chief minister Mr. chamling back from Delhi after four vdays visit

RANGPO-21ST SEPTEMBER 12 Atithidev bhava the best slogan for exploring the tourism business was seen a good response from the side of the chief minister of Sikkim Mr. Pawan kumar chamling .today Sikkim chief minister Mr. chamling was coming back from Delhi after four vdays visit .huge gathering of cabinet ministers ,chairman’s ,party leaders,yuva and cheli morcha members ,delegates of vyapari morcha was in the queue at Rangpo tourism campus to welcome the chief minister .

a group of tourist of hongkong after enquiry regarding the queue and they also want to see the chief minister of the state .when Mr. chamling reached and when see he stood with them to take photo .after taking photo the tourist seen too much happy and has asked that the day is a memorable for the lifetime

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LPG ball in Bengal’s court

Calcutta, Sept. 21: Non-subsidised domestic cooking gas will cost Rs 832 per cylinder in Calcutta following the Centre’s decision to forego customs and excise duties that add up to Rs 103.50 apiece. However, if the Bengal government drops local levies, consumers can save Rs 52.50 more as the price will fall further to about Rs 780 a cylinder. According to new rules, every family will have to pay the market rate once it crosses the annual subsidy quota of six cylinders available at Rs 401 apiece. Congress-ruled states have been told to raise the limit to nine cylinders. On top of that, the Centre today announced the abolition of duties on market-rate domestic cylinders. But Bengal charges a cess and a 4 per cent VAT on commercial cylinders. If the new non-subsidised domestic segment is spared these levies, the price can come down by Rs 52.50 to about Rs 780 for a 14.2kg cylinder. An IOC official said the final price would depend on international fluctuations.

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Balasun queries hit army hurdle - Elders fail to find reasons for delay in the completion of water scheme

Darjeeling, Sept. 21: A group of senior citizens tracking the Balasun Drinking Water Project is being made to run from pillar to post seeking an answer to why the army has delayed the project, but none is forthcoming. The Concerned Citizens’ Association had sought to know the status of the project from army officers in Darjeeling. Their query was forwarded to the eastern command in Calcutta, which in turn sent the matter to the defence ministry in Delhi. But the ministry has now sent the matter back to Darjeeling. The Balasun project which is supposed to end the water woes of Darjeeling residents is stuck after five years of work because the army has not yet given permission to lay pipelines through its cantonment area in the town.

Construction for the Rs 55.86-crore project started in 2007. When complete, the Balasun project would pump water for 16 hours a day to supply 2 million gallons of water to Darjeeling from the Balasun river through two pumping stations.At the moment Darjeeling requires about 15-18 lakh gallons of water everyday but the municipality is in a position to arrange for only about 7-8 lakh gallons. Water was pumped from the Balasun to Tiger Hill on April 8, 2012, which suggests that the major part of work for the project has been completed. Pipes have to be laid from Tiger Hill to St Paul’s and Rockville reservoirs in Darjeeling town. These pipes would pass through the army area at Jalaphar and Katapahar.The project is being executed by the public health engineering (PHE) department. On June11, the senior citizens wrote to the principal director, defence estate, Calcutta, and also to the PHE directorate, seeking a status report on the project under the RTI Act. The PHE directorate replied on July 2, 2012, stating that it was yet to receive a “no-objection certificate” from the army to lay the pipes. On June 28, 2012, the office of the principal director, the defence estate of the Eastern Command in Calcutta replied to J.B. Edwards, the general secretary of the citizens’ association, that his query had been sent to the director general, defence estates, New Delhi. On August 31, the army headquarters sent the matter back to the public information officer of station headquarters in Darjeeling. The letter written by Major P. Nagaraj of the RTI cell of army headquarters said: “Since the subject… pertains to/is more closely related to the functions of your office/office under your jurisdiction, the application, is therefore transferred to you”.Edwards said: “Finally, the matter has come back to Darjeeling. We are wondering who is the appropriate authority to answer our questions.”

