Delay in army nod clogs Balasun flow - Permission yet to come to lay pipes at military camp

VIVEK CHHETRI

Pipes for the Balasun project in the College Valley tea garden. Picture by Suman Tamang Darjeeling, May 16: The Balasun drinking water project, which has missed at least four deadlines for its commissioning, will be delayed further as the army is yet to give permission to lay pipes through its camp in Darjeeling. The project was envisaged to end the shortage of drinking water in Darjeeling. The hill town requires about 15-18 lakh gallons of water everyday and the municipality is in a position to supply only 7-8 lakh gallons daily at the moment. Once the project is completed, 2 million gallons of water will be pumped to Darjeeling from the Balasun river. A forum of elderly people under the banner of the Concerned Citizens’ Association expressed concern over the army’s delay in granting permission to lay pipelines through its camp at Kattapahar and Jalapahar. “The project is a long cherished dream of the people of Darjeeling as it is expected to solve the water shortage in town. Even though we were happy to note that 80 per cent of the work has been completed, we were told that permission to lay pipes in the army area in Darjeeling hasn’t been granted yet,” said J.B. Edwards, the secretary of the association. The project was awarded to a Hyderabad-based construction company and the work began in July 2007. The firm said the project would be completed in 24 months. But the deadline was revised to April 2010, December 2010 and again to February 2011. A response to an RTI application revealed that the commissioning of the project was being delayed as permission had come late from the forest department and railways to carry out various works related to the scheme. Political unrest and frequent calls for strike also hit the progress of the project. Under the project, water is to be pumped from the Balasun to the North and South Lakes at Senchel, 12km from here. From Senchel, pipes have to be laid to carry water to the St Paul’s and Rockville reservoirs in town. Two parallel pipes are supposed to pass through the army land for over 6km. Amar Singh Rai, the chairman of the Darjeeling municipality, said MP Jaswant Singh had recently met defence ministry officials in New Delhi to push for permission. “The MP has asked for relevant documents and I will send him the papers as soon as I get them from the PHE officials,” said Rai. Sources in the army said it couldn’t issue no-objection certificates to such proposals and permission had to be given by the ministry of defence.(TT)

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ABGL sets May 21 test - Anti-Morcha meet plan

VIVEK CHHETRI

Bharati Tamang sits near the portrait of her husband Madan Tamang at the ABGL office in Darjeeling on Tuesday. Picture by Suman Tamang Darjeeling, May 15: The ABGL has decided to observe the second death anniversary of Madan Tamang here on May 21 with a memorial meeting to which major leaders opposed to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, including Subash Ghisingh and Chhatrey Subba, have been invited. The May 21 event will be a test for not only the ABGL but also for other parties which are trying to challenge the Morcha’s might in the hills. “We have decided to organise an event to mark the second death anniversary of our leader. All anti-Morcha leaders like Subash Ghisingh, Chhatrey Subba, Ajay Dahal (United Gorkha Revolutionary Front), Enos Das Pradhan (chairperson of the Gorkhaland Task Force), Munish Tamang (the GTF secretary), Dawa Pakhrin (Gorkhaland Rajya Nirman Morcha) and R.B. Rai (CPRM) among others will be present at the meeting,” Chewang Bhutia, the president of Tarun Gorkha, the youth wing of the ABGL, told journalists here today. While Chhatrey Subba, said he wouldn’t attend the meeting, there was no last word on Ghisingh’s participation. “They had invited me, but I am not going. I have quit politics,” Subba said when contacted in Kalimpong. In Jalpaiguri, Ghisingh’s aide Mani Gurung said: “I don’t know if he (Ghisingh) has received any invitation. But as far as I know, he doesn’t plan to go to Darjeeling.” The GNLF’s last major public meeting in the hills was in Mirik on April 9, 2011. The meeting, organised to drum up support for the party candidates contesting the Assembly polls in the three hill seats, was addressed by Ghisingh. The party also organised picnic like gatherings in Darjeeling and Mirik on December 6, 2011, to mark the signing of an agreement that sought to grant special status to the hills under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Today, the ABGL celebrated its 67th foundation day at the party office on Ladenla Road here. At the programme, the party accused the Trinamul Congress government of delaying the arrest of all those involved in the murder of Madan Tamang. “We have learnt that a digital file containing telephonic conversations of hill leaders named in the FIR is in the custody of the chief minister and she is refusing to hand it over to the CBI. If the CBI gets hold of the file, senior Morcha leaders can be arrested,” said Pratap Khati, the general secretary of the ABGL. Madan Tamang was killed by a khukuri-wielding mob in broad daylight in Darjeeling on May 21, 2010. Khati alleged that absconders in the Madan Tamang murder case were roaming in the hills. “They are active on Facebook and their whereabouts are known to the state police who are not co-operating with the CBI.” The ABGL also demanded that a judicial inquiry be conducted into the fire that destroyed a market in Darjeeling on April 20 as foul play couldn’t be ruled out.(TT)

