on a “fast-unto-death” in front of Garubathan police station from January 29 – the day the CM has invited a delegation of Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP) leaders to Kolkata for a meeting to resolve the stand-off in the Dooars.
Senior GJM leaders, including the outfit’s president Bimal Gurung, are camping in Garubathan on the Darjeeling-Jalpaguri border in a bid to enter the Dooars, where prohibitory orders were issued on January 15, a day before the Gorkha-tribal clashes rocked the area, Special IG (Jalpaiguri Range) Zulfiqar Hasan said. “At the moment, we do not see it fit to lift the prohibitory orders. Three companies of the Seema Suraksha Bal continue to patrol the area,” Hasan said.
The GJM has shot off a letter to the CM listing its demands. “No step has been taken to free our activists from prisons in Jalpaiguri and compensating those whose property was damaged in the riots. None of the persons we named for attacking our rally have been arrested. We have faxed a letter to the CM saying we would sit on a fast-unto-death. Copies have also been sent to the Bengal Governor, President of India and the Union Home Minister,” Giri said. Read the rest of this entry »
New Delhi: Two of the country’s heritage buildings along with two engineering marvels have been made it to India’s list of nominees for Unesco’s world heritage status for 2011.
Mumbai’s Churchgate building (presently the Western Railway headquarters), Mussorie’s Oak Grove School premises, Gwalior’s Maharaja Light Railway and the Kangra Valley Railway have been nominated for the tentative list by India.
The official dossier sent to Unesco in Paris on Friday by India, which is exclusively available with TOI, names the four sites as its “official entry for consideration in the Unesco tentative list for 2011″.
Speaking to TOI, Rajesh Agrawal, executive director (heritage) in the railway ministry, said: “The tentative list, however, is like a preliminary exam. In June 2009 in Spain, Unesco will decide whether any of the four other candidates that we have nominated merit world heritage status. The Unesco board will then ask us to send the final and the detailed dossier on them.”
For 2010, India has named the 101-year-old Matheran Light Railway (MLR) as India’s official entry for world heritage site status. MLR crosses 121 small bridges and navigates through 221 sharp curves during its 20-km journey.
“MLR will be inspected in 2009 and come up for inscription in 2010 after the culture ministry’s formal approval,” Agrawal said.
If MLR is chosen as a world heritage site, it will be an unprecedented fifth entry made by Indian Railways to get such a rare honour.
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, Nilgiri Mountain Railway, Mumbai’s VT station and the most recent Kalka-Shimla Railway are already on Unesco’s heritage list.
Speaking about why the Churchgate building (housing the Western Railway headquarters) deserves the coveted honour, the dossier says: “The building is architecturally one of the most magnificent edifices that exist today and is an example par excellence of the coming together of the great cultures of Britain, Central Asia and India.”
“It is an excellent example of Indo-Saracenic combined with colonial and Islamic architecture. The building stands across the road from Churchgate Station, which is one of the busiest railway stations in the world (used by around 3 million people daily),” the dossier says.
As for Oak Grove School, the dossier says: “The school is an outstanding example of the harmonious blend of three significant cultural developments of the 19th century — Railways, Hill Stations and Public School Culture. It is perhaps the oldest surviving example of such an institution. Set up in 1888, it is still fully operational.” Read the rest of this entry »
This is an easy dish to cook. Some people may feel squeamish about consuming tummy, to them I would say that they do not know what they are missing. It is an excellent accompaniment with drinks as “biting”. Moreover goats tummy has very little fat and mostly muscle so it is not that fattening. It is available with the butchers already cleaned.
Ingredients
Tummy – 1
Onion – 2 (medium)
Garlic 4 – 5 cloves (chopped)
Ginger – 1 inch piece (chopped)
Cooking oil – half cup
Methi(fenugreek) seeds -15-20
Jeera (cumin) seeds – ½ tea spoon
Coriander powder — 1 tea spoon
Cumin powder – 1 tea spoon
Turmeric powder — ¼ (quarter) spoon
Chaat masala 1 – 2 tea spoons
Lime/Lemon juice 2 – 4 tea spoons
Salt — according to taste
Taste maker (Knorr cubes) – 2
Coriander leaves and Green chillies (optional)
Instructions
Put the whole tummy to boil adding a pinch of turmeric powder, just crumble one taste maker cube (Knorr or any ) chicken or lamb flavoured, into the boiling water (this reduces the odour which some people may find less pleasant). Boil for 15 – 20 minutes. Read the rest of this entry »
An anti-India group, which has accused New Delhi of encroaching into Nepalese territory, has demanded the establishment of ‘Greater Nepal’ by inclusion of four Indian states.
Some 25-30 people linked to the little-known group ‘Unified Nepal National Front’ had gathered in front of the Indian embassy in the capital and staged a noisy demonstration on Republic Day.