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बोङबस्तीसंलग्न जंगलमा मानव कंकाल

21 सेप्टेम्बर(कालेबुङ):- कालेबुङ थानाअन्तर्गत लोअर बोङबस्तीसंलग्न जंगलबाट संदिग्ध अवस्थामा मानव कंकाल भेटिएको घटनाले क्षेत्रमा सनसनी फैलिएको छ। घटनाबारे सूचना पाएपछि बिहीबार साँझ कालेबुङ पुलिसले घटनास्थलबाट उक्त नरकंकाल उद्धार गरेको छ। कालेबुङ थानाबाट लगभग तेह्र किलोमिटर टाडा बोङबस्तीको गैरीगाँउ संलग्न जंगलमा स्थानीय एक किशोरले उक्त मानवकंकाल देखेका थिए। गाई बाख्रा चराउन सो जंगलमा पुगेका उक्त किशोरले त्यहाँ मानव कंकाल देखेपछि गाउँलेहरुलाई सूचित गरे। गाउँलेहरुले घटनाबारे कालेबुङ पुलिसलाई सूचना दिएपछि पुलिसको दल घटनास्थलमा पुगेर नरकंकाल उद्धार गरेको हो।

पुलिसले घटनास्थलबाट झण्डै चार किलो ओजन भएको डोरी, जिन्स पेण्ट, हाईनेक र एउटा पेन पनि उद्धार गरेको छ। घटनास्थलबाट प्राप्त यी सामग्रीहरुको आधारमा यो कंकाल 25देखि 30 बर्षको युवकको हुन सक्ने पुलिसको अनुमान छ। यस मानव कंकालको पहिचानबारे अहिलेसम्म कुनै तथ्य र जानकारी पुलिसलाई प्राप्त भएको छैन। कालेबुङ पुलिसले कंकालको फोरेन्सिक जाँचको निम्ति सिलगढी पठाएको छ। जाँचको रिपोर्ट पाएपछि मात्र केही भन्न सकिने घटनाको जाँच गरिरहेका पुलिस अधिकारीको भनाई छ। लोअर बोङबस्तीसंलग्न गाउँहरुबाट आजसम्म कोही पनि निखोज भएको घटना प्रकाशमा नआएकोले पनि यस मानव कंकालको पहिचान खुलाउन पुलिसलाई चर्को परेको छ। घटनास्थलको आरम्भिक जाँचपछि पुलिसले यसलाई आत्माहत्याको घटना हुन सक्ने सम्भावना न्यून रहेको बताएको छ भने अन्यत्र क्षेत्रबाट यहाँ ल्याएर हत्या गरी शव फ्याँकिएको हुन सक्ने पुलिसको अनुमान छ।

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Govt. of Sikkim has Inaugurated 10 (ten) No's of Houses of CMRHM.

RANGPO-20TH SEPTEMBER 12 Smt. Tilu Gurung Honb'le .MLA. Cum Minister Building and Housing Department Govt. of Sikkim has Inaugurated 10 (ten) No's of Houses of CMRHM. Under Namthang BAC. To inaugurate such huge No's of houses at a time is to give the special present of DASERA / DASAI to rural poor people from the side of Government. She says that the value of CMRHM. houses can be realize only by the beneficiaries who was benefitted by this scheme, because they were the person who's dream was to live in the house where their family should be safe from rain in summer and chilling cold in winter. She made request to the well off people to appraise the value of scheme and support to achieve the target within this financial year. Finally Mr. Robin P. Sewa, BDO. Namthang and Ms. Sumitra Adhikari A.E. Namthang have also explained the importance and technical value of scheme for timely completion of programme. The programme was attended by all the Honb'le Zilla Panchayat Members, Gram Panchayat Members, Mrs. Kalpana Rai, Panchayat Inspector,Mr. Nirjal Pradhan J.E. along with RDA.'s has attended the programme. four families of parbing dobhan block mr dawa thendup shrepa ,tashi tender Sherpa ,kinjey dorjee Sherpa and birkha bahadur gurung ,two families Mr. Dhan bahadur Chettri and til bahadur ,purna kumar kaami of tajey bikhmat ,dhan kumar Rai and suresh Rai of nagi phomphok,and laxaman rasaily from maneydanda gram Panchayat unit has avail the scheme under the CMRHM .

