| RAJEEV RAVIDAS | ||
Kalimpong, April 16: Five persons were killed and five others injured when the car they were travelling in fell into the Teesta near Chitre this afternoon. Police said the SUV that was on its way to Gangtok from Darjeeling skidded off NH31A and fell into the river about 250 feet below around 4pm. The accident spot between Chitre and Laborbote is 14km from here. The deceased are Uday Pradhan and his wife Sunita, residents of Haridashatta in Darjeeling, Prabhat Tamang of Jalapahar in Darjeeling, Manisha Rai of 5th Mile in Sikkim and Manju Sharma of Rangpo. The injured persons, Anushka Gurung of Jaldhaka, Jai Bahadur Rai of Mungsong, Rebecca Rai of Melli and Syanli Rai from Rangpo have been admitted to the Kalimpong subdivisional hospital. “Sonam Yangchen Bhutia, the driver of the vehicle, is undergoing treatment at the primary health centre in Melli. He lost control of the vehicle and it swerved off the highway,” said a source. He added that the car was a share taxi. Rafters from Melli had been despatched to the accident spot 4km away. “We managed to rescue five persons who were seated in the rear seat of the jeep. We were also able to retrieve the bodies of the five persons who perished in the mishap. Half of the jeep was immersed in the river while the other half was on the riverbank when we reached the spot,” said Roshan Bhujel, the vice-president of the Teesta-Rangeet Raft Owners’ Association.(TT) |
शिक्षक प्रमुखको लापारवाहीको कारण बेहाल अवस्थामा चम्पामाया प्रथमिक पाठशाला
पहाड़को प्रथमिक पाठशालाहरु एका एक बन्द हुनुमा सरकार पक्ष दोषी छ कि शिक्षक-शिक्षिकाहरुको लापारवाही? किन दार्जीलिङ पहाड़को शैक्षिक स्तर दिनोदिन खस्किन्दै गइरहेको छ? प्रथमिक शिक्षा बाल-बालिकाहरुको निम्ति महत्तवपूर्ण हुँदा-हुँदै पनि किन आजसम्म पहाड़को शिक्षा व्यवस्थामा सुधार आउन सकिरहेको छैन?
राजनीति गर्दिनँ भन्नु पनि अर्को राजनीति होः हर्कबहादुर छेत्री
मेरो अधिकारक्षेत्रभित्र पाँच बर्षको लागि जनताको हितको काम गर् भनेर मलाई भोट हालेको हो नि। मलाई थाहा छ यसले जनताको धेरै हित हुन्छ। यसले जनताको हितसँगै पार्टीको पनि हित हुन्छ, आन्दोलनलाई पनि सहयोग पुर्याउँछ भनेपछि एकदम निसंकोच भनेर अघि बढ्न सक्छु म। म त्यही काम गर्दैछु।
बघिनी फेरि पुरानै खोरमा
‘समयले मानिसलाई कहाँ कहाँ पुर्याउँछ,,,,,,’ कुनै समय रेडियो नेपालबाट बजिरहने यो चर्चित गीतले मान्छेको जीवनमा प्रणयसम्बन्धको आरोह अवरोहले पार्ने प्रभावलाई सुन्दर ढंगले व्याख्या गरेको छ। यो लोकप्रिय गीतको यही एक हरफ कुनै राजनीतिकर्मीको जीवनसँग गाँसेर हेर्दा के उत्तर पाइएला?
