DEMAND OF SEPARATE STATE CANNOT BE ACCEPTED

This is the detail story of yesterday's meeting of GJMM with Chief minister I could find. Can some one translate the main points please. It is published in Anandabazar Patrika.

PROPOSED MAP OF GORKHALAND

This is the officially realeased proposed map of Gorkhaland which covers darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong, siliguri,Bhaktinagar, Malbazar,Chalsa,Nagrakot,Banarhat, Birpara,Madarhat,Jaigaon, Kalchini and KumarGram(underlined places falls in Duars)

Issue of Gorkhaland: Himalaya darpan

4 member team from GJMM met Chief Miniter Bhaddhadev Bhattacharjee and submitted the proposed map of Gorkhaland. Chief minister discouraged the proposal of separate state. GJMM supremo Bimal Gurung stands firm on the proposal and demand of separate state of Gorkhaland.

Morcha maps demand- CM rebuffs statehood cry, roots for council revision

Calcutta/Darjeeling, May 22: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders today met Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers’ Buildings in Calcutta over their demand for Gorkhaland and handed him a map of the proposed area of the new state.
“We submitted a memorandum demanding a separate land for the Gorkhas. We also handed over a proposed map of Gorkhaland to the chief minister and requested him to arrange for a tripartite meeting in Delhi to discuss the issue as the hill people are linguistically and culturally different from the rest of Bengal,” said Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri.
The leader was talking to reporters after the one-and-a-half-hour-long meeting. The proposed area on the map includes Darjeeling, Siliguri, the Dooars and Terai.
Bhattacharjee, however, rejected the statehood demand and instead asked the Morcha to sit for talks so that the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Act can be strengthened through amendments.
“The chief minister has made it clear that he is willing to have discussions on the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Act and was in favour of increasing the autonomy of the body. But he insisted that there was no need of a separate state and said the economic development of Darjeeling was closely associated with Bengal,” said home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti.
According to the home secretary, Bhattacharjee asked the Morcha to steer clear of organisations like the Kamtapur Progressive Party and Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party. Both want Cooch Behar district to be declared a state and are supporting the Morcha in its Gorkhaland demand.
“The chief minister has requested the Morcha general secretary not to have connections with these organisation of north Bengal as the state government does not approve of their activities,” Chakrabarti said.
Bhattacharjee also reacted to the Morcha demand for a separate police force for Gorkhaland and new number plates for vehicles. “A political party cannot demand such things,” he reportedly said.
In Darjeeling, Morcha president Bimal Gurung, who was not in the four-member delegation that met Bhattacharjee, said he would take part in talks only if the Centre was involved. “If we have to write to the Prime Minister or the home minister, we will do so, but the state has to arrange for the tripartite meeting,” Gurung said.
Amar Lama, a central committee member of the Morcha who was part of the delegation, said the chief minister would convene an all-party meeting in Calcutta to discuss the issue. “The hill parties will not be invited to this meeting,” Lama said.
“The chief minister is of the opinion that the inclusion of Siliguri and the Dooars in the Gorkhaland demand is unjustified as most people as well as intellectuals are against the move, but we told him that we, too, have the backing of intellectuals,” Lama said. (The Telegraph)

Siliguri intellectuals for demand abrogation of Indo-Nepal treaty

Statesman News ServiceSILIGURI, May 22: A number of eminent intellectuals from Siliguri have demanded the abrogation of the 1950 Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty as a means of restricting border movement from neighbouring Nepal into Darjeeling and Siliguri. “Passport-visa system should be introduced and the citizenship rights should be bestowed upon the genuine Indian Nepalis who had come into India prior to the signing of the treaty in 1950,” they demanded. They also expressed apprehension that if the movement along the border was not regularised through passport-visa system, the settlers might outnumber the original inhabitants posing a serious law and order threat in near future for the hills and the plains in Darjeeling district. Mr Ashru Kumar Sikdar, an academician and writer, said today that it was queer that the border between two countries remained open for years. “It is being used by people from the neighbouring country to settle in several areas of Darjeeling district, particularly Siliguri,” he observed.“The only way to control this problem is to abrogate the Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty immediately. The Maoist leader Prachanda has already demanded revising the treaty in the changed political context. We cannot understand why the Government of India is not yet serious about the issue,” Mr Sikdar wondered.Incidentally, the external affairs minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee, who was in Kalimpong to inaugurate a water project recently, had said in response to Prachanda's demand that India was open to talks with Nepal.Another academician from Siliguri Mr Haren Ghosh today said that if the Centre was not serious about restraining trans-border movement, law and order problem in the Darjeeling hills as well as in Siliguri would get aggravated. “The genuine Indian Nepalis and the settlers after 1950 should be differentiated and passport-visa system should be introduced along the Nepal border to check the trans-border movement continuing unabated for years,” Mr Ghosh stated.Mr Asoke Hore, the secretary of the newly formed apolitical platform, Jana Jagaran Mancha, said that Siliguri was fast becoming a den for the ‘Bhupalis,’ (Bhutanis of Nepal origin) who had been deported from Bhutan.“There is evidence that a section of the ‘Bhupalis’ is involved in subversive activities recently unearthed in Siliguri. We are apprehensive that if the Indo-Nepal Treaty is not abrogated and human movement across the border is not subjected to a passport-visa system a much graver law and order problem may engulf the region,” Mr Hore warned. (The Statesman)

