Poll rules ready, GTA Act today

Calcutta, March 13: The state government today finalised the rules for elections to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, a day before the GTA Bill is enacted through notification.

The Bill, which received Presidential assent on March 7, will be notified as an Act tomorrow and the delimitation process for the election would begin immediately after, chief secretary Samar Ghosh said today.

Ghosh along with DGHC administrator Anil Verma and other officials framed the rules for the GTA poll to be conducted by the state government. “We are going to go ahead with the election. The entire process should not take more than two months, but it could take some more time, depending on some factors,” said Ghosh this evening.

The Election Commission of India — empowered by the Constitution to conduct elections to the Assemblies and Parliament — and the state election commission — given the mandate of conducting panchayat and civic body polls — won’t have a role in the elections to the GTA.

It was agreed upon by the Morcha and the Centre that the state government would be entrusted with the responsibility of conducting the elections to the new body, with the district magistrate as the returning officer.

“We drew up the rules today. The delimitation can start after the notification,” he added. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha is determined not to allow elections to the GTA till a final decision is taken on the Gorkha-dominated mouzas in the Dooars and Terai that it wants to be brought under the new body.

The Justice Shyamal Sen committee, which is examining the issue, is yet to submit its report. It has missed its six-month deadline and is now working on an extension. It is unclear when the panel will submit its report.

The Morcha has left it to the state government to find “ways and means” of putting the GTA in place and is keen on running the body with nominated representatives as an interim arrangement.

Asked how the government planned to meet the Morcha demand, Ghosh said there was “no scope” for such “considerations”. “The tripartite agreement has been signed (by the Morcha as well). The agreement is exactly reflected in the law that will be notified tomorrow. It clearly states that the election process would be conducted by the state government even if the committee is yet to submit its report on the territorial matter,” said the chief secretary.

“There is no scope now for such considerations. We will go ahead with the elections,” he added. For now, the elections would be held in the current DGHC area that will be delimited within this month. Writers’ Buildings sources said new territories, if added later, would find representation in the body eventually.(Telegraph)

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Shower and sun-less sky bring back chill

People in Siliguri brought out their woollens on Tuesday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, March 13: A steady drizzle from last night coupled with an overcast sky today brought down the temperature in all six districts of north Bengal and Sikkim and made people scurry for their woollens once more.

The showers have brought down the maximum temperature in Siliguri by almost nine degrees Celsius with the cloud cover adding to the chill.

“It did not rain heavily and in some places the rainfall recorded was as meagre as 1mm. But the constant drizzle brought down the maximum temperature compared to yesterday. The minimum temperature, however, was more or less similar to the previous few days,” said Subir Sarkar, the in-charge of the North Bengal University’s weather station.

He added that the maximum temperature in Siliguri was 29 degrees Celsius yesterday, but this afternoon the mercury plunged to 20.3 degrees Celsius. The minimum temperature remained 16 degrees Celsius like yesterday, Sarkar said.

The average maximum temperature recorded here in the past one week was around 28 degrees Celsius and the minimum temperature hovered around 18 degrees Celsius.

Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Malda, both the Dinajpurs and Sikkim received rainfall throughout the day. Darjeeling was cloudy much like Gangtok that saw sunshine for only around 30 minutes late in the afternoon. In the plains the sky was overcast most of the time with intermittent drizzles.

Sarkar said it was normal to have such a weather at this time of the year. “Western disturbance is leading to this scattered rainfall, which is natural. There might be some more bouts of rainfall till the first week of April,” he said.

Records with the India Meteorological Department show that the sub-Himalayan Bengal and Sikkim have received rainfall in March for the past five years and it was normal to have 3.4mm-9.7mm precipitation in the first week of the month. But this year, the first March rain was last night.

“The weather is likely to remain the same in the next 24 hours as rain-bearing clouds (generated from the western disturbances) are hovering in the sky and it will bring more shower to the region,” Indranil Sengupta, the assistant meteorological officer of the Regional Met Office of Jalpaiguri, said. He added that there was no forecast for heavy rain for the next few days.

Tea experts said such showers were good for the crop that has started yielding the first flush in Darjeeling, the Dooars and the Terai.

“Substantial rainfall at the beginning of the season helps to get an excellent yield. We want more rainfall in the next few weeks,” Sumit Ghosh, the additional secretary of Tea Association of India, said.

The season of the first flush is from March to mid-May.

Santanu Chowdhury, a resident of Siliguri, said he had packed away all his woollens. “But we scrambled for them today. It was a welcome departure from the warm spell.” Swati Bhattacharya, a school teacher, said: “It has become very cool since last night. There was less attendance in school today because of the weather.”(Telegraph)

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Morcha RS seat plea to Mamata - Hill party wants Trinamul’s extra votes, CM silent

VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, March 13: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha will write to Mamata Banerjee for Trinamul help to get its candidate elected to the Rajya Sabha, holding up hill sentiments to apply pressure on the chief minister and ensure a place for itself in Parliament.

The Morcha plea also indicates that Mamata’s failure to meet the party’s demand will not go down well in the Darjeeling hills which she has been wooing for sometime — starting with the formation of a new set-up for the region and shower of bounties now and then.

“We want Trinamul to help us nominate one of our members to the Rajya Sabha. We will be writing to Mamata Banerjee in this regard soon,” said Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri. The Morcha has four MLAs in the Assembly (one of them is an Independent backed by the party).

“The hills have always sent members to the Rajya Sabha,” he added.

