CID moves Facebook for image source

Calcutta, April 16: Bengal’s criminal investigation department (CID) has written to Facebook in its efforts to track down those responsible for uploading four Internet pictures lampooning chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

If the CID persists with the drive, it will mean that the government is keen to take its crackdown beyond the circulation of unpalatable digital content and to its very source of origin.

The CID’s cyber crime cell had earlier written to Facebook and Google asking them to delete objectionable material but never before had it tried to reach the source.

Requests for deleting content considered objectionable or inflammatory are neither unusual nor unreasonable. But attempts are usually not made to trace the source, not only because of the complex nature of the hunt but also because of the futility as someone else can post something else from some other country in the seamless information age.The investigating agency has asked the US-based social networking site to provide IP addresses of the computers from where the four images were uploaded.

An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a numerical tag assigned to each computer and it helps track down the Internet service provider. Once the service provider is located, law enforcers can use the IP to locate the computer or computers used to upload the jokes.

But the IP address identifies the subscriber of an Internet connection, not the person who has used the connection to post something on a website. If someone other than the subscriber with access to the connection posts something on a website, the IP address would remain the same. Hence, in the West, an IP address is rarely sufficient to establish that someone has done something wrong on the Internet.

Police today described the images as caricatures of the Bengal chief minister. “The pictures are not cartoons. These are original faces of the chief minister in which her features have been distorted to give her a different look,” a CID officer said.

Changing the features of well-known personalities is a design device used worldwide by the media, including The Telegraph, to reflect the particular mood that an event or statement may evoke.

CID sources confirmed tonight that the Sonar Kella joke, over which a Jadavpur University professor was arrested last week, was not among the four for which Facebook has been asked to start a probe.

In the letter addressed “To whom it may concern” and mailed to the Facebook headquarters at Menlo Park, California, the CID mentioned a complaint lodged by a Trinamul Congress activist in New Town last week. That Suman Naskar, the Trinamul activist from Mahishbathan, on the fringes of New Town, had filed the complaint was reported on Sunday.

Naskar, in his mid-30s, had mentioned in his complaint that a section of youths had uploaded morphed pictures of the chief minister to malign her character.

“We will try to track down those who uploaded the pictures before it flooded the walls of hundreds of Facebook users,” an officer said.(TT)

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Rallies bring back unrest memories - Protest panic grips tourism sector

Siliguri, April 15: Three rallies brought out by outfits opposed to each other over the jurisdiction of the hill set-up kept police busy in Siliguri today as they mobilised forces, tear gas shells and a water cannon to quell possible confrontation between the two sides. The air of uncertainty that hung over Siliguri, the gateway to Darjeeling and Sikkim, came at a time when the region is expecting 2 lakh tourists over the next two months.

Around 100 police personnel equipped with water cannons, tear gas and armed with sticks, shields, and guns stood along Hill Cart Road that leads to the hills from Darjeeling More onwards. The water cannon was planted in Dagapur, the entry point to Siliguri on NH55. The force was also guarding Panchanoi, a little ahead of Dagapur.

Forces were also posted at Salugara on NH31 and in Bagdogra, points of possible confrontation, to prevent both the sides from reaching each other. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-led joint action committee brought out two of the three processions.

“It brought back memories of 2007-2008. Tourism was hit and the footfall figure was down by 60 per cent till 2010,” said Raj Basu, adviser to the Eastern Himalaya Tour and Travel Operators’ Association. That year, the Gorkhaland movement was revived in the Darjeeling hills. The Morcha movement gained momentum in 2009 (see chart below). The tourism sector started reviving with the signing of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration agreement last year. “That dip in footfall was almost gone during the Pujas last year.”

North Bengal, which includes Darjeeling and the foothills, gets around 2 lakh visitors every year. “People tour an entire circuit like the Darjeeling-Dooars-Terai-Sikkim, which is why we don’t have figures for a particular area. But Darjeeling has an annual footfall of nearly 3.5 lakh tourists. Of them, 60 per cent, almost 2 lakh, visit in summer, that is now. And all of them pass through Siliguri,” Deepak Gupta, the general secretary of EHTTOA, said.

The tourist season starting from the middle of March continues till May-end. “That is, till the board results are out and the monsoon begins. Today’s rallies were not taken out in the hills but here. Siliguri is the entry point to the hills and Sikkim. Any unrest here will hurt hill tourism the most,” said a tour operator.

Barun Saha, a businessman, who lives near Bagdogra, said he heard the pro-GTA procession shouting slogans and feared that their rivals would come up any moment. “We could hear them shout slogans in favour of plains territory in the hill-set-up. Agitation like this one cause tension in the Terai. We were fortunate the anti-GTA lobby did not assemble or else, the situation could have turned complicated,” said Saha.

The Morcha wants the Gorkha-dominated areas from the Terai and the Dooars to be made part of the GTA, a demand that has caused outrage among the plains outfits — 26 organisations that have come under a banner to plan protests.

Around 15 members of the plains forum or the anti-GTA group tried to march towards Sukna but were stopped by the police at Dagapur, a district intelligence officer said. “Four people were detained,” the officer said.

Simultaneously at 2.30pm, 150-200 Morcha workers were stopped at Panighata More before Bagdogra, 15km from Siliguri. The police persuaded them to return.

The police patrolling was relaxed around 5pm when news arrived that the Morcha-led Joint Action Committee had cancelled its rally in Dagapur and would not be coming to Siliguri because of rain.

