Kalimpong to lose train quota

Kalimpong, July 5: The Northeast Frontier Railways has started withdrawing the manual train ticket quota allotted to Kalimpong citing computerised passenger reservation system at Durpin near here from where tickets for trains running across the country can be booked.

Although the computerised counter at Durpin, 3km from here, has been in existence for many years, the NFR had been running a manual ticketing system here. Kalimpong had been allotted a quota for booking one-way tickets for some trains. “This is a policy decision of the railway board. We will keep manual quota where there is no PRS,” said S. Sengupta, senior commercial manager, NFR. He said the quota would be withdrawn in phases and the process would soon be over. Kalimpong’s manual counter is authorised to sell tickets for 24 trains that originate from or pass through New Jalpaiguri. A quota of seats is fixed for each train. “People can buy tickets of any train in any part of the country through computerised counters. Passengers can also buy return tickets, which they cannot do from manual counters,” Sengupta said. Kalimpong’s quota for Darjeeling Mail that runs between NJP and Sealdah daily is 22 — 16 seats in sleeper class, four in three tier AC and two in two tier AC. Following the decision to phase out the quota, the quota of six AC seats on the train has been withdrawn. The quota of four AC seats in the Rajdhani Mail has also been done away with. The railways have manual ticket counters at Mirik and Bijanbari in Darjeeling and Jorethang in Sikkim and they have been outsourced to private agencies. In Kalimpong, the NFR directly runs the counter. Sengupta said the quota for these places had not been withdrawn since there were no computerised counters in the region. He added that although Kalimpong had a computerised counter at Durpin, the railways could set up a second one depending on

Read More

Hill Trinamul to campaign in Dooars

Darjeeling, July 5: The Trinamul Congress has decided to take its leaders from the hills to the Dooars to canvass for the party’s candidates for the panchayat elections in a move to counter Bimal Gurung’s sustained campaign. Trinamul’s decision to deploy the Gorkha leaders of the party on the campaign trail is being seen as an effort to win the support of community members.

The Morcha president has been camping in the plains since June 20 and in the past fortnight, he has criss-crossed almost every nook and corner of the Dooars, which has substantial voters from the Gorkha community. The Gorkhas are the second largest community in the Dooars after the adivasis. Trinamul, which is looking at making major inroads into the Dooars during the rural polls, has drawn up a plan to counter Gurung’s presence in the plains. “The party has decided to send hill leaders to campaign in the Dooars. The list of the hill leaders who will be asked to campaign in the plains will be drawn up after the party holds a public meeting at Gairibas in Jhaldhaka (in Kalimpong subdivision) on Sunday,” said Binny Sharma, the spokesman for Trinamul hill unit. Trinamul has a clear agenda to counter Gurung. “We will tell the Dooars people, especially the Gorkhas, that the GTA Sabha cannot bring about development in the Dooars. The region can grow only through the north Bengal development department and the proposed Dooars Development Authority,” said Sharma. Trinamul leaders want to drive home their point that it makes little sense to support the Morcha since Gurung cannot bring about development. Gurung has been campaigning in the plains assuring his supporters that the hill party has not given up its demand for the inclusion of 391 mouzas of the Dooars and Terai in the GTA. Sharma said: “We are not against the GTA and the state government will provide all support to the hill body. But we want to make it clear to the Dooars people that Gurung’s demand for the inclusion of the plains mouzas is an eye wash and just another election stunt.” Trinamul’s dependence on the leaders from the hills for the campaign in the Dooars betrays the party’s eagerness to garner as many votes as possible. “Although Trinamul has leaders among the Gorkhas in the Dooars, the presence of high-profile people from the community in the party’s hill unit will change the course of the campaign. They can take on Gurung and the Morcha in a better way and make the Gorkhas vote in favour of Trinamul,” said an observer. Gurung has told his supporters in the plains that the party is ready to launch an agitation after the rural polls to demand the inclusion of 391 mouzas in the GTA. A fact verification committee is looking into the recommendation of Justice (retd) Shyamal Sen Committee that only five of the 396 mouzas be brought under the GTA Sabha. The hill party is now demanding that the fact verification committee make a field survey before passing its opinion. The Morcha has tied up with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha to contest the rural polls in the plains. The JMM, too, is in favour of including the plains mouzas in the hills, a demand that is unlikely to be fulfilled given the state government’s announcement that a separate development authority would be formed for the Dooars. Of the 13 blocks in Jalpaiguri district, seven are in the Dooars. Around 40 per cent of the 2,346 gram panchayat seats in Jalpaiguri fall in the Dooars. A similar percentage of the 422 panchayat samiti seats are also in the Dooars. The zilla parishad has 37 seats and around 15 of them are in the Dooars.