Gorkha leaders to meet Buddhadeb today

KKolkata, May 22 : The leaders of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) will meet West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee here today to discuss about a separate State for Gorkhas comprising Darjeeling, Terai, Dooars and Siliguri.
The leaders of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) will meet West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee here today to discuss about a separate State for Gorkhas comprising Darjeeling, Terai, Dooars and Siliguri. A four-member GJM delegation comprising, Vice President Pradip Pradhan and two central committee members Amar Lama and Anmol Prasad will attend the meeting.According to sources, they will submit the proposed map of Gorkhaland to the Chief Minister and urge him to raise a bill in the State Assembly and send it to the Centre after formally passing and recommending it.The Gorkha people led by the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) started agitation in early 1980s demanding a separate Gorkhaland state.Subsequently, Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) was set up under the GNLF supremo Subhash Geishing to administer the hills.The Central Government in 2005 had announced to accord sixth schedule status to the GNLF-led DGHC that would ensure greater autonomy to the governing body.Opposing the sixth schedule status for Darjeeling, the GJM, a rival of GNLF led by new hill leader Bimal Gurung has been demanding Ghising's resignation and setting up of Gorkhaland state for long.The Communist Government in West Bengal is opposed to the demand for a separate state for the Gorkhas. (ANI)

Nandi Payback CPM bleeds in land-and-minority backlash; loses 3 councils, gains 1

Calcutta, May 21: The Left today suffered the biggest poll jolt since the 2001 Assembly verdict as it lost two districts to Mamata Banerjee and one to the Congress in the panchayat polls, raising the question whether land acquisition for industry was exacting a heavy political cost.
Shaken though it was by the loss of Nandigram-scarred East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas, the CPM announced: “There will be no going back on the policy of industrialisation.”
Murshidabad was its sole — and big — revenge on the Opposition as it won the district back from the Congress, but it had only 13 of the 17 zilla parishads (district councils) in the bag compared with 15 in 2003.
Land acquisition for industry was an issue in the two south Bengal districts of East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas, though not in North Dinajpur, where the Left could not forge unity among its constituents.
In East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas, both heavily minority-dominated districts, fears over losing land took a religious colour, fed by the discontent among the minorities brought out by the Sachar Committee report.
East Midnapore gained notoriety because of the prolonged violence in Nandigram over an aborted land acquisition attempt while South 24-Parganas will be the site for large projects to be built by the Indonesian Salim group.
In neighbouring North 24-Parganas, which the Salim road project will touch and where notices for land acquisition have been issued, the Left won by the thin margin of three, with Mamata’s score having soared from two to 16.

The results in West Midnapore, Burdwan, Bankura and Purulia, where too large tracts of land have been taken over for industry, are a warning against jumping to the conclusion that the panchayat verdict is a slap in the face of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government’s industrialisation drive.
In all four districts, the CPM has not only won but has posted huge victories, even improving on its 2003 tally in some cases. The difference, however, is that in these four districts, there was no controversy over acquiring land.
Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee refused comment on the results.
Benoy Konar, the CPM state secretariat member who addressed the media today instead of the party’s Bengal secretary Biman Bose, said: “It will be simplistic to infer that people voted against industrialisation. We failed to convince farmers in these two districts (East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas) where people have apprehensions about losing land.”
The apprehensions overrode expectations of benefits from the showpiece Tata small-car project at Singur, where the CPM lost all three zilla parishad seats to Trinamul. In 2003, the CPM had won the three but had lost the Assembly seat to Trinamul in 2006.
If Nandigram led to the loss of East Midnapore for the CPM, the party won Hooghly, of which Singur is a part, though not with the ease of 2003. Trinamul opened its account in the district, grabbing 11 seats.

Mamata was distributing rasogollas after the results became known, finding a reason to smile after two consecutive routs in the 2004 Lok Sabha and the 2006 Assembly polls, which halved her 2001 MLA count of 60.
“Jene rakhoon, etai CPM-er sesher suru (Make no mistake, this is the beginning of the CPM’s end),” she said.
“In 2003, we had only 16 zilla parishad seats. But this time we have been able to wrest not only two zilla parishads on our own but even won over 120 zilla parishad seats.”
Mamata interpreted the results as a “mandate against state-sponsored terrorism”, but added that the people had also voiced their protest against the move to “grab farmland from the poor in the name of industrialisation”.
The chief minister can expect more trouble arising out of this conclusion for his industrialisation programme. Trinamul said it would not “allow the administration to take away an inch of land from unwilling farmers”.
Although the Congress lost Murshidabad, the victory in North Dinajpur was being seen as an achievement for Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, the Union minister who had called on Congress supporters to vote for the strongest candidate in their areas, even if it meant backing Trinamul.
If this led to an informal coming together of anti-Left forces in North Dinajpur, the Left itself was bitterly divided in the district, as it was also in South 24-Parganas. (The Telegraph)