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Coach gives Barfi full marks - GTA peon makes it to the Bollywood set

Darjeeling, Sept. 20: Ajoy Singh, if he could speak, would have told his student, Ranbir, he gets 10 out of 10 for Barfi! Ajoy is a 40-year-old peon in a GTA office in Darjeeling who is hearing impaired. He was Ranbir Kapoor’s sign language coach in Barfi! On Monday, Ajoy, his family and 18 of his friends with similar challenges went to INOX to watch the film. Wife Sabita and 18-year-old son Anand, who acted as his interpreter when he coached Ranbir, were also with him.

Using signs, he said: “I am touched by his acting. I would give him 10 out of 10 for depicting the character.” His son translated for Metro. His favourite scene was when Ranbir falls down while chasing a toy train at Tindharia. “The other scene I really liked is the one where he (Ranbir) tried to rob a bank,” Ajoy gestured. Anurag Basu, the film’s director, was looking for a man in Darjeeling to teach Ranbir the right signs, when his contact person in the hills, Uday Mani Pradhan, suggested Ajoy’s name. Basu, who spoke over phone, mentioned Ajoy was “very expressive”. “I first met Ajoy when we started to shoot in Darjeeling through Uday Mani Pradhan. He was very expressive, even though I do not know sign language. Had I met him earlier, I would have cast him in the film but the role had already been given to someone else,” Basu said. “His contribution is immense in the film.” During the shoot in Darjeeling, Ajoy and Anand, who reads in a school in Kurseong, would go to the sets to teach Ranbir how to communicate through signs. “We used to go to the hotel where Ranbir was staying and my dad used to help him. They gelled really well,” Anand said. In July last year, after the shooting in Darjeeling got cancelled because of problems with crowd management, both Ajoy and Anand were flown to Mumbai by Basu to help Ranbir on the sets there. “We flew for the first time and we were thrilled. Anurag Sir and the crew took good care of us. Sometimes, we used to go to Ranbir’s house, at other times we went to the sets and used to be there from 9 in the morning till 9 in the evening,” Anand said, translating for Ajoy. “We also met a lot of actors, such as Aditya Pancholi, at Film City.” Ajoy, who had been trained in sign language in Delhi, stayed in Mumbai for nine days teaching Ranbir the expressions and signs to express love and anger. In a dance that Ranbir performed in Bhutia Busty, Ajoy was in the crowd. “My dad was a good dancer from his early days and has won trophies in Darjeeling and Sikkim,” Anand said. On Monday, INOX in Darjeeling gave Ajoy, who works in the GTA’s agriculture department, and his friends 50 per cent discount on the tickets. A bunch of college students who assisted Basu in managing the crowd and worked as extras, too, was thrilled after watching the film. “The students from the mass communication department of St Joseph’s College are the unsung heroes. They were very enthusiastic from Day One and they helped the shooting go smoothly. When I was in college, I, too wanted to be part of such projects, but it was so difficult to get into the sets. I hope they have learnt a lot,” Basu said. Anurag Pradhan, a third-year student at St Joseph’s, said it was difficult for media students in Darjeeling to get such an “exposure in the hills”. “Barfi! gave us the exposure on how a film is made.” Another student Roshan Rai said: “The best part of Barfi! was to work with cinematographer Ravi Varman. I learnt many things from him especially on lighting,” he said. Shrawan Lamzel of St Joseph’s managed an entire wedding sequence where Ranbir did the bird-like dance. Shrawan’s job was to get the entire baraat (groom’s party) dressed in their traditional clothes. “Our first meeting with Anurag Basu was in Chowrastha where he had invited all the students. In the first meeting he explained to us that our primary role would be to manage the crowd and also to look for passers in the shot, said Akriti Pradhan. “Managing the crowd was difficult at times.” Akriti, Yangchen Thapa and Priyanka Pradhan were also in the Keventers scene where Barfi (or rather Murphy) proposed to Shruti (Ileana D’Cruz). “It was great to see myself in Barfi!” Priyanka, who watched Barfi! first day first show, said. Yangchen, who acted as Ileana D’Cruz’s friend in the song main kya karoon said she was surprised to know that in the ’70s not too many people wore jeans. “Since Barfi! was a period film and was based in the 1970s, we were supposed to wear clothes from that time. It was a nice experience to wear costumes and even to get a dab of make-up. I was surprised to know that there were no jeans at that time. I was told to change my jeans.”