The group demanded the merger of Indian states of Sikkim, Darjeeling, Uttaranchal and Siliguri into Nepal for the creation of ‘Greater Nepal’. They accused India of “occupying” some Nepalese territory.
It also handed over a memorandum to the embassy seeking the ban on screening of the film ‘Chandani Chowk to China’, which has sparked a row after it allegedly suggesting that Buddha was born in India, contrary to the fact that his birth place Lumbini is situated in western parts of the Himalayan nation. Read the rest of this entry »
Kathmandu, Jan 27 : While a British trekker, last seen at the foothills of the Himalayan ranges in northern Nepal in December, is still missing in Nepal, a South African was saved after he collapsed near the India-Nepal border, Nepal’s tourism officials said.
Julian Alexander Wynne, a 33-year-old from Hampshire, who was travelling in Nepal with his friend Lee Aaron Jeffries, has been missing since last month when the pair went trekking in the Everest region from mountainous Jiri district.
Though the two went up to Gokyo, a valley in north Nepal famed for the Gokyo Ri peak, on Dec 22, they decided to follow separate routes with Wynne reportedly taking the trail to the base camp of Mt Everest, the highest peak in the world. He had earlier told his family that he would be “off the radar” for three weeks.
However, his family began to get worried after three weeks had passed without any news from him and they learnt that Jeffries had returned alone.
Wynne had originally planned to travel through India and Nepal for nine months.
“Guides and porters have been looking for Wynne without coming across him,” Ang Tshering Sherpa, chairman of Asian Trekking, told IANS.
“In winter, the Cho Las pass, where he was seen last, becomes treacherous and slippery due to ice-formation. If he is not anywhere else, the possibility of an accident can’t be ruled out.”
Shaun Swilling, a South African tourist who was crossing into India from Nepal’s border town of Bhairahawa this month and collapsed due to diabetes, was taken by Nepal police to hospital and treated successfully.
Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) Tuesday said it had partially paid his medical and other expenses.
Officials coordinated with the South African embassy in Sri Lanka to trace Swilling’s friend, who was in India’s Rishikesh town, and facilitated the tourist’s return home.
“Before he left Nepal, Swilling said, ‘Nepali hospitality saved my life’,” NTB said in a press statement.
The press statement comes after the Nepal government was criticised for failing to make any official announcement about Wynne’s disappearance or to launch a search and rescue mission.
In March 2004, another Briton went missing in the Everest area.
Gareth Koch, a 24-year-old from Oxford, went missing around Namche Bazar. He has not been found yet.
A year earlier, Irish citizen Alex Ratnasothy was robbed on the way to Namche Bazar. His parents, who came to Nepal to search for him, reportedly found the 24-year-old had been robbed of his money, bag, guitar and even shoes in a village called Khari Khola. Read the rest of this entry »
KATHMANDU: The distributor of ‘Chandni Chowk to China’ in Nepal has received threats from some people in Kathmandu as one of the shots in the film suggests that Lord Buddha was born in India. Rohan Sippy, who produced the movie, came to know of the threat calls on Friday afternoon.
Sippy told Times of India, “It is mentioned in one scene of `Chandni Chowk to China’ that Buddha was born in India, a statement that has been deemed false in Nepal. It was never our intention to hurt the sentiments of the people of Nepal or anyone else for that matter. We would like to unconditionally apologise for any offence caused due to the error.’
Kurseong, Jan. 27: Although the Rohini by-pass provides a convenient shortcut from Siliguri to Kurseong, the road has been in a dangerous condition for the last few months, with cracks at every stage of the route creating hazardous driving conditions.
The road was inaugurated by the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) on 16 July, 2007, after seven years of construction work and Rs 10.42-crore investment.
Since the administration announced the Pankhabari road as “one way” till 5 p.m, the majority of Darjeeling-bound Siliguri vehicles take the Rohini road, making it one of the busiest in the region.
One passenger, who regularly used to visit Kurseong from Siliguri, said: “Its been a year since I visited Kurseong. I’ve forgone my traditional visits, as Rohini road feels uncomfortable and unsafe to me”.
Another passenger said that besides proper repair works, the road is in need of several parapets.
A driver, Mr Pramod Chettri, said: “Apart from the fear instilled in passengers, the road’s poor condition means it consumes more fuel and creates more problems for vehicles”. Read the rest of this entry »
Kurseong, Jan. 27: Five Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) supporters, who were arrested on 13 January, in connection with the 2 January Kurseong Court hostilities were produced today in the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court, Kurseong. Their bail petition was rejected. The next hearing would be held on 10 February.