‘Surprised’ CPM swears by industry Finger at farmer fear & front rift

Calcutta, May 21: The CPM today said it had no inkling that it would lose the whole of East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas, on the other bank of the Hooghly, despite the violence and resistance over land acquisition in Nandigram.
Neither was it prepared for a wafer-thin victory in North 24-Parganas, where resistance to land acquisition had been snowballing over the Salim Group’s expressway project nor for the sizeable erosion in its support base in five other districts in south Bengal.
“We were apprehensive about the outcome in North Dinajpur and confident of regaining Murshidabad. But we had no idea that we would lose East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas,’’ party state secretariat member Benoy Konar said.
However, he shrugged off the loss of three zilla parishad seats in Singur, saying they were part of a Trinamul stronghold that voted its candidate to victory in the 2006 Assembly polls.
Although the Left Front election manifesto had played down the row over industrialisation and land acquisition, Konar admitted that the farmers’ fear of losing land had taken its toll in East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas.
“It’s proved that our cadres had got alienated from farmers to some extent and failed to fathom their grievances and pain. The Opposition fanned the fear psychosis,’’ he added.
It was another matter that the CPM state committee had failed to “review” its Nandigram “mistakes”, as called for by the party’s central committee, or censure leaders like Lakhsman Seth for their strong-arm tactics.
The failure ended in the endorsement of the armed recapture of Nandigram by party cadres last November.

Nevertheless, Konar said the party would not go back on industrialisation. “We won’t budge from the path of industrialisation since it will be a betrayal of the people’s mandate. The people of South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore would later realise their folly and appreciate the need for industrialisation.”
If the CPM’s failure to convince voters about its intentions regarding industry led to its setback at some places, the acrimony among front partners like the Forward Bloc and the RSP over industrialisation and land acquisition resulted in the loss of North Dinajpur and South 24-Parganas.
The disunity, which came to the fore over Nandigram, became worse over seat-sharing, leading to mutual bloodletting in South 24-Parganas’ Basanti. “It was not the usual bickering over seats but the political difference among the allies that confused even a section of the Left voters,’’ Konar said.
The allies sounded happy today. “The CPM paid the price for forcibly acquiring land and for ignoring our words of caution. It’s to blame for the disunity among partners. We hope it will change it’s attitude now,’’ PWD minister and RSP leader Kshiti Goswami said.
CPM state secretariat member Madan Ghosh said the government’s land acquisition policy was not to blame, but the manner in which it was executed in Singur and Nandigram.
“The farmers’ apprehensions about losing their land overrode the dreams of industrialisation in some areas. Unlike in Singur and Nandigram, where there were shortcomings in taking people into confidence, we convinced and persuaded the residents of Raghu- nathpur in Purulia and other places in Bankura and Burdwan to part with their land. The acquisition was peaceful and we did well there,” Ghosh said.

In Burdwan’s Salanpur, where Bhushan Steel has proposed a steel plant, in West Midnapore’s Salboni, where Jindal Steel is setting up its plant, and in Raghunathpur, where Jai Balaji and several other companies are investing, the CPM has done well.
“There was no impact of Nandigram or Singur on these places,’’ said Burdwan CPM secretary Amal Haldar.
In Burdwan, where Videocon and Abhijeet Group are setting up their projects and an airport is being built, the CPM has got absolute majority.
Shyam Pandey, the CPM’s Salboni zonal secretary, said: “We were with the people and convinced them about land acquisition. Also, the Jindals have offered an attractive compensation package.”
Manindra Gope, the party’s Purulia district secretariat member, echoed his comrades. “We spoke to the people about the need to acquire land for the steel project and they understood.”(The Telegraph)