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Trinamul might in Cong den Ruling party hits streets against strike in message to ally

Sept. 20: Trinamul workers today hit the streets of north Bengal, particularly in places that are Congress strongholds, to foil the strike and drive home the point that their party is the bigger force in the region. Workers of Trinamul encouraged people in the Congress strongholds of North Dinajpur, Malda and Cooch Behar to defy the general strike called by the Left Front and go to work and keep shops and other establishments running, sparking clashes in several places with CPM activists. Congress sources said the party did not oppose the bandh because there was no instruction from the high command or the state Congress leaders on the matter. On record, however, no Congress leader was willing to speak on the issue. The Left’s 12-hour strike was called to protest the diesel price hike, FDI in retail and the cap on subsidised LPG cylinders.

Trinamul leaders held up the Congress’s “inaction” as an example of the party’s “tacit understanding” with the CPM. Bikash Choudhury, a Trinamul leader in North Dinajpur, which is the fief of Congress MP and Mamata Banerjee-baiter Deepa Das Munshi, said: “Our local MP (Deepa) claims that the district is a Congress stronghold but today, no party worker was seen opposing the bandh. “The Congress’s silence has made it evident that the party has a tacit understanding with the CPM. The Congress does not want to antagonise the CPM ahead of the panchayat polls, where it will have to contest alone. This is the Congress’s ploy to win more seats in the rural polls and the next Lok Sabha elections,” he said. In Malda too, Trinamul supporters tried to foil the strike. “Not a single Congress leader was seen in the district today. Our party workers helped people defy the bandh and keep life moving,” said Sabitri Mitra, the women and child welfare minister and district Trinamul president. “We think the Congress’s silence has got something to do with its relationship with the CPM. The bandh was called against the decisions of the Congress-led UPA, but the party’s leaders remained indoors and showed no concern for people.” Congress leaders Adhir Chowdhury and Mausam Noor attended a rally in South Dinajpur but did not speak on the bandh. In Siliguri, north Bengal development minister and Trinamul leader Gautam Deb went around the city requesting people to defy the strike. “We fail to understand why the Congress did not oppose the strike. The leaders seem to be least bothered about the interest of the people of the region,” he said. But despite Trinamul’s efforts, the bandh was near total in most parts of north Bengal. In the two Dinajpurs, Jalpaiguri, Malda and Cooch Behar, private establishments, educational institutions, most banks and shops and markets remained closed. Private vehicles kept off the roads. Government offices were open but the attendance was low in some places. Government buses plied on the roads. The strike, however, did not have any impact in the three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong. Tea gardens were open. Scattered incidents of violence were reported from some places. Around 7am in Raiganj, bandh supporters threw stones at an NBSTC bus plying on the Kaliaganj-Siliguri route at BBD More. The windscreen was shattered and driver Apurba Roychoudhury and a passenger suffered head injuries. In Panishala on the outskirts of Raiganj town later in the day, alleged Left supporters stopped another government bus and pelted it with stones. The passengers fled. Driver Ranjit Pal suffered injuries. Both drivers were admitted to the Raiganj district hospital.Trinamul and CPM supporters clashed in front of the District Primary Education Project office. Police brought the situation under control. In Cooch Behar, alleged Trinamul supporters assaulted SUCI workers who were enforcing the strike.The Trinamul supporters, led by youth leader Rajeev Narayan, beat up the 10-odd SUCI workers, including two women, with rods and sticks at Harish Pal More on Suniti Road. “We had stopped an NBSTC bus when the Trinamul supporters armed with party flags attacked us. They did not even spare the women. One of our leaders, Bashad Ali, suffered serious injuries,” said Nepal Mitra, the Cooch Behar town committee secretary of the SUCI. The police arrested five SUCI workers, including the two women, on the charge of disrupting normal life. “Once they are released, we will file an FIR against Narayan and his accomplices,” Mitra said. District Trinamul chief Rabindranath Ghosh denied the party’s involvement in the attack. “The SUCI workers faced the passengers’ wrath for stopping their bus.”

