BAHA’IS OF GANGTOK CELEBRATED NAVRUZ

Rangpo 22 march-

Baha’i community of Gangtok celebrated Navruz, Baha’i New year on 21^st March at Baha’i House, Nam Nang Road Gangtok. The celebration was organized by the Local Spiritual Asembly of the Baha’is of Gangtok. Many Bahais from Gangtok, Tadong, Siyari and Pani House attended the programme.

The programme started with a round of devotional prayers and reading of Holy writings. Secretary of the Regional Baha’i Council of Sikkim Mrs. Rupa Pradhan presented a talk on the importance of Navruz. Baha’i calendar has 19 month and 5 intercalary days in a year. Each month has 19 days. 1^st Day of the first Baha’i month is celebrated as Navruz all around the world. Navruz is the festival of Jews community also. Baha’is around the world arise for prayers before sunup from March 2 to March 20^th as they begin their yearly fasting period – “an annual renewal of faith.” It’s an invigoration, an annual cleansing. The 19 days fast is a special time for prayer and also involves abstaining from food and drink between sunrise and sundown. Members of the Baha’i Faith ages 15 to 70 observe the fast, which ends just before the Baha’i new year on March 21, the day of vernal equinox when day and night is equal.

The whole programme was conducted by Sarvada Pradhan and Pallawi Sewa. The Baha’i Youths of Tadong and Gangtok presented Baha’i Bhajans, songs and Dance. After the programme everybody greeted each other and said a prayer for peace and prosperity together.

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Four delegates from Sikkim left for Delhi to support Anna

RANGPO-22^ND MARCH12

Four delegates from Sikkim left for Delhi to participate in the struggle and dharna organise by team Anna at Delhi jantar mantar on 25^th march12.mr y t lepcha from nimtar ,mr basadev nirola from aahu, Mr. mitralal nirola hee barmaik west Sikkim and Mr. rudra khatiwada from rhenock east Sikkim are the four delegates going to participate for the dharna .talking to this correspondent by the group they asked that they shall meet with Anna team and assure full support in the movement also has decided to submit a letter regarding the present issues and status cum decisions of the state government .the team shall also invite Anna to visit Sikkim.

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Mamata to tap Morcha for RS polls

Mamata, Bimal

March 21: Mamata Banerjee today invited Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung to meet her in Calcutta on March 24 apparently to seek his party’s support for the March 30 Rajya Sabha polls.

Trinamul leaders said the chief minister would try to persuade Gurung to withdraw his party’s decision to abstain from voting in the Upper House polls and boycotting the Assembly and instead back Trinamul in the crucial election.

A senior leader of the Morcha, which has four MLAs, said in Darjeeling said this afternoon: “Our president has accepted the invitation and decided to leave for Calcutta on March 23. Roshan Giri, L.B. Pariyar and Anit Thapa will accompany him.”

Trinamul sources said north Bengal development minister Gautam Deb got in touch with Gurung after industries minister Partha Chatterjee called him up and requested him to pass on Mamata’s invite to the Morcha chief. “I spoke to Bimal Gurung and he confirmed that he would be present in Calcutta on March 24. But I did not discuss the issue of the Rajya Sabha polls with him,” Deb said.

Trinamul is pulling out all stops to pool in as many votes as possible for its candidate for the fourth Rajya Sabha seat and the Morcha’s support is crucial to help the ruling party get past the winning post. On the strength of its 184 MLAs in the Assembly, Trinamul will get three of the five seats for which the polls will be held.

“It is essential to secure as many votes as possible for our fourth nominee,” a Trinamul leader said. “So if we can persuade the Morcha to make a turnaround and agree to vote for us, it will help us.”

At a meeting held in Mongpoo, 38km downhill from Darjeeling, on Sunday, the Morcha had decided to boycott the Assembly and abstain from voting in the Rajya Sabha polls to protest the state government’s decision to hold elections to the proposed Gorkhaland Territorial Administration before the issue of territory expansion is sorted out.

It had also expressed its disappointment at Mamata turning down its request for a Rajya Sabha berth.“The state government is betraying us. Since 1952, nine MPs from the hills have been sent to the Rajya Sabha. But this time, the new government tried to play with our identity by not sending anyone from the hills,” Gurung had said.