Hill council sacks 109 teachers

Darjeeling, May 21: The DGHC has decided to terminate the services of 109 ad-hoc teachers of hill schools with effect from June 1, citing “irregularities in their appointments”.
All the teachers were appointed in January-February 2008, when GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh was still the caretaker administrator of the DGHC.
The termination order, issued by the education department of the council, reads: “As approved by the administrator, DGHC, in the case file collection No IV-9 Secondary Cell/Edu/dt 2.05.08, the services of the following contract teachers are no longer required by the DGHC from 1.6.2008.” The order has been signed on May 17, 2008.
The DGHC has cited Clause 4 of the agreement signed by the teachers — where there is provision for immediate termination of services as and when desired by the council — for the decision.
“The teachers were appointed in January-February this year. We have found irregularities in the appointments,” said the current caretaker administrator of the DGHC, B.L. Meena.
Sources said the sack-order came through largely because there were too many ad-hoc teachers in DGHC schools. The 904 schools under the council have 1,524 ad-hoc teachers. The sources added that these appointments were largely political, where the standard teacher-student ratio of 1:40 had not been followed.
Members of the Hill Organiser Secondary Teachers’ Association, a body of ad-hoc teachers, refused comment.
“On May 16, the Teachers’ Association was dissolved under instructions from Bimal Gurung (the president of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha) and a new body formed. However, the executive committee of the new body is yet to be formed and I cannot comment on the termination issue,” said Gangaram Pradhan, the former secretary of the Association.
Of the 109 teachers about to be sacked, 68 are in high schools.
Binay Tamang, the media and publicity secretary of the Morcha, said: “Our committees looking after the ad-hoc workers in the council have said all appointments made after November 5, 2007 have to be scrutinised. Many of these appointments were political in nature.”
Around 7,000 employees working in the DGHC since 1988 are on six-month contracts.
(The Telegraph)

Backlash fear after victory

Nandigram, May 21: Mamata Banerjee may have swept East Midnapore but over 1,000 Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee supporters who had fled home after CPM cadres threatened to bash them up are scared to return home.
Malati Das of Simulkundu said: “The CPM supporters came to our house frequently before the polls and said they would pick their targets selectively if they won and beat every one of us if they lost.”
The 40-year-old widow had fled home with her two sons and a daughter on May 12, a day after the elections here.
Around 500 people from Simulkundu, Sonachura, Southkhali, Satengabari, Keyakhali, Gokulnagar and Gangra have taken shelter in the block development office.
Malati said she was “happy that the CPM had lost” the zilla parishad. “But that doesn’t mean we can return home. The CPM has told us they will beat us up even if they lose.”
The district CPM leadership denied the charges. “Allegations that CPM workers are threatening villagers are baseless,” said district secretariat member Ashok Guria.
Nandigram I block development officer Shantiram Gorai said: “We’ll escort them home after the counting process is over.” (The Telegraph)

Shocked-out in north and south Left stays, rivals make use of rift

Cooch Behar, May 21: The Left Front has held on to the zilla parishad in Cooch Behar, but the infighting among the allies has made way for the entry of the Congress and the Trinamul Congress.
In the last elections in 2003, none of the 26 seats in the zilla parishad was won by the Opposition. The CPM had bagged 18 and the Forward Bloc seven. The one remaining seat went to a CPM-backed Independent.
This time, however, the seat strength rose to 29. The CPM contested in 18 and the Bloc in nine. In the remaining two seats, both the allies fought each other. In both these seats, the CPM emerged victorious. The reversal was in a seat in Dinhata II block. In the 20 seats that it contested, the CPM emerged victorious in 19. The Bloc, on the other hand, won eight of the 11 it contested this year.
While the CPM could not improve its position, the Bloc share was up by a single seat.
In a major setback for the CPM in the district, the man projected to be the next sabhadhipati of the zilla parishad lost out to the Trinamul Congress. The keen contest took place in Seat 22 of Dinhata subdivision where Trinamul’s Shefali Barman won against the CPM’s zonal committee secretary, Tarapada Barman.
In Seat 21 of the same division, the sitting zilla parishad member of the Bloc, Deb Narayan Kalwar, was defeated by the Congress candidate.
The anti-CPM coalition, consisting of Opposition and Front allies that had raised its head against the CPM following the February 5 firing on Bloc supporters, is yet to make its presence felt. “These alliances were mainly in the other two tiers, the panchayat samiti and the gram panchayat, and their effects are bound to be felt only when the complete results emerge,” a senior Bloc leader said.
Two panchayat samities held by the CPM in the Tufanganj subdivision have already been wrested by an alliance, which comprises the Congress, Trinamul, BJP and the Bloc.
The counting for the panchayat samities commenced late in the evening. District Bloc secretary, Udayan Guha claimed that the results were as his party had projected.
“I had said earlier that despite a portrayal of Front unity at the zilla parishad level, the CPM had fielded Independents against us in six seats. But they failed to have any adverse impact on our performance,” said Guha.
The CPM’s district secretariat member, Benubadal Chakrabarty, while denying the allegations, said: “The Bloc made matters easy for the Opposition and saw to it that Tarapada Barman lost. Now tell me who the actual traitor within the Front is,” said Chakrabarty.
Counting disrupted
Police fired four rounds of tear gas shells to quell a crowd of Trinamul Congress supporters who had started throwing stones at the counting centre at the Falakata block development office this afternoon, reports our Alipurduar correspondent.
One police constable was injured after being hit by stones.
Counting was disrupted for around 45 minutes before it restarted around 6.15pm.
(The telegraph)

Why Bengal politics are so bloody

By Subir Bhaumik BBC News, Calcutta

Violence during three phases of recent rural elections in the Indian state of West Bengal claimed more than 30 lives.
This was despite the claim of Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya that they would be held "in a festive mood".
The last round of elections on Sunday was the bloodiest, with nearly 20 deaths - almost all in the border district of Murshidabad.
"This district has no industry, huge unemployment, a large smuggling mafia supported by contract killers and musclemen who are used by all political parties," says local political analyst Dipankar Chakrabarti.
Murshidabad, like neighbouring Maldah, has a Muslim majority - and like Maldah, it is also a traditional Congress stronghold, which the state's governing Marxists are desperate to win control of.
'Fight for influence'
Congress parliamentarian Adhir Choudhury has run Murshidabad as his personal fiefdom for decades and Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee owes his first electoral win - in Jangipur constituency in Murshidabad in the last general election - to Mr Choudhury's organisational prowess and power.