The Left Front had regularly nominated a hill candidate to the Rajya Sabha. When it was in power, the Left had sent R.B. Rai and Dawa Lama, prominent leaders of the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists who were once with the CPM, and the CPM’s S.P. Lepcha and Saman Pathak to the Upper House. All four were from the Darjeeling hills. Pathak is one of the five MPs from Bengal whose seats will fall vacant on April 2.

Asked if the Morcha had chosen its candidate for the Upper House, the election to which will be held on March 30, Giri said: “Finalising a name is not much of a problem if Trinamul accepts our demand.”

Of the five seats, Trinamul will get three because of its 185-member strength in the 294-seat Assembly. The party will have only 38 votes in its kitty after its three nominees are elected with 49 votes each. (The figure is arrived at by dividing the number of Assembly seats that a party holds by the Rajya Sabha vacancies plus one.)

Under the circumstances, a fourth candidate from the Morcha for the Upper House is possible if Trinamul gets an additional seven votes from the Congress to reach the magic figure of 49.

According to a Trinamul source, Mamata may get a Morcha candidate nominated for the seat, saying that it would be the right move to uphold the interest of Darjeeling.

“In that case, the Morcha will get all our 38 votes…plus we can then ask the Congress to cast the remaining votes for the Morcha (which will have its four MLAs) from their kitty. This could be an option by citing the greater interest of peace and tranquillity in Darjeeling,” a Trinamul MP said.

The Congress has 43 MLAs, including Independent Hamidul Rahman. But the Congress itself has decided to field its own candidate and AICC’s Bengal-minder Shakeel Ahmed had called on chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday, requesting her to back the nominee. The Congress needs six votes to get its nominee elected to the Rajya Sabha. “We are considering fielding our nominee for the Rajya Sabha polls,” Ahmed today said from Delhi. A state Congress leader made it clear that his party would never vote for a Morcha candidate. “Instead, we want Trinamul to help our candidate sail through by giving only six votes out of its kitty of 38 extra votes,” he added.

Despite Ahmed’s statement and PCC president Pradip Bhattacharya camping in Delhi to prepare a list of three party nominees for party president Sonia Gandhi, the Congress’s chances have thinned with the Left announcing today that it would not lend its extra votes to others.

In the past, the Congress had taken Left help to send its candidate (Pranab Mukherjee in 1994) to the Upper House. But today the Left made it clear that its extra votes would be cast in favour of its own candidate. The Left also said that trade union leader Tapan Sen would be re-elected to the Upper House.

“We decided at today's meeting that the number of votes which will be in excess of that required to elect our candidate would also be cast in favour of Tapan Sen. We were unanimous in this regard,” Left Front chairman Biman Bose said at Alimuddin Street this evening after a meeting with the partners.

The Left has 61 MLAs and it will have an excess of 12 votes in its kitty after electing Sen. “All the 12 votes will be cast in favour of the CPM nominee. Why shall we support other parties,” RSP leader Monoj Bhattacharyya asked.(Telegraph)

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पहाडको शिक्षा व्यवस्थालाई सुढृढ बनाउन रज्य सरकार गम्भीर – ब्रात्य बशु

13मार्च (कालेबुङ):-पश्चिम बंगाल सरकारका शिक्षा मन्त्री ब्रात्य बसुले आज कालेबुङ महाविद्यालयको नयाँ पुस्तकालय भवनको शिलान्यास गरे। यसै अवसरमा कालेबुङका विधायक डा हर्कबहादुर छेत्रीको बाहुलीबाट कालेबुङ महाविद्यालयको नयाँ कार्यालय भवनको पनि उदघाटन गरियो। यस बर्ष कालेबुङ महाविद्यालयले आफ्नो स्थापनाको स्वर्ण जयंती पालन गरिरहेको छ। राज्यका शिक्षा मंत्री ब्रात्य बसुले मुख्य अतिथिको रुपमा स्वर्ण जयंतीको कार्यक्रममा पनि सहभागिता जनाए। यस अवसरमा क्षेत्रिय विधायक डा हर्कबहादुर छेत्री, महकुमा अधिकारी एल एन शेर्पालगायत विभिन्न शैक्षिक अनि सामाजिक संगठनका प्रतिनिधिहरु सामेल थिए। कालेबुङ महाविद्यालयका प्राचार्य डा आर पी ढकालले उच्च शिक्षाको क्षेत्रमा गुणस्तर कायम गर्न कालेबुङ महाविद्यालयले लगातार प्रयास गरिरहेको भए पनि भौतिक अनि मानव संशाधनहरुको अभावमा कलेजले बिभिन्न प्रकारको कठिनाईहरु झेल्नु परिरहेको कुरा मंत्रीलाई अवगत गराए।
यता, आफ्नो सम्बोधनमा शिक्षा मंत्री ब्रात्य बसुले पहाडको शिक्षा प्रणालीलाई सुढृढ बनाउन अनि संशाधनहरुको विकास गर्न राज्य सरकार गम्भीर रहेको बताए। उनले पहाडमा रोजगारमुखी शिक्षण संस्थानहरुको पनि स्थापना गर्ने राज्य सरकारको योजना रहेको बताए। यसअघि यहाँका शिक्षासँग सम्बन्धित विभिन्न संगठनहरुले उनलाई सर्किट हाउसमा भेटेर आ आफ्ना समस्याहरुबारे अवगत गराएका छन। क्लुनी महिला महाविद्यालय, जनमुक्ति सेकेण्डरी टिचर्स अर्गनाइजेशन अनि विद्यार्थी मोर्चाको प्रतिनिधि टोलीले शिक्षा मंत्री बसुसँग भेट गरी आफ्ना समस्या र मागहरु राखेका छन

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