Read More

Sudipta faces jeers

Siliguri, July 5: More than 200 depositors and agents of Saradha Group demonstrated on the premises of the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court here today when Sudipta Sen and Debjani Mukherjee were brought in connection with a case filed at the Siliguri police station.

“The duo were brought to Siliguri from Calcutta today as a case had been registered against the group by a resident of Subhaspally here. The court ordered 14 days’ jail custody for them,” Sudip Roy Basunia, assistant public prosecutor, said. The case was filed by Uma Pal Majumdar who accused the Saradha Group of cheating her after she had invested Rs 1 lakh with the firm. When Sen and Debjani were brought to the court around 10am, few people had gathered there. By 12pm, the crowd swelled to 200 and started abusing the duo. The protesters shouted slogans, blaming Sen and Debjani for their distress. “Today, I am penniless and have a bleak future. My children are living in distress. These two people are responsible for my plight,” said Marjina Begum, an agent of the Saradha Group. She had 30 agents under her and they collected over Rs 1 crore.

Read More

Flight skids off taxiway - Air India plane stuck at bagdogra for 7 hrs

Siliguri, July 5: An Air India flight with 110 passengers from New Delhi swerved off the taxiway after it landed at Bagdogra airport this afternoon. The two wheels at the right rear end of the AI 879 flight went off the taxiway when the aircraft was approaching the apron from the runway. Nobody was injured as the plane was moving slowly at the time of the incident. The plane was brought back on the taxiway around 8.45pm, more than seven hours after it had landed at 1.09pm. The return flight, the AI 880, scheduled for 2.05pm, didn’t take off. A total of 163 people had booked for the return flight and the Air India authorities said the plane would take off at 2pm tomorrow. Other flights were not affected by the incident.

“The plane with 110 people on board had landed at 1.09pm. While moving through the taxiway, the right rear wheels of the plane skidded off,” said K.K. Bhowmik, the Bagdogra airport director. He said officials of Air India, Indian Air Force and the Airports Authority of India had rushed to the taxiway immediately after the incident and helped the passengers disembark. “The passengers were taken to the terminal building from where they left for their respective destination. The IAF and Air India authorities are trying to bring the wheels back to the track,” Bhowmik said around 6pm. He added: “Despite the accident, all other flights landed and took off as scheduled.” The airport is under the Indian Air Force. With the return flight to Delhi not taking off even after the scheduled time, the passengers became impatient. Many of them swarmed the Air India counter inquiring about the flight. “There was a total mismanagement at the Air India counter. Although our flight was scheduled to leave at 2.05pm, we were not provided with any information till 5pm. When several passengers shouted near the counter, we were told around 5pm that the flight was being delayed because of technical reasons,” Pooja Oberoi, a Gangtok resident who had come to take the Delhi flight, said over the phone. The passenger said she was supposed to take a connecting flight from Delhi and many had bookings for international flights also. Around 6pm, the passengers, including the elderly, were told that they would be shifted to a hotel in Siliguri. The Air India officials told them that the flight would depart at 2pm tomorrow. Asked about the complaints of mismanagement, an Air India official said on condition of anonymity: “Complaints are common in aviation, particularly when there is cancellation of a flight. We are shifting all the passengers to hotels and would provide them with a flight to Delhi tomorrow.”

Read More