साहित्य अनि सर्जकलाई माया गर्ने घिसिङ
80 को दशकमा देशभरिका गोर्खाहरूलाई जातित्वको भावना उत्पन्न गराउने प्रथम नेता सुवास घिसिङको निधनले अहिले घड़ी सम्पूर्ण दार्जीलिङ पहाड़ नै स्तब्ध बनेको छ। गोर्खाहरूका हित अनि अस्तित्वका निम्ति छुट्टै राज्यको बहस लिएर सुवास धिसिङले त्यसताक पहाड़का प्रत्येक गाँऊहरूको भ्रमण गरेका थिए। 22 जुन 1936 सालमा मिरिकको मञ्जु चियाबगानमा जन्म लिएरका सुवास घिसिङले आफ्नो तर्क राख्न एकलै जनसभा गर्थे। घिसिङले सम्पूर्ण गोर्खाहरूलाई एकै शुत्रमा बाँध्न "गोर्खाल्याण्ड" शब्दको जन्म गरेका थिए।
निराश छन् विधायक डा. छेत्री
“बजट सत्रमा के कुराहरू उठान गर्नु पर्ने भन्नेबारे हामीले जीटीएबाट कहिले फिडब्याक पाएका छैनौं” डा छेत्रीले भने। डा हर्कबहादुर छेत्री मोर्चाका प्रवक्ता हुन् अनि कालेबुङका जनप्रतिनिधि। दुइवटा महत्वपूर्ण पदमा बसेका डा छेत्रीलाई अहिलेसम्म जीटीएको बैठकमा निम्ताइएको छैन, पार्टीको राजनैतिक लाइनबारे उनीसँग चर्चा र छलफल नगरिएको त झन कति भयो, उनैलाई हेक्का छैन।
17 Apr 2012
5 killed in Teesta car crash
Govt invites GTA forum for talks on strike
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| Rajesh Lakra (second from right) and other Parishad leaders at the district collectorate in Jalpaiguri on Monday. Picture by Biplab Basak |
Siliguri, April 16: The state government will tomorrow hold talks with representatives of organisations which have called a strike in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts on April 18 and 19 for the inclusion of the Dooars and Terai in the set-up for the hills.
The invitation for the talks at Writers’ Buildings was sent to John Barla, the convener of the Joint Action Co-ordination Committee that has called the strike. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha is a constituent of the committee.
North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb said the government would request the leaders of the committee to withdraw the strike as disruptive activities would hit the economic growth of the region. “The government is relentlessly trying to dissuade all organisations from calling strikes. We will hold talks with the John Barla group (of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad) and other associations tomorrow and request them to call off the strike,” said Deb.
“We would like to tell them that the government is not against rallies and other forms of agitation, but they should refrain from strikes or any other disruptive activity which will have a negative effect on the region’s economy or will deteriorate law and order.”
The committee had called the strike in response to a shutdown announced by a forum of outfits on April 10 and 11 to protest the demand to bring the Terai and Dooars under the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. However, the anti-GTA forum scaled down the strike to one day (April 10) at the request of industries minister Partha Chatterjee.
Barla said a seven-member delegation from the committee would attend the meeting tomorrow.
“We have received an invitation from minister Gautam Deb. A seven-member delegation will sit with ministers and officials. If the government appeals to us to withdraw the strike, the delegates will consult with other leaders before making any announcement. They will ask the ministers to promise us in writing that 349 mouzas in the plains will be made a part of the GTA,” said Barla.
The official faction of the Parishad said its supporters would hit the streets if the Barla group and other outfits went ahead with the 48-hour strike.
“We had scaled down our strike by one day on the basis of the government’s assurance that there would be no fresh problems in the Terai and Dooars. However, if these people (Barla and others) observe the strike, we will not sit idle and scuttle the strike with the help of the common people,” said Rajesh Lakra, the general secretary of the Dooars-Terai regional unit of the Parishad.(TT)
Toy train derails in darjeeling
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| Picture by Suman Tamang |
The rear bogie of a toy train derailed five minutes after it left the Darjeeling station on Monday morning.
An official of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway said the compartment jumped off the narrow gauge when a bundle of aluminium sheets kept at a hardware shop fell on the tracks.
The train with two compartments was on the way to Jorebunglow station uphill and had 16 tourists. Since the toy trains move very slowly and the tracks are on the road, none of the passengers was injured when the rake derailed at 10.45am.