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Training & fun centre under a roof

Gautam Deb and Ajit Agarwala at the event. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, May 15: The Terai Group today opened a table tennis academy, a recreation centre for senior citizens and a vocational training institute for women under the Amit Agarwala Foundation.

All three facilities will be run from the Amit Agarwala Banga Bhawan at Deshbandhupara, which is available on hire for social programmes.

“From today, the building, apart from hosting social events, will also serve as a table tennis academy, a recreational centre for senior persons and a vocational training institute for women,” said Ajit Agarwala, the chairman-cum-managing director of Terai Group which has stakes in tea, real estate and steel.

The Foundation is named after Agarwala’s son Amit who died at the age of 30 five years ago.

Sources in the Terai Group said Siliguri-based coach Bharati Ghosh would run the paddlers’ academy. Students of the academy will be charged a nominal fee. “At the vocational institute, women, particularly those from the weaker sections will be trained in sewing, stitching and computer,” a source said.

The recreational centre for senior citizens will be free. “Members would be entitled to use the library and the reading room, watch television and play indoor games,” a representative of the group said.

Ministers Gautam Deb, Madan Mitra and Manas Bhunia were present along with Siliguri MLA and SJDA chairman Rudranath Bhattacharya during the opening of the facilities.

Bhunia requested Agarwala to set up a super-speciality hospital in Siliguri under the Foundation. North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb asked the business community to make investments in north Bengal.

“Much like the Terai Group and Ajit Agarwala, it is time for you to come forward and make fresh investments in north Bengal,” he told an assembly of over 300 entrepreneurs.(TT)

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Kids survive crash that killed 15

One of the Indian girls who survived the crash receives treatment at a hospital in Pokhara. (Reuters)

May 14: Thirteen Indian pilgrims were among 15 persons killed today in an air crash in northern Nepal, the survivors including two sisters from Chennai aged six and nine who have lost their mother while their father lies unconscious and critically ill in hospital.

The Dornier 9N AIG aircraft, belonging to private airline Agni Air, had taken off around 9.30am from the resort town of Pokhara with three crew members and 18 passengers, who were to visit the pilgrim centre of Muktinath in Jomsom, 200km northwest of Kathmandu.

Kathmandu airport sources said the small plane crashed at an altitude of 9,000ft just behind the Jomsom Mountain Resort Hotel near the airport, its right wing hitting a hilltop just as it turned left to divert back to Pokhara because of a technical snag.

The tragedy comes less than eight months after 10 Indians and nine others were killed near Kathmandu when a small plane crashed while returning from an Everest sightseeing trip. The victims included a doctor couple formerly based in Calcutta.

Pilots Prabhu Sharan Pathak and J.D. Maharjan died in today’s crash while three Indians, two Danes and 32-year-old airhostess Roshni Haiju survived.

“Please come and take us home; we don’t know where amma and appa are,” sobbed Sreepada, 6, one of the Indian survivors, over the phone to her uncle K. Srinivasan in Chennai.

Neither she nor elder sister Srivardhini, 9, were aware that their mother Latha, 30, had died and their father, Tirumala Kadambhi Srikanth, 36, was battling severe injuries in a different ward of the Manipal Hospital in Pokhara.