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Tremor in Gangtok on first quake anniversary

Gangtok, Sept. 18: A 4.1 magnitude quake today shook Sikkim at 5.56pm when the state was marking its first anniversary of last year’s tremor.

There has been no report of damage or casualties yet.

Last year on the same day, a 6.9-strong quake killed 60 people in the state. That quake, with its epicentre near Mangan in North Sikkim, happened a little before 6pm.

This evening’s tremor, which lasted barely two seconds, created panic in Gangtok where people were gathering on MG Marg for a candle-light march. People came out of their houses in panic.

The power department cut off electricity for five minutes in Gangtok to prevent any accident because of the quake.

According to a preliminary report, the epicentre of the quake is believed to be between Gangtok and Mangan.

In West and North Sikkim districts, the tremor — described as “slight” on the IMD site — was not felt.

“I was watching TV at home when I felt a strong jolt which disappeared in seconds. That was enough for me to rush out,” said Aman Sundas, a resident of Tibet Road.

Lata Chettri, a 56-year-old homemaker on MG Marg, said she could not feel the quake. “I was walking and saw some of the people running on the road. I remember last year’s quake, it was so scary that my family and I slept in our car for two nights.”

The fear was evident on the faces of the people who had gathered at MG Marg this evening.

“My friend and I had come to participate in the candle vigil at MG Marg; I was carrying candles in our hand. The sound was loud, I am still nervous,” said college student Madan Tamang.

Many of the shopkeepers at MG Marg downed the shutters and headed to their respective homes after the tremor.

“I was showing garments to customers when the earthquake happened, though it didn’t continue for a long time, the jolt was enough to make me shiver” said a garment shopkeeper at Kanchenjungha shopping complex.

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Morcha rally test in plains

Darjeeling, Sept. 17: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha will hold rallies in the Dooars and Terai on September 20 to protest the fuel price hike, but it is the footfall at the rallies that will be watched keenly.

The Morcha has planned to hold the rallies at a time when its own leaders in the plains are disenchanted with the party after the formation of the GTA.

Binay Tamang, the assistant general secretary of the Morcha, said: “We have decided to organise protest rallies in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong, Mirik, Terai and Dooars on September 20 to protest the recent fuel price hike. We are not in favour of calling a strike as this will hamper relief work after the recent landslides.”

The Morcha did not disclose the places where the rallies would be held.

Observers believe that given the recent resignation of Padam Lama, the president of the Morcha’s Dooars committee, and its secretary Ganesh Allay, the crowd count at the rallies will show if the Morcha still holds its appeal here.

Lama, while submitting his resignation from the Morcha, had said he was finding it difficult to show his supporters what the party had done for the plains.

“There is no interaction with the central committee leaders from the hills,” Lama had said.

The Morcha’s demand to include 397 plains mouzas in the GTA has not made headway. Without that happening, the Morcha leaders in the hills will not be able to use the central grants they get for the plains.

Asked about the party’s expectations, a Morcha leader here said: “Let us not cross the bridge before we reach there. Even though some leaders have resigned, we still have alot of supporters in the plains.”

The party has not formed a new committee in the Dooars after Lama and Allay’s resignations. An observer said that the Morcha would go all out to make the rally a success.

“They are out on the streets on an issue that has touched the common people and they would go all out to make it a success. However, a lot is at stake for the Morcha.”(TT)

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Vet hospital in North Sikkim in ruins

NIRMAL MANGAR
Gangtok, Sept. 17: The sole sub-divisional veterinary hospital at Chungthang in North Sikkim continues to be in ruins nearly a year after the September 18 earthquake and the only remains is a guest house with a single room where 37 employees carry out their duties.

The hospital is a vital centre in the region where people are largely dependent on animal husbandry and was constructed in 1976.

Staff quarters and feed stores damaged in the earthquake last year are yet to be repaired.

The employees are forced to share a room in the guesthouse for accommodation in a barracks-style arrangement. Despite these constraints, veterinary services are going on without any hiccups.

Veterinary officer D.D. Lachenpa said the supply of medicines is adequate till date and veterinary services are provided to the local farmers smoothly.

The sub-divisional hospital serves Lachung, Lachen, Chungthang, Shipgyer and Naga along with the yak breeding farm in Zema, Angora rabbit farm at Rabom and piggery breeding farm at Bop, Lachenpa said.

