Richard on Buddhism trail - Pretty Woman star to talk on personal experience of faith

Gangtok, April 23: Actor Richard Gere is in Sikkim on a five-day tour of Buddhist monasteries and to deliver a talk on the faith. The star of Pretty Woman and Chicago has been the practitioner of the Gelgupa school of Tibetan Buddhism for over a decade. Would he shoot in Sikkim? His itinerary suggests that is unlikely (See chart). The actor’s chopper landing in Gangtok yesterday was kept under wraps, sources said. Gere is scheduled to attend several Buddhist programmes in Gangtok and a wedding before he leaves the state on April 27. According to the sources, Gere reached Gangtok yesterday afternoon in a Pawan Hans helicopter and took a car to Dharma Chakra Centre at Rumtek in the East district. “The actor went to the main shrine of the monastery, offered prayers at the 16th Karmapa’s stupa and spent a couple of minutes interacting with the monks at Karma Shri Nalanda Institute. He was offered butter tea and snacks,” a senior monk at the monastery said, requesting anonymity. For the monks at the institute, a school on Buddhism located on the premises of the Rumtek monastery, it was a dream come true. “We were amazed with Gere’s immense knowledge of Buddhism. He was very nice and spent time with us. We also took lots of photographs with him,” said the monastery in-charge Omzed Lodey. Gere would deliver a talk — titled Buddhism in the West and My Personal Experience — at Manan Kendra here at 5pm on April 26. The talk is being organised by the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology in Gangtok. He will also attend a long-life empowerment ceremony to be performed by Khochhen Rimpoche and Sokse Rimpoche at Tsuklakhang monastery tomorrow. This event too is in Gangtok. The actor also runs the Gere Foundation India Trust to support a variety of humanitarian programmes in India since 1999.

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Gurung peace gesture to Mamata

April 23: A Gorkha Janmukti Morcha delegation today met chief minister Mamata Banerjee at Writers’ Buildings in Calcutta to convey party chief Bimal Gurung’s “best wishes” to her. “We came to meet her because she has not been feeling well. We conveyed our (the GTA) chief executive’s best wishes for her prompt recovery. He has also invited the chief minister to the Darjeeling hills,” Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said after the meeting. He was accompanied by party leaders Rohit Sharma and Harka Bahadur Chhetri. The meeting in Calcutta coincided with the GTA Sabha’s decision on who should be appointed its principal secretary, a matter that had added to the unpleasantness on both sides. Today’s meeting in Calcutta signalled a thaw in the Morcha’s relations with the state government, a matter on which Gurung had dropped a hint at a meeting in Mungpoo on April 3. “It is in my hand to further deteriorate the situation. But I do not want to deteriorate it further,” he had said. Relations between the state government and the Morcha soured after January 29 when Mamata at Chowrastha said Darjeeling “is a part of us”. Today’s meeting was the first reconciliatory gesture by the Morcha since then. According to Giri, Mamata asked them about the functioning of the GTA Sabha and asked the trio to “efficiently” carry out development work in the hills. “For a review of the implementation of the GTA agreement, home secretary Basudeb Banerjee will come to the hills on May 13. On April 30, we will come to Writers’ for a meeting with chief secretary Sanjay Mitra,” Giri said. In Darjeeling, Gurung today held a meeting with all Sabha members at Singmari and later announced: “We have decided to propose the name of R.D. Meena as the next principal secretary of the GTA.” Sources said Gurung had zeroed in on Meena from among the four names sent by the government because he is the seniormost and approaching retirement. “The GTA Sabha members were of the opinion that junior officers who have many years to serve would always think of their career and would, hence, be more inclined to keep the state government in good humour. The members were of the opinion that Meena would not unnecessarily try to please the state government and would work more or less independently as he would not have to think of his career,” a Morcha source said.

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Rose Valley releases cheques to investors