A large number of GJM supporters from Singel Tea Estate areas organised a rally in Kurseong town, demonstrating against the administration. Mr Anoj Thapa, a GJM leader from Singel Tea Estate unit said that one of the arrested persons was from Singel Tea Estate and he was not guilty. “The administration should immediately release him as well as the other four,” he said. He also said that the GJM would observe a “jail bharo aandolan” if the administration arrested innocent people again.
Siliguri, Jan. 27: The Darjeeling districtLeft Front leadership today said that the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) should not badger the state government to allow it to hold rallies in the Dooars. “The peace just restored is fragile and any attempt to hold rallies there might culminate in another bout of ethnic conflagration,” said the leaders of the CPI-M, CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP.
The GJM has threatened a fast agitation at Gorubathan on the issue from 29 January.
Denouncing the GJM for sticking to its rally demand in the Dooars the CPI-M state committee member Mr Jibesh Sarkar said that the hill-based outfit seemed desperate to destabilize peace in the region. “The GJM cannot keep up its agitation momentum unless it cajoles ethnic frenzy. Our party having seen through the murky shenanigans is against giving it permission to hold rallies in the Dooars. The rest is left for the district administration to decide,” the CPI-M leader said.
The CPI Darjeeling district secretary Mr Ujjwal Chowdhury said that the GJM instead of insisting on rally permission in the sensitive Dooars region should allow other parties to hold meetings in the hills. “Acting like a fascist organization it has imposed an embargo on the political rights of all who do not see eye to eye to its blinkered view. Even the Gorkha League leader Mr Madan Tamang cannot hold a rally there to express his views, not to speak of the Left parties,” he said.
According to the FB district secretary Mr Smritish Bhattacharya, the GJM should see reason and desist from pestering the state government for rally permission. “The ethnic embers in the Dooars are yet to be fully put out. Given the fragile ethnic equation in the region it would be unwise on the part of the administration to allow rallies there at this moment,” he said.
Gangtok, Jan. 27: The Governor of Sikkim, Mr Balmiki Singh, conveyed special greetings to the Army on Republic Day. Addressing gathering on the the Republic Day celebrations he said: “Democracy is taking roots with a blend of traditional and modern values and development in Sikkim.”
He urged the people to work for the preservation and protection of the cultural heritage of Sikkim, to move on a secular and democratic path laid down by founding fathers of our Constitution and to take up new initiatives. “It is the responsibility of every citizen to contribute and work together for a better tomorrow,” he said.
He highlighted the progress the state government has made in the sphere of agriculture, horticulture, tourism, connectivity, education and power sector. The chief minister of Sikkim, Mr Pawan Chamling, paid homage to those who liberated the country and gave us the Constitution. He termed himself “the first servant of the people.”
“The state,” he said, “has made progress and the government is working to consolidate the socio-cultural foundation and taking steps to integrate Sikkim with the National mainstream.”
He said that the state government was committed to developing the villages, uplift the poor; provide facilities to the villagers, decentralise power and empower the panchayats. He also hoped that the state would be self-reliant by 2015. Read the rest of this entry »
Siliguri, Jan. 27: The Siliguri Government Polytechnic will introduce electrical and civil engineering courses on a second campus that will come up in New Jalpaiguri in a year or so.
“We were pondering over the need to upgrade the polytechnic institute and to begin with, advanced courses like electrical and civil engineering will be introduced to keep up with the need of the present job market. When we put forward our proposal, the state government sanctioned the project and work on the new campus will start shortly,” said Siliguri Municipal Corporation mayor Munsi Nurul Islam who is also a member of the college’s governing body.
The mayor added that the college would launch the two new courses in phases. “The electrical engineering will be introduced first and the civil engineering later,” he said.
Along with these subjects, two certificate courses in hospitality will also be taught at the institute, taking into account the growing demand for manpower in tourism sector. “There will be a boom in the tourism and hospitality sectors. So, we will have a six-month course in house keeping and front office management and a one-year course in food production and food and beverage service,” said Pujan Sarkar, the principal of the college.
Gangtok, Jan. 27: Three leaders of the Sikkim Nationalist People’s Party were released on bail today, nearly 24 hours after they were taken into preventive custody for planning to hold a black flag demonstration on Republic Day.
Party president Biraj Adhikari, working president Tseten Lepcha and treasurer Diley Namgyal Kazi were arrested from their residences in an early morning swoop by Sadar police. The four-month-old party had called a 12-hour bandh to protest against the alleged “dilution” of safeguards enshrined in Article 371F of the Constitution. The leaders had also threatened to court arrest, officials said.
The trio were taken into custody after they refused to sign a bond of Rs 50,000 each for maintaining peace by the district magistrate of East both on Saturday and Sunday. The government move was spurred by police tip-off that the party leaders would raise black flags on Republic Day.