But in recent months, the Left coalition government has cornered Adhir Choudhury, after he was implicated in several murder cases and even arrested during a parliamentary session.
Mr Choudhury maintains he is innocent.
"The Marxists are desperately trying to increase their influence in Murshidabad and the village polls were seen as a big opportunity," says political analyst Sabyasachi Basu Roy Choudhuri.
"That's because they have lost their influence in some of their traditional strongholds, so this is a make-up game," says Mr Choudhuri.
"And both the Congress and the Marxists have no reservation about using hardened criminals for spreading terror in Murshidabad."
Actually, all major political parties in West Bengal - either those of the Left coalition or those in the opposition - have freely resorted to violence since Maoist rebels, or Naxalites, began an insurgency in the early 1970s.

In 2001, Mamata Banerji's Trinamul Congress won a parliamentary by-election at Panskura, allegedly mobilising the local criminal brigade by lavishing them with cash and favours.
A former Marxist mafia don, Mohammed Rafique, swung the polls in the Trinamul's favour and was treated by the party leaders like a film star.
The Marxists, threatened by a possible loss of their influence in the politically-important Midnapore district, hit back with a vengeance, unleashing "red terror" in places like Kespur and Garbeta.
"The Panskura line was countered by the Kespur line, eye for eye, bullet for bullet. This was no political battle, there was no place for debates and polemics, it was a typical feudal turf war fought with unusual brutality," says Ranabir Sammadar, director of the independent think-tank Calcutta Research Group.
'Red terror'
The Kespur assembly seat was subsequently won by the Marxists and their candidate polled 108,000 votes out of 120,000 cast.

"That's unbelievable," says Mr Sammadar. "That's red terror in action."
The red-flag waving motorcycle brigade, openly brandishing rifles and swords, revolvers and locally-made bombs, first made its mark in Kespur and has ever since been the sword-arm of Bengal's governing Marxists.
During the village council polls that ended Sunday, this "motorcycle brigade" arrived in Basanti, an area dominated by their alliance partner, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP).
They allegedly attacked the house of the RSP's minister Subhas Naskar in which his wife Gouri Naskar was killed. The Marxists blamed Gouri Naskar for storing bombs in her house and blamed her death on "one such bomb exploding".
"This is classic political tribalism. In the three decades of Left rule, the Marxists have always tried to undermine their Left allies, by force if necessary. But rarely have they gone this far," says Dyutish Chakrabarty, a professor of politics at North Bengal university.
Mr Chakrabarty says the Marxists have not merely tried to dominate the opposition parties but also their own alliance partners - and the methods have been the same.
"Manipulation of development funds, distribution of small favours, snuffing out dissent by ganging-up tactics and use of terror as the last resort - that's been the Marxist style of political consolidation," says Mr Chakrabarty, who studies political violence in the state.

To be fair, the Marxist built up a massive rural support base after they came to power in 1978, by pioneering comprehensive land reforms, by promoting local governance through the panchayats (village councils) and by spending development funds on poverty alleviation projects during the first decade of their rule.
"After that, the party expanded, became more corrupt and violent. And now it needs violence for everything it does - to win elections or acquire land for industry," says Abhirup Sarkar, who works on the political economy of West Bengal.
"And the opposition realises it can only fight the Marxists by violence, so they also look to use similar tactics, as Panskura or Nandigram has shown," says Mr Sarkar. (BBC News)