But some slogan-shouting Morcha members and the rebel faction of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad marched from Salugara to Bhaktinagar police station, another entry point to Siliguri town. “Elaborate arrangements were made at Bagdogra, Darjeeling More, Panchanoi, and adjacent areas of Pintail Village. No untoward incident has been reported,” said Darjeeling superintendent of police Kunal Agarwal.(TT)

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Traders’ strike woes: loss, snub and apathy

Jalpaiguri, April 15: The business community in north Bengal has complained that in the absence of a “negotiating lever”, it has failed to convince political parties to refrain from strikes.

Stakeholders in tea and tourism sectors said pleas to political parties to withdraw strikes often ended in snubs. The government too was inconsistent in its efforts to end shutdowns, they said.

“If strikes are not related to the industry, we don’t have any lever to negotiate with or create pressure. If it was related to tea wages, we could have sat with the trade unions. But here, nobody is willing to listen to us,” said a planter from the Dooars, with its 258 gardens. The Terai has 80 estates.

Garden owners said appeals to government had not produced the desirable results.

“At several meetings with government representatives and ministers, we had asked them to do something about strikes. But we have not seen the results of our pleas. In the past few years, tea production has been hit because of general strikes in the Terai and the Dooars. On every strike day, production suffers a setback, leading to loss of man-days, tea leaves and expenditure made on other inputs,” said Amritangshu Chakraborty, the principal adviser to the Indian Tea Planters’ Association.

Requests were also made through trade unions, planters said. “We reminded the unions that workers’ livelihood was affected by strikes. But no organisation is willing to listen to us,” said a garden owner.

He said whether the “strike was called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha or the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Parishad, the loss was the same”.

“We suffer a production loss of Rs 12-14 crore daily, if there is a shutdown,” said the planter. “Political parties have made it clear to us that our pleas would not cut much ice as we are not capable of meeting their demands.”

Often traders and shopkeepers have called a strike to protest a strike.

“Strikes of any kind hinder economic growth,” admitted Samarendra Prasad Biswas, general secretary of the North Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industries. “On any strike day, traders incur a transaction loss of Rs 25-30 crore.”

Asked if appeals had been made to any political party which had called a particular strike, a representative of a trade body based at Birpara in the Dooars said: “We had approached particular organisations and parties which had called strikes with pleas to withdraw them. But we have been turned away, snubbed and labelled as a section that is interested only in profits and not in the common man.”

The business community has complaints against the government too.

“We had approached the state government many times but their initiative had not been consistent. For example, two 48-hour strikes had been called this month. While the government held a meeting with one side, which scaled down their protest to 24 hours, no one met the rivals.”

The tourism sector incurs a loss of Rs 50 lakh a day when there is a shutdown. “We had appealed to government representatives and leaders of political parties via the media with requests to either intervene or withdraw strikes. No positive response has been received so far,” said Raj Basu, adviser to the Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators’ Association.

The government claimed that it was doing its job. “The high-power committee is yet to submit its recommendations. We feel there is no justification to call a strike now,” said north Bengal development minister Gautam Deb. He was referring to a panel that has been looking into the Morcha demand to include some of the plains mouzas in the hill set-up. Both the Morcha and the government have agreed to abide by the panel’s recommendations.(TT)

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Sikkim to get soccer school for U-14

Gangtok, April 15: The All India Football Federation will set up a regional academy in Sikkim along with seven other places in the country to train Under-14 players, the best of whom will be picked up for the national youth team.

All the eight regional academies will come up by the end of 2013 and the newly constructed Football House in Gangtok is likely to house the facility in Sikkim.

AIFF senior vice-president Subrata Dutta said the first academy would be opened in Mumbai next month. “The AIFF is planning to start eight regional football academies in the country for U-14 players. They will be ready by 2013. Sikkim will also have an academy. We require playground, educational arrangements and accommodation for the children to set up the academies,” Dutta told The Telegraph.

Dutta said each academy would train 30 students. “We are also setting up two football centres of excellence for U-16 players. The boys who perform well in the regional academies will graduate to the two centres and they will form the core of the national football youth team.”

Dutta was here last week with I-league chief executive officer Sunanda Dhar to watch the ongoing second division matches.

Apart from Mumbai and Sikkim, the academies will be established in Pune, Kalyani (Bengal), New Delhi and Bangalore. The AIFF is yet to decide on the location of the two other academies.

Although no final decision has been reached on the location of the academy in Sikkim, there are indications that it will function from the new Football House in the state capital.

“The regional academy has been our long-awaited dream. It will be a boost for budding players in the state. A few years back, the SFA (Sikkim Football Association) had proposed to start the academy in the newly constructed four-storied football house in Gangtok. The AIFF has given the in-principal approval to set up the academy at the Football House,” said SFA general secretary Menla Ethenpa.

The Football House was set up with funds granted by the Fifa under its Goal project to provide boarding and training facilities to the players.

I-league CEO Dhar said the academy was just the beginning as far as soccer growth in Sikkim was concerned.

“People in Sikkim are passionate about football. We want the game to grow further here so that more Bhaichung Bhutias can be produced. The SFA needs to organise more football development programmes for youths, besides conducting training for referees and coaches. It must also develop infrastructure for the AIFF to organise national and international tournaments in Sikkim,” he said.

Dhar said although the infrastructure at Paljor Stadium was good, the ground had to be developed to hold bigger tournaments.

“I cannot see why I-League matches cannot be held here but for that, United Sikkim has to qualify. The stadium needs to be developed as I-league matches are telecast live and arrangements must be made to erect television cameras. Besides, floodlights are also required.”(TT)

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