After his release, Adhikari alleged in a media conference that the “successive state governments had diluted the special constitutional safeguards for people of Sikkim”. He said his party leaders were denied fundamental rights. Read the rest of this entry »
Siliguri, Jan. 27: The Siliguri Municipal Corporation will set up a vector control unit to drive mosquitoes out of the civic area throughout the year.
“Earlier, whenever a case of malaria was detected, our officials used to spray bleaching powder and mosquito larvicide oil in the area. They also took up cleanliness drive and distributed pamphlets to create awareness among residents. Now the unit, which will be a permanent one, will do the same job throughout the year so that vector-borne disease can not spread,” mayor Nurul Islam said after the monthly board meeting of the corporation today.
The unit will be equipped with specialists and mosquito repellents. “The main objective is to intensify the anti-malaria campaign,” Islam said.
Currently, the SMC has six fogging machines, which are being used to spray the oil in different wards. The number of machines will be increased, once the unit is set up.
The mayor will hold a meeting with the secretary of the urban development department, P.K. Agarwal, here on February 6. He said: “I will discuss with him the setting up of the permanent unit and the date of its formation will be finalised after that.” Read the rest of this entry »
People travel on two-wheelers through foggy Siliguri on Tuesday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo
Siliguri, Jan. 27: Just when it appeared that winter was bidding good-bye to Siliguri, people here are again feeling the chill in the air.
Weather experts say it is not the drop in temperature, but fog and windy condition that are responsible for the cold spell. They call such climatic condition “incursion of moisture”, a phenomenon that has affected the whole of north Bengal and Sikkim because of anti-cyclonic disturbances in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
“It is not cold actually, but gloomy weather caused by the winds blowing from anti-cyclone states of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The winds have increased moisture in the air in the past 48 hours, precipitating fog and haze,” said G.N. Raha, a senior meteorologist at the regional met office in Jalpaiguri.
For the past few days, the minimum temperature has been much above the normal 11 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature, too, has been higher than 24 degrees Celsius, which is the normal temperature during this time of the year.
“Yesterday, the minimum temperature recorded was 14.6 degrees Celsius and the maximum was 20.2 degrees Celsius. Today’s minimum temperature was 16.3 degrees Celsius. The difference between maximum and minimum temperatures has come down, resulting in such conditions,” said Raha.
Subir Sarkar, the head of the weather-monitoring centre at North Bengal University, said similar climatic condition may prevail for the next 24 hours or so.
With the dip in temperature, people have started wearing woollens, which had been tucked away for the next winter. “Just when we were expecting that the days to come would be warm, temperature has come down and we feel cold now,” said Suravi Dey, a resident of Matigara. Read the rest of this entry »
A woman at work at the land reforms office in Kalimpong on Tuesday. (C.F. Lepcha)
Kalimpong, Jan. 27: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) will resume its campaign to pressure the state government for permission to hold meetings in the Dooars from Thursday.
The Morcha had put on hold its Dooars Chalo campaign on January 22 after a request from chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
Announcing the resumption of its agitation with an indefinite hunger strike in Gorubathan, Morcha president Bimal Gurung said some of the other demands of the party included the reopening of the 13 closed tea gardens in the Dooars and a shift in the government’s anti-Gorkhaland stand.
“We suspended our Dooars campaign at the chief minister’s request, but the government has failed to honour its share of the bargain,” Gurung alleged.
The Morcha leaders claimed that the chief minister had during the meeting on January 21 sought time to normalise the situation in the Dooars before granting the party permission to hold meetings in the region. The chief minister had also promised to consider the Morcha demand for action against those responsible for attacking its supporters and the release of some of its members arrested following the Malbazar clashes.
The clashes occurred on January 16 after anti-Gorkhaland forces under the banner of Adivasi Vikash Parishad foiled the Morcha attempts to hold meetings in Nagrakata. Both sides had violated prohibitory orders that were in place in the area.
The Parishad leaders are scheduled to meet the chief minister on January 29 and voice their protest against the Morcha’s demand to include the Dooars in the separate state of Gorkhaland that it wants. Read the rest of this entry »
Kalimpong, Jan. 27: Former principal of St Augustine’s School, Father Josef Hofstetter died at a hospital in Saint Maurice, Switzerland yesterday. He was 89 years old.
A Jesuit priest, Father Hofstetter had been in Kalimpong for 46 years after he came to India on November 13, 1948. Apart from serving St Augustine’s School in various capacities, he also worked as the headmaster of St George’s School in Pedong.
The current principal of St Augustine’s School Lawrence Monteiro, said Hofstetter had been suffering for the last three weeks.
“The funeral will take place on Wednesday in Switzerland,” he added. The school will also hold special prayer services in memory of the former principal once it reopens in mid-February after winter vacation.