Animal husbandry secretary D.P. Sharma said repairs of the damaged infrastructure like the milk processing plant at Peyong, Class II quarters and guesthouses are being carried out in North Sikkim under the National Disaster Relief Fund. Sharma said a restoration proposal regarding the sub-divisional veterinary hospital at Chungthang has been put to the state government after an assessment. The proposal is being studied, he added.(TT_

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Sikkim food and civil supplies department has started campaigning for issuing new ration card

RANGPO -18TH SEPTEMBER 12
Sikkim food and civil supplies department has started campaigning for issuing new ration card but for the consumers and residents of the state new ration card issue form is too much tough as like to win the battle war .along with several other documents the issuing authority has demanded the post office or bank account number ,lpg gas connection book number along with electricity bill Xerox copy .what a funny documents that the issuing authority must know that all the residents of the state may not live in their own house and many families are still residing in the rented house than how they shall show the electricity bill copy .still many families are using keroshine oil and many small families are using heater for cooking .how they shall produce the lpg gas connection book Xerox .lot of families have no any account at any bank or post office and they are not in position to show the bank account details than it’s a big issue that either they shall avail the facility provide by the state government or not .in other side the department has notified that all the documents must be produced with attested copy by gazetted officer .specially in Rangpo it is seen that from early in the morning there is a queue at Rangpo phc doctor chamber and Rangpo police station in charge cabin for attestation of documents by taking more then fifty copy with one family person . Though the gazetted officers are fully supporting the local residents and more then thousand copy is attested per day by the officers but the main responsibility of the concerned officers is totally hampered. if the department is serious to provide the ration card to the all the residents of the state than they has to think over the problem of the residents of the state .

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Quake cash crunch for school - 112-year-old Graham’s Homes school needs Rs 20 crore but has a tenth of the amount

Kalimpong. Sept. 16: Nearly a year after the September 18 earthquake, the 112-year-old Dr. Graham’s Homes in Kalimpong is yet to get adequate assistance to rebuild all its facilities.

The school suffered extensive damage and authorities have estimated that Rs 20 crore would be required for the repair. But the institution has managed to gather only Rs 2 crore from alumni, one of them being the Bhutanese Prime Minister Lyonchen Jigme Yoser Thinley, and well-wishers.

“The school buildings, staff quarters, the dispensary and the chapel need major repairs. Repairing the chapel requires specialised work. We have so far spent about Rs 1.2 crore,” said Anmole Prasad, a lawyer and a member of Homes’s governing body.

The state government gave Rs 50 lakh to the school but the institution, Prasad said, had written to it for more assistance after chief minister Mamata Banerjee promised help during her visit to the school earlier this year.

“We will also get our insurance money,” Prasad said, but did not specify the amount.

Altogether, 11 buildings, including the main school, the students’ cottages and the chapel, were damaged. Five of the cottages were totally destroyed and students don’t stay there anymore.

“The property is over 100 years old. Most of the houses on the ridge line suffered major damage,” he said.

The school, where nearly 1,500 children from India, Bhutan and Nepal read, has now put up a flash on its website requesting aid to rebuild its facilities.

While funds are the main constraint for the school, another Kalimpong landmark, the 111-year-old MacFarlane Church, faces problems because of the nature of the restoration work. About Rs 76 lakh is required for the reconstruction of the church. Eighty per cent of the church was damaged.

Miku Fonning, a member of the church’s reconstruction committee, said the work was taking time because all the restoration has to be done using lime and stones.

The church is expected to be restored by early next year. A three-member team of architects — Subin Pradhan, Upendra Gurung and Chetan Shreshta — is overseeing the restoration work.

Pradhan said almost 75 per cent of the work was complete, and if all is well the remaining work should be completed by January next year.

“The restoration work on the church building will be completed before Christmas. The work on the tower will be taken up shortly and we hope to accomplish the task by January next year. We are doing the work to strengthen the building from within, while retaining the original character of the heritage structure,” he said.

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20% bonus for tea hands

Darjeeling, Sept. 16: The Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA) last night agreed to pay the annual bonus at the maximum rate of 20 per cent, but managed to extract a promise from all trade unions that they would ensure each labourer puts in eight hours of work, excluding their lunch time, by September 30.