ISSUES FACING GORKHALAND TODAY

The movement for the Gorkhaland under the leadership of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has been in its leap. The siliguri public meeting of 7th May 2008 could be a turning point for the movement. But still the movement has to answer many questions and issues. The major issues which I perceive are:
1. Bimal Gurung said that he will not leave an inch of Duars and Siliguri but still the final map of the Gorkhaland is not been made public.
2. What is the real outcome of the movement till date? No such report has been heard or felt. Yes the movement started with ousting of subash Ghising from the DGHC's chair of administrator, GJMM wanted to held meeting at siliguri and bouts of dual fight between Ashok Bhattachargee and Bimal took place, now State government is willing to heald talks with the party.
3. How the issue of Duars and Siliguri will be solved? It is harder than imagination.
4. It is very visible from the news print that there is no consensus between the different political parties in the hills on the issue of Gorkhaland.
5. No political parties have come with a clear strategy on their own nor a collective strategy. The movement may suffer a limp if the situation does not change.
6. Where is the intellengentia? Earlier when 6th schedule was the hot topic we read a lot from Prof. Shanti now only one person Mr. P. Arjun can be read with his GJMM ideology. Where are the others? Are they afraid? Afraid of what? When Haren Gjhosh and party can encash the news print and propagate the anti Gorkhaland idea where is our intellengentia to promote Gorkhaland movement? Why there are no articles on the movement in the English and Bengali print?
7. When the issue of Identity is raised, then the issue of coverage too emerges. What about the people living in Sikkim,Bhagshu, Assam, Nagaland, Maharastra, Jharkhand and Bihar etc. There is a discussion going on in some of the blogs that we are Gorkhas not Nepali. Will Sikkim accept the new identity? If so what about our literature, culture? Did ever exist the so called Gorkha literature or culture?
8. Lobbying: Where is the support from the other parties at the National scenario? We need Lalu Prasad, BJP from Rajasthan, Congress from UP, Himachal Pradesh, SDF from Sikkim and regional pary support from Assam and North east. Where are they?
9. Left front in their congress decisions have clerly said that they do not support separate statehood under the criteria of ethnicity. How are we going to fight it?
There are many issues that needs to be answered till we get Gorkhaland. Bimal Gurung cannot work in isolation and simply organizing rallies and speeches do not lead us towards the goal. It is high time for him to consolidate all the parties of the hills together under the Common minimum issues. Intellectuals, chamber of commerce, lobby group, Human rights activists etc should be involved.

Darjeeling leads north districts in HS - Who’s got what?

Siliguri, May 20: Darjeeling’s performance is the best among the north Bengal districts in this year’s Higher Secondary examinations.
It is also the only district in the region where the girls have performed marginally better than the boys. In all other districts, the boys have taken the lead.
“The percentage of students who have passed in Darjeeling district is 80.57, the highest in north Bengal,” said Mukta Narginari, deputy secretary, West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education, north Bengal. “This is a remarkable increase from last year’s 74.05 per cent.”
While 80.36 per cent of boys were successful, girls have performed slightly better with 80.84 per cent passing.
The overall success rate of students in north Bengal has improved this year, Narginari said. Compared to last year’s 67.13 per cent, this time, 71.25 per cent students have cleared the Plus II exams. While 73.39 per cent of boys passed, the girls are behind with 67.93 per cent of them passing.
The pass percentage of South Dinajpur, which comes second after Darjeeling, is 72.31 per cent and the pass rate among girls is 68.04 per cent. In case of boys it is 75 per cent.
The third position went to Malda, where the pass percentage is 71.89. Among the girls 69.71 per cent have passed and of the boys 73.20 per cent.
In Jalpaiguri, 69.7 per cent of students have passed. The pass rate among girls is 67.70 per and that of the boys is 71.24 per cent.
The pass percentage in Cooch Behar is 67.26 per cent. While 62.54 per cent of girls have passed, the percentage of boys is 70.54 per cent.
In North Dinajpur, which has fared the worst, the pass percentage is 65.75 per cent. The divide in performance between the girls and boys is also the highest in this district. While 70.02 per cent boys have passed, only 58 per cent of girls have cleared the exams this year.
Most schools in Siliguri said they were happy with the results though the top scores were a little less compared to last year. “Like every year, our results have been good and our students have got some of the best marks in the district,” said Chandan Das, the headmaster of Siliguri Boys’ High School. Of the 260 students who had taken the exams from the school, 250 have passed, Das added. Saikat Guha has topped with 453.
Kalyani Chakraborty, the headmistress of Siliguri Girls’ High School said Aakhi Mukherjee has scored 427, the highest in her institution. “Of the 252 students, 246 have passed. None of the students from science and commerce streams have failed,” she added.
In Sister Margaret (Nivedita) High School, the pass percentage is 98.24 per cent. “Of the 341 candidates who took the exam, 335 have passed,” headmaster M.K. Laha said. “Souvik Debnath has scored the highest with 444 marks. We have a slightly higher number of failures this year compared to last time when only one student had failed,” he added.(The Telegraph)

