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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