“He is suffering fits. A CT scan revealed nothing. We have administered drugs and his condition has improved a little,” a hospital official said about the senior analyst with Infosys, adding that he was still critical.

Sreepada later had surgery on a fractured thighbone and was under sedation. Sreevardhini is at the neuro ICU.

“She has suffered an injury to her right eye, where there is a clot, and several bruises. She is stable and under observation,” an ICU doctor told The Telegraph. “There are a number of Indians working at the hospital and many of them visited her. Some brought food for her.”

Srikanth had returned from the US five years ago so that his daughters could imbibe Chennai’s culture. The family had travelled to Nepal for sightseeing three days ago after spending four days in Delhi.

Srikanth’s parents, who had gone to Tirupati on their annual pilgrimage, are rushing back to Chennai. “Srikanth’s brother and Latha’s brother are going to Delhi and will travel to Nepal from there,” said Srinivasan, a bank officer married to Latha’s sister.(TT)

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Morcha plans to lie low in plains

VIVEK CHHETRI

Roshan Giri in Darjeeling on Monday. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, May 14: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has decided to refrain from agitation in the plains till the Shyamal Sen committee submits its report as the party fears that the Gorkhas will face a backlash if further violence breaks out in the region, sources revealed.

The decision was taken at a five-hour meeting attended by the members of the central committee and the subdivisional committees of the Morcha here today.

Officially, the Morcha said it would soon hold further discussions with other constituents of the Dooars Terai Co-ordination Committee to decide on the next leg of agitation in the plains. However, sources said the Morcha felt it would be better to wait for the committee’s recommendation rather than going in for any major agitation.

Roshan Giri, the general secretary of the Morcha, said: “The party today discussed the Terai-Dooars issue and decided to wait for the high powered committee’s recommendations. Elections to the GTA will be held after the recommendations are made… We will soon hold a meeting with the Dooars-Terai Co-ordination Committee on the future course of action (agitation).”

Party insiders said the meeting weighed the pros and cons of continuing with the agitation in the plains and concluded that more unrest in the Dooars and Terai would cause problems to the Gorkhas living in the region.

“Senior party leaders were of the opinion that the co-ordination committee was able to prove its support base in the plains and further agitation could lead to unrest in the plains. The leaders felt that the Gorkhas would be targeted if more clashes break out in the Dooars and Terai as they are the minority in the region. So, the leaders said it would be best to wait for the committee’s recommendations,” said an insider.

The plains witnessed violence recently when the co-ordination committee called a bandh after the government had denied it permission to hold a meeting at Nagrakata on April 22.

In fact, Giri today hinted that the Morcha no longer wanted to press ahead with its demand for permission to hold meetings in the plains. “Even (CPM state secretary) Biman Bose was not allowed to hold a meeting in the plains,” Giri said while replying to a query on the Morcha’s demand to allow the party to hold public meetings in the Dooars.(TT)

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Unions to dangle land right carrot in tea belt

Better days ahead?

Siliguri, May 14: The tea garden wings of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and an Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad faction led by John Barla have decided to carry out a campaign among workers in the Terai and Dooars, highlighting that they will be provided with land rights if the plains are brought under the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.

The campaign will be spearheaded by the Joint Action Committee comprising the Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union, and the Progressive Tea Workers’ Union, an affiliate of the Parishad. Barla is the chairman of the committee. The Parishad union is largely pro-Barla, even after he was expelled from the outfit by the state leadership.

“The Left Front had been ruling the state for more than three decades and it didn’t do anything to give land rights to the tea garden dwellers. Even after the Trinamul Congress came to power, the workers continue to live in pathetic conditions. Although forest dwellers were given secured land rights, the tea garden labourers are still deprived of the same,” said Suraj Subba, the general secretary of the Terai Dooars Union, an affiliate of the Morcha.

Subba said the garden workers in the Terai and Dooars would be given land rights if the areas were included in the GTA.

“We (Morcha and Parishad unions) will launch a campaign among the garden workers, telling them that the Morcha bargained for the tauzi department’s inclusion in the list of subjects to be handled by the GTA specifically for the objective of handing them land rights. Giving land rights to the workers will be the priority of the GTA,” he said.