Morcha to meet govt on Gorkhaland

Darjeeling, May 20: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today received an invitation from the Bengal government to attend a meeting in Calcutta on Thursday. Leaders of the hill party have decided to go with a one-point agenda — Gorkhaland.
However, Morcha chief Bimal Gurung will stay away from the meeting, sending a four-member delegation instead.
Binay Tamang, the media and publicity secretary of the Morcha, said: “After receiving the invitation through the district magistrate, we convened a central committee meeting in Darjeeling where it was decided that Roshan Giri (the general secretary of the party) will lead the team to Calcutta.”
“The only point of discussion will be Gorkhaland. Since this is one of the first meetings (on this issue), the party decided that it would be better if our president (Gurung) did not head the delegation,” added Tamang.
Amar Lama, Anmole Prasad and Pradeep Pradhan will be the other members of the delegation, which has been instructed by the party to speak only on Gorkhaland. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is expected to attend the meeting.
Although the Morcha chief had met Bhattacharjee in Calcutta in February, the discussions had been mainly confined to the removal of GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh from the post of the caretaker administrator of the DGHC and the non-implementation of the Sixth Schedule status in the hills.
Later, the Morcha had sent another delegation headed by Giri, which met the state chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb and discussed administrative issues like regularising contractual workers of the DGHC and ordering a probe into the functioning of the hill council during Ghisingh’s tenure.
Bhattacharjee had recently claimed to be unaware of the Morcha’s demands and had asked the party to submit a memorandum specifying what it wanted. The Morcha had sent a memorandum to the state government soon after the chief minister’s comment, demanding a new state of Gorkhaland comprising the Darjeeling hills, Terai (including Siliguri) and the Dooars.
“At the meeting, we will once again submit a memorandum to the chief minister with the same demand,” said Tamang. (The Telegraph)

Indian soldier killed in cross-border firing from Pakistan

(RTTNews) - On Monday, an Indian soldier was killed in a firing across the border from Pakistan, the AFP quoted lieutenant colonel Anil Kumar Mathur, a spokesman for the Indian army, as saying."It was not clear whether the fire was opened by militants trying to sneak into Kashmir or Pakistani troops," Mathur said.However, viewing the action as a serious violation of a ceasefire, Indian army authorities lodged a strong protest with their Pakistani counterparts. The unprovoked heavy fire started at around 8 a.m. local time on a forward Indian post along the Line of Control in Poonch sector of the Indian border state of Jammu and Kashmir, according to the army officer.He said that Indian troops took up positions, but observed restraint after the fatal shooting of the Gorkha Rifles soldier, who was manning the forward post at the time of firing. The second ceasefire violation along the Indo-Pak border in less than a fortnight comes just ahead of Foreign Secretary-level talks between the two nations in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad to review the fourth round of the composite dialogue process. (RTT news)

Darjeeling safe for tourists: WB

The West Bengal government, which had advised tourists against visiting Darjeeling in the wake of the agitation there by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha a month ago, on Monday said visitors were now free to go to the hill station once again. "The situation in the hills has improved. The GJM is not going for bandhs now. Tourists can now go there," Municipal Affairs Minister Ashok Bhattacharya told newsmen. Elected to the Assembly from Siliguri in Darjeeling district, Bhattacharya said Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had invited GJM for discussions in response to a letter from them. GJM, a breakaway of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), has been agitating since the beginning of this year for a separate Gorkhaland. (TOI)

Buddha to begin talks with Morcha

Kolkata, May 19 Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has agreed to start a dialogue with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (JNM), which has put forth its demand of a separate state of Gorkhaland carved out from the hill district of Darjeeling.
“The Morcha leaders have written to the chief minister requesting him to spare some time for talks and the CM has agreed to it,” said Ashok Bhattacharya, Minister for Urban Development.
Bhattacharya, who hails from Siliguri in Darjeeling district, added, “We will have to keep in our mind the interests of all sections concerned while talking about it. And we hope this problem will solved amicably very fast.”
This comes after Chief Minister Bhattacharjee had said that he is ready for talks provided that the Morcha come forward with a request for the same.
The ministry, which had earlier discouraged tourists from travelling to Darjeeling in the wake of brewing tension there, has, meanwhile, withdrawn the warning.
Bhattacharya today said the situation in the hill district is conducive for tourism.
“Earlier, the hills were plagued with problems like bandhs, dharnas and different agitations and tourists used to have a harrowing time there. But now the situation has changed for the better and people can visit Darjeeling once again,” the minister said.
He also said that the Morcha had cancelled its programme of gheraoing the Writers' Buildings and other agitational programmes in Darjeeling. (Expressindia)

PRAKASH KARAT ON THE ISSUE OF SEPARATE STATEHOOD

Karat clarified the party’s position on some other important issues. While there are demands for separate states of Telangana, Vidarbha, Darjeeling etc, there is also the demand to break up Uttar Pradesh into several states. He recalled that the 18th congress resolution had opposed any division of linguistic states and dubbed the argument of small states as untenable. Linguistic nationality is, for example, not the issue in UP, but the worrying thing is that such demands may be raised to divert attention from vital issues. He said the party would decide its stand if this issue comes up there. Read more OTHER ISSUES OF IMPORTANCE