Morcha general secretary Giri today refused to say whether it would reconsider its decision in case the chief minister made the request. “It is a sensitive issue and I would not like to comment on it,” he said.However, in case the Congress pulls out of the fray and decides to back Trinamul — such indications emerged this evening — the Morcha’s support will not be required.

“Till such time as the Congress takes a final call and makes an official announcement, we cannot take it (the Rajya Sabha polls) easy,” a Trinamul leader said. “So, we will carry on with our attempts to garner the requisite numbers needed to win the fourth Rajya Sabha seat.”Morcha sources hinted that the issue of elections to the GTA would also be discussed when Gurung met Mamata.

“Our boycott of the Rajya Sabha polls and the elections to the GTA are interlinked. The main reason for the boycott is the state’s insistence on holding elections to the GTA before the issue of territory is sorted out. So we can’t talk of one and ignore the other,” a Morcha leader said.

The Morcha wants Gorkha-dominated areas in the Dooars-Terai region included in the hill set-up.(Telegraph)

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Morcha rails at CM for hill ‘neglect’

Mamata

Siliguri, March 20: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today said Mamata Banerjee was “too occupied” with the railway ministry and appealed to people to decide if the new government had solved the Darjeeling issue as claimed by the chief minister.

The Bimal Gurung-led party also accused Mamata of prioritising the railways as it was a matter of her survival in the larger political arena while putting Darjeeling and its problems in the backseat.

“Trinamul leaders are too occupied with issues like the railway ministry and Dinesh Trivedi as these are directly related to the survival of the party in the political arena. The Darjeeling issue has taken a backseat,” said Morcha spokesperson and Kalimpong MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri.

Since the placing of the railway budget, a drama has been unfolding around railway minister Dinesh Trivedi and Trinamul chief Mamata, who replaced him with Mukul Roy for raising rail fares across the board.

Chhetri said as Mamata was busy in Delhi with issues like railways and Trivedi, the hills were no longer a priority for her.

“The party and the state government must understand that because of the delay in GTA formation with its extended territory, there is a simmering discontent among the people in the hills and plains,” the MLA said.

The Morcha does not want the election to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration to be held till some mouzas in the plains are brought under the jurisdiction of the new hill set-up.

“The people should check out whether the government has solved the problem, as it has been claiming over the past few months. They should even question the government as the situation is heading towards uncertainty,” Chhetri said.

The Morcha, which claimed that the onus was now on the central and state governments to meet the demands, reconfirmed that it would move ahead with the protest programmes in the Dooars and the Terai if the Gorkha-dominated areas from the region were not added to the GTA.

Gurung had earlier announced a string of agitation from April if the territory demand was not met.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had yesterday promised Parliament that a “practical and viable solution” to the Darjeeling situation would be found and recognised the “contribution” of the Bengal government in “facilitating this outcome”.

Told about the opposition that the Morcha would meet from the Adivasi Vikas Parishad, KPP and other organisations that did not want any plains areas to be added to the GTA, Chhetri said: “Times have changed. Unlike in 2007 and 2008 when we were at loggerheads with the Parishad, we now have a sizeable portion of the tribal population, led by John Barla, with us. It would be more of a Parishad versus Parishad situation this time. There would be a much less resistance this time.”

He insisted that both sides would have to face an acid test now. “We, along with (rebel adivasi leader) John Barla, would be able to reassert our support base in the Terai and the Dooars where a chunk of the population wants to be under the GTA. The other lobby of the Parishad that had always spoken against us will have to prove its clout this time. Our leaders and workers from the Dooars and Terai were present at the meeting held in Mungpoo last week. Specific instructions to garner support and prepare for the agitation have been passed on to them,” he added.

Parishad leaders have made it clear that they would not “give up” their territory.

“We will stop the Morcha if it tries to spread fresh unrest in the Terai and Dooars. Given the state government’s persistent silence over territory issue, we are facing twin challenges,” said Birsa Tirkey, the state president of the Parishad.

The first challenge for the Parishad is to prove that the Morcha and Barla do not enjoy the minimum support in the Dooars and Terai, said Tirkey.

“We have also to prove that people here do not want their fate determined by a high-powered committee which has Morcha MLAs as members. Under no circumstances, the plains areas would be included in GTA,” he added.(Telegraph)

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