Purnabha Bose, a tourist from Calcutta, said: “We felt a jerk and then we found out that our bogie had jumped the tracks.”
The DHR officials said they would file an FIR against the shopowner. Most of the railway land, right from the Darjeeling station to Sukna, has been encroached upon. The ride resumed after the bogie was put back on the tracks an hour later.(TT)
Incite finger at tea union - CPRM protests work hours, planters fear for law & order
Darjeeling, April 16: Planters in Darjeeling have decided to inform the administration about a trade union’s alleged attempt to instigate labourers to go against the work hours fixed through an agreement.
They said the administration should hold the Darjeeling-Terai-Dooars Chia Kaman Mazdur Union responsible if there was a law and order problem in the gardens.
Although the Mazdur Union is not a force to be reckoned with in the hills, the garden owners fear that the provocation might spiral out of control as “workers’ issue appeals to all political parties”.
The Mazdur Union affiliated to the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists (CPRM) has been demanding that the eight-hour a day work time fixed for a garden labourer should also include his one-hour lunch break.
But the agreement signed with the planters and the unions on January 21, 2012, says “a worker would be working for eight hours in a day for the day’s wage and the lunchbreak would not be included in the working hours throughout the year”.
The tea unions of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the CPRM and the Congress had been signatories to the agreement with the Darjeeling Tea Association (the planters’ body).
Of late, the CPRM union had been opposing the exclusion of the lunch break. The union said the earlier practice of including the lunch break in the eight-hour work schedule was still followed in the tea gardens of the Dooars and the Terai and there was no reason why the Darjeeling plantations should deviate.
Sandeep Mukherjee, principal adviser to the Darjeeling Tea Association, said: “The agreement was signed by K.B. Subba and D.K. Rasaily on behalf of the CPRM’s trade union. The fact that a worker needs to put in eight hours of work is in accordance with the Plantation Labour Act, 1951. But the CPRM union is lying to the workers and instigating them to go against the agreement, which has made the situation explosive in the gardens.”
“We will soon write to the assistant labour commissioner and the district magistrate requesting them to take note of the situation and hold the union responsible for any possible breach in the law and order in the gardens,” he added.
K.B. Subba, general secretary of the Mazdur Union, insisted that the new agreement must be scrapped. “We discussed the agreement with our party colleagues and we have decided to oppose the deviation. The agreement must be scrapped and the working hours must be reverted to the earlier practice to include the lunch break.”
Asked about the agreement which has his signature, Subba said: “Before signing the agreement we had protested. But the predominant union (which is affiliated to the Morcha) signed the deal and we could do little. We had only agreed on the need to improve the work culture in the gardens but we cannot agree on nine hours of work (including lunch) which is against the Plantation Labour Act, 1951.”
Section 19 (sub-section 1) of the Plantation Labour Act, 1951, states: “Save as otherwise expressly provided in this Act, no adult worker shall be required or allowed to work on any plantation in excess of forty-eight hours a week and adolescent or child for many than twenty seven hours a week.”
Md Rizwan, joint labour commissioner of north Bengal, said: “The Act states that the workers have to put in eight hours of actual work.”
More than 80 per cent of the 55,000 permanent work force in nearly 60 gardens under the DTA are members of the Morcha union, which is backing the new agreement. The DTA is the dominant planters’ organisation in the hills.
The rest of the 87 gardens that produce the premier Darjeeling tea haven’t yet drawn up any new agreement yet on the work hours.
Suraj Subba, general secretary of the Morcha-affiliated Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union, said: “All the parties have agreed to stick to the provisions of the Plantation Labour Act and no worker is putting in nine hours of work. The CPRM which has signed the agreement is trying to politicise the issue.”
Subba said the workers would stand to gain during wage and bonus negotiation if production turned out to be good.
Asked why the industry was apprehensive when the dominant union was by its side, a planter said: “It does not take much time for a workers’ issue to spiral out of control. Then all political parties try to cash in on it.”(TT)