The two outfits felt the need to launch such a campaign after failing to win the support of majority of the adivasis, who form a major chunk of the garden workforce in the plains, for the inclusion of the Terai and Dooars in the GTA. “The adivasis have shunned Barla and others batting for the GTA in the plains till now. The Morcha and Barla now feel that they can draw a good number of the adivasis if they highlight the issue of land rights,” said an observer.

Work hours

Morcha today overruled an agreement signed by its tea trade union, which stated that labourers would have to put in eight hours of work a day.

Roshan Giri, general secretary said: “We do not agree with the new conditions and we want the old system to be continued.”

According to the old system, the one-hour lunch break was included in the eight hours work. That means the labourers had to put in only seven hours of work a day.(TT)

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7 Indians among 13 dead in Nepal plane crash

Kathmandu, May 14 (PTI): Eleven Indians were among 15 passengers killed on Monday when a private plane with 21 people on board crashed in northern Nepal while trying to land at high- altitude Jomsom airport, a popular Himalayan trekking spot. The Dornier aircraft belonging to the Agni Air crashed when it hit top of a hill near Pokhara while returning to the Jomsom airport, said an official at the Rescue Coordination Committee of Tribhuvan International Airport. ‘Seven Indian nationals and six Nepalese were killed in the crash,” the official said, adding rescuers have so far recovered nine bodies from the wreckage. Eight people on board, including the three-crew members and four Indians, have been rescued alive from the crash site, he said. The injured people were taken to a nearby hospital in Pokhara where conditions of the four Indians were critical. The aircraft was heading towards Jomsom in the morning when it hit the hill, the official said, adding that there are possibilities of a technical fault. Detail reports from the crash site are awaited. The high-altitude Jomsom airport, about 200 km northwest of the capital, is a gateway to a popular tourism and trekking destination situated more than 2,600 m above sea level. When contacted, Indian Embassy officials said they were trying to collect the details, as there was some confusion over the nationalities of the passengers on board the ill-fated plane. The passengers had chartered the flight to take them from the central tourist hub of Pokhara to Muktinath, a sacred place for Hindus and Buddhists at the foot of the Thorong La Himalayan mountain pass, an official said. Agni Air marketing manager Pramod Pandey said two Danish nationals were among the passengers, although their condition was not known. “It's not that much difficulty to land at the Jomsom airport. We are using experienced pilots over there. So, this pilot who flying this aircraft has a lot of flying hours,” he added.(TT)

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School for rock guitar

RAJEEV RAVIDAS

Lepcha (third from left) with some of his students in the music school in Kalimpong on Sunday. Picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha Kalimpong, May 13: If you have been toying with the idea of playing the guitar and rock is your style, a music school in town can guide you in your journey. A rock guitar school that offers its students certificates from an England-based music institute started here last month. It is the first institution in Kalimpong to provide training in rock guitar. Rock School set up by guitarist Clement Lepcha is functioning from Haat Bazar near here and has a tie-up with an institute by the same name in England. Lepcha said students of his school could complete their courses and apply for the exams that the foreign institute conducts every year. “There will be eight grades in total. We have started with the first two grades. Twelve students have already enrolled in our school,” said Lepcha. Examinations are held for each grade. Lepcha said guitar classes were held every Saturday. While the admission fee is Rs 1,500 for each student, the monthly fee is Rs 800. “We will be shifting to a permanent place at Dungra Busty in 11th Mile. As of now I am the only qualified teacher. But I will recruit more teachers as the number of students increase,” said Lepcha, who has a degree in classical guitar from Trinity College of Music, London. Although guitar is very popular in the hills, there are not many schools that provide expert training in the stringed instrument. Darjeeling has a school for western classical guitar, but Lepcha’s school is the first in rock genre. Lepcha said the training would include both practical and theory lessons. Norden Lama, the 39-year-old bassist of rock band Flames, and a student of Rock School, said: “I have been playing the guitar for 24 years now. But I don’t know how to read the notations. I learned guitar on my own but now I want to learn it in a systematic way.” Lepcha said the annual exams for this year were scheduled for November. The tests would be conducted here.(TT)

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