Bonus percentage is calculated on the total annual earnings of a worker and 20 per cent is the highest rate permissible under the Plantation Labour Act, 1951. The act also says that planters cannot fix the bonus at a rate less than 8.33 per cent.

The DTA has 63 tea estates and it had paid 20 per cent bonus in 2011 also. But this year, bonus ceiling was raised from Rs 9,000 to Rs 10,000, that means even if 20 per cent bonus works out to Rs 12,000, for a worker, he will get only Rs 10,000.

The bonus agreement was signed at a meeting between representatives of the DTA and tea garden unions of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, CPRM, CPM and the Congress last night.

Sandeep Mukherjee, the principal advisor to the DTA, said the bonus would be disbursed by October 6.

The DTA gardens are categorised as Grades A, B, C and D, depending on production and other yardsticks. The number of estates under Grade A are 12, and under Grades B, C and D are 15, 16 and 17 respectively. All garden workers will get bonus at the same rate, irrespective of the garden’s grade.The Darjeeling tea industry employs around 55,000 people. Although some hill gardens are under the Indian Tea Association, it generally follows the bonus rate fixed by the DTA.

The DTA had said on August 26 that it wouldn’t be able to pay the bonus at 20 per cent as production had come down and absenteeism was still high.

But Mukherjee today said: “In an effort to maintain a cordial atmosphere in the gardens, we decided to match last year’s rate.”

In lieu of the bonus pay at the highest rate, the unions gave an undertaking that the work hours would be increased from seven to eight by September 30.

Even though the labour wings had agreed to eight hours of work at a meeting on January 21, the Darjeeling-Terai-Dooars Chai Kaman Mazdur Union of the CPRM backtracked later, rendering the deal redundant.

The January 21 agreement read: “A worker would be working for eight hours in a day for the day’s wage and the lunch break would not be included in the working hours throughout the year.”

K.B. Subba, the general secretary of the CPRM union, while pulling out of the agreement said: “We discussed the deal with party colleagues and decided to oppose the deviation from the practice of including the one-hour lunch break in the total time of daily work.”

However, Subba sang a different tune today. “It is true that labourers have to put in eight hours of work. Earlier, there was some confusion. The (Plantation Labour) Act says the workers will have to put that (eight) many hours of work.”

The DTA said the unions had also agreed to help garden owners streamline sub-staff as many estates employees in a particular department and also to do away with various “traditional practices”, on a case to case basis.

“By traditional practice, we mean if a worker is entitled to nine maund of firewood (one maund is approximately 40kg) according to the act, there are gardens which have been giving more firewood. But now these gardens cannot scale down the amount. We want the unions to help us in such cases, to which they have agreed,” said Mukherjee.(TT)

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2nd late dhanapati Sharma memorial challenge cup football tournament

RANGPO-16TH SEPTEMBER 12
Rangpo maazi gaon youth wing has organised the 2nd late dhanapati Sharma memorial challenge cup football tournament from yesterday .Rangpo police station in charge PI Sonam wangdi as a chief guest inaugurated the football tournament organised by the Rangpo mazigaon youth .32 teams participated in the tournament the final of the tournament shall play on 2nd octuber on the eve of Gandhi jaayanti between colourful cultural function where the winners and runners shall provide cash prize of rs ten thousand and five thousand with attractive trophy .yesterday two match was played in the majhigaon ground .first match was played between cipla and Sikkim distilleries .cipla won the match by 2-0.second match was played between veteran vs tarpin danda and veteran won the match by 7 -2 and has entered in the second round of the match .

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A truck accident at kaami bhir

RANGPO-15TH SEPTEMBER 12
A truck accident at kaami bhir between Rangpo and Majhitar at national highway 31 a claimed the driver of the truck missing .according to the news the truck bearing no WB 73 A 1059 loaded with cement from siliguri plying up to Singtam was plunged into the tista river 150 feet from the road . Rangpo police and fire department suddenly reached the spot but due to lack of electricity and area covered with dark as accident was occurred at 6 .30 pm no any rescue operation was possible to start. truck driver is suspected to plunged into the tista river with truck .

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