Durgapur, April 23: Rose Valley today started giving cheques to depositors after hundreds who had invested in several schemes made a beeline for the company’s Raniganj branch in the aftermath of the Saradha Group crisis. Those investors whose policies are yet to mature got back the cheque mentioning the principal amount. Yesterday, over 100 depositors from Raniganj town and neighbouring Jamuria had demonstrated inside the Rose Valley office, demanding their money back. The depositors had said they were worried about the money in the wake of the Saradha controversy. Those depositors whose schemes were yet to mature had been asked to come to the Raniganj Rose Valley branch today. Branch manager Jayanta Banerjee said: “We gave out 500 cheques today. All payments were made for schemes that are yet to mature. We will continue to give cheques to those who demand money.” A Rose Valley official said cheques for amounts ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 were given out. Several investors said they did not want to wait for their policies to mature. “We would have got the interest had we waited but we don’t want to take the risk,” an investor said. The customers expressed happiness but some of them said their fears would remain till the cheques were honoured. “I got a cheque for Rs 30,000 today, which is the principal amount I had invested in a scheme a year ago. The policy would have matured a year later but I don’t want to wait,” said a retired eastern coalfield employee. In another related development, CPM workers this morning blocked N.S. Bose Road in Raniganj after one of their party colleagues was beaten up allegedly by Trinamul Congress workers for demonstrating outside the Rose Valley office yesterday. Dilip Chatterjee, a retired Philips Carbon Black employee of Raniganj said that two years ago I had deposited Rs 50,000 in a scheme that promised double the amount in five years. “But after the Saradha group offices closed down, I became scared of losing my money. I came to know from my neighbours that the Rose Valley had agreed to return deposits. So, I came today and collected the principal amount I had deposited. I did not want to take any risk. I will be happy if I get my cheque cleared,” said Chatterjee. Depositors queued up from the morning and they rushed in as soon as the office opened at 10 am. The cheques were being distributed from the second floor office and the queue snaked out of the building on the road. At times those standing in the queue became restive and shouted why the queue was not moving. Sanyasi Badyakar, the CPM worker, was among the depositors who had demonstrated demanding their money back at the Rose Valley office yesterday. “The Trinamul workers beat me up with sticks as I took part at the demonstration,” said Badyakar. Senapati Mondal, Trinamul block president in Raniganj said, “We are not aware about any Trinamul worker beating up the CPM worker. We will inquire into it.” Uday Ghosh, officer-in-charge of Raniganj police station said that a complaint had been received and investigation has started.

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Saradha makes Barla wary of alliance Tribal leader rethinks on Trinamul

April 23: John Barla, the JMM leader keen to ally with the Trinamul Congress for the panchayat elections, has had second thoughts on moving forward with the tie-up given the repeated allegations against the ruling party’s closeness with the Saradha Group. “We had been insisting on a tie-up with Trinamul for the rural polls. But the Saradha Group issue has made our leaders give second thoughts to the issue. Most of us want to distance ourselves from the party and take up this issue,” a senior leader in Barla’s JMM said. The JMM’s problem is that if it is seen as close to Trinamul, it would not be able to raise the protest pitch in the plains’ tea gardens against fraud finance companies when many hundreds of tea workers are sufferers in the scam. “If we keep hobnobbing with Trinamul, we cannot speak much against the scam or launch a movement and we risk losing the support of our people. On the other hand, if we take up the issue and launch a movement on the demand for refund of the depositors’ money, we can consolidate our support base and can decelerate the progress of Trinamul in the Dooars,” the leader said. Barla today said: “Thousands of tea workers have deposited money under different schemes of the group (Saradha), expecting high returns. We have sent a letter to the north Bengal development minister, requesting him to intervene and ensure that the deposits are paid back to the workers.’ He said if the state “remains silent on the issue of refund, we would be left with no other option but to launch movement”. Barla said his party leaders had “already launched an awareness drive, urging people to refrain from investing their hard-earned money” in such fraud fund companies. According to administrative sources, though the total amount of investment made by workers of the brew belt is yet to be calculated, it is evident that a huge amount of money has been collected by these companies from them. “The Saradha Group and numerous other such companies have been operating in the Dooars for the past two-three years. According to our information, 84 such companies had branches in Malbazar, 45 in Banarhat, 60 in Birpara and 40 in Kalchini. The mushrooming of branches indicates the inflow of funds as all these small towns are located across the Dooars belt. Many of these companies have closed down while a few are working now,” a source said. In north Bengal, eight complaints were lodged against the Saradha Group today. Police said five complaints were filed in Balurghat and one each in Bhaktinagar, Raiganj and Kalimpong. Leaders of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad, while speaking on the issue, said that retired tea workers had deposited money with these companies. “While most of the workers invested money under recurring and other monthly deposit schemes, a good number of retired workers have deposited the money they have received as provident fund and gratuity. We want both the state and central governments to take up the issue and ensure that the poor workers, who were duped by these companies, get back their money,” said Rajesh Lakra, the general secretary of north Bengal regional unit of the Parishad. “A letter would be soon sent to the governments. If the governments remain lackadaisical, we would be forced to launch a movement,” he said. Representatives of other political parties such as the RSP, CPM and the Congress also hinted at starting a movement to make the scam an issue to beat Trinamul. As tea workers express concern over their deposits like lakhs of other investors across the state, senior trade union leaders spoke about the movement while pointing out the absence of banking infrastructure. “It is not only the issue of restricting activities of chit funds and securing the refunds of the deposits. The state should also work to spread banking network in the tea belt that has around 160 gardens. There are several gardens from where the nearest bank is 25km away,” Chitta Dey, convener of the Co-ordination Committee of Tea Plantation Workers, an apex body of trade unions, said. “This discourages workers from visiting banks and under such circumstances, they are approached by agents of these chit fund companies,” Dey said. Trinamul leaders seemed unperturbed. “Opposition parties would not succeed in slandering us as people in the Dooars have expressed spontaneous support to us,” said Chandan Bhowmik, the Jalpaiguri district Trinamul president. “Our chief minister has proved her sincerity to take care of Dooars residents and regarding the chit fund issue, the government is putting its best efforts to protest the interests of depositors and agents.”

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