More water for Kalimpong

Mrinalini Sharma ALGARAH (Kalimpong), May 18: The Union external affairs minister Mr Pran-ab Mukherjee today inaugurated the Algarah Open Ground Water Reservoir at Algarah, 16 km from Kalimpong today. “Water supply is one six main agendas taken up by the government. I appreciate the work that has been done as it will solve the water crisis in the region,” the minister said.The reservoir comes under the Neorakhola Water Supply Scheme and was initiated in 1989-90 before work was stalled due to technical reasons. However, with the help of an expert committee its construction commenced in 2005 and was finally completed in December 2007. Neorakhola and the Dhaulakhola are the two sources of the reservoir which has a capacity of 13.44 million gallons. The project, which is a joint venture of the state government and the Army, is designed to supply water to the Kalimpong municipal town, Army establishments and the en-route village. Initially an amount of Rs 22 crore had been sanctioned for the project which was revised to 31 crore in 1990. While complimenting the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department for completing a complicated project because of the difficult terrain, the Union minister emphasised the need to sustain such projects. “It is one thing to complete the project but sustaining for the future is more important,” he said.Mr Mukherjee further added that priority is given to water, food and energy security by international bodies. “Emphasis should be given to obtaining pure portable water more than the ground water resources,” he said.The Housing and PHE department of the state government is expected to take up similar projects in the 3.2 km Algarah to Lava and areas in Pedong. The minister also assured to consider the issue of re-opening the Jelep-la pass with Tibet, at the urgings of the Darjeeling MP Mr Dawa Narbula. “I am aware of the economic and commercial benefits that Kalimpong will receive if the pass is opened, so I will definitely take up the issue,” he said. The Jelep-la pass used to be a part of the historic silk route between China and India prior to its closure during the Indo-Chinese war in 1962.Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Gorkha Bhutpurva Sainik Morcha submitted a memorandum to Mr Mukherjee requesting him for a fair trial on the inquiry of the one-man commission on the 9 April incident in Siliguri.“Following the assault on us on 9 April, the ex-Armymen are completely demoralised. We have requested the minister to review the matter seriously,” said retd. Col. Ramesh Allay, president of the association. (The Statesman)

Ghisingh era designs to go

Darjeeling, May 18: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-controlled municipality has decided to alter the shape and purpose of two of Subash Ghisingh’s symbolic constructions in town.
For one, the civic body will bring down a portion of the Jung Bahadur garden at Chowrastha with its concrete floor, stalls and boundary wall.
“As directed by (Morcha president) Bimal Gurung, we will immediately dismantle this new construction, which is such an eyesore. Ghisingh had made the stalls to sell tongba (local brew), but we will revert back to the green garden that was there before,” said Dinesh Gurung, the vice-chairman of the municipality.
GNLF-chief Subash Ghisingh had spent Rs 20 lakh from the DGHC fund to renovate the garden in a record 29 days. Afterwards, a musical fountain installed there used to blare out Hindi tunes, while the municipality charged Rs 10 from visitors as entry fee.
“We will keep the fountain intact, but all the other concrete structures will be pulled down. The municipality will use its own funds for the work,” said Dinesh.
Ghisingh, who had inaugurated the fountain on October 10, 2005, had come in for flak as it used up 10,000 gallons of water at a time where there was acute water shortage in town.
From tomorrow, the municipality will also throw open the gates of Sumero Manch at Chowk Bazar to the people.
“We will rename it Gitangey Dara as it used to be called earlier. We have also decided not to lock the gates to the podium as this is the property of the people and everyone should have the right to use it,” said Dinesh.
In Ghisingh’s time, the municipality used to keep the keys of the gate and organisations wanting to use the space had to pay Rs 500. As a result, Opposition parties in the hills usually held their public meetings not on the Manch proper but on the space alongside it. (The Telegraph)

Agra, Goa, Darjeeling next in HuJI cross hairs?

As the Bengal connection with Tuesday’s Jaipur series blasts gets stronger, a covert nationwide operation has been launched to look for sleeper cells of Harkat-ul-Jehadi-al-Islami (HuJI) and other Islamist terror groups. While the focus of the operation is likely to be on north Bengal, north Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, intelligence inputs point to Agra, Goa and Darjeeling being on the terrorists’ hit list.
Sources said actions taken by various states are based on inputs from military intelligence (MI) and the central Intelligence Bureau (IB), with the state police doing the groundwork. “The operation is to look for probable sleeper cells that have been lying dormant. The information about some cells were received from one Ali, who was apprehended from Malda about two months ago,” a Defence Ministry officer said.
MI sources said Ali’s confession has emerged a key ingredient in the hunt for dormant terror cells. “Ali admitted that Agra, Goa and Darjeeling were on their list and would have been hit sooner or later,” a senior officer said.
Intelligence sources said the turning point in unraveling the terror network was the arrest of HuJI commander Muhammad Jalaluddin alias Babu Bhai from Lucknow in 2007, which led to specific proof that the group was behind several blasts, with the modus operandi matching that in the Jaipur blasts.
“During interrogation, Jalaluddin had disclosed that Jaipur was next on the HuJI hit list,” an IB officer said.
SSP Amitabh Yash of the Special Task Force of the UP Police told Hindustan Times on the phone that their experience pointed towards help from locals. “In every such incident, the terrorists took help from locals. Even at Jaipur, we’ve called people with a West Bengal connection for questioning. However, we’re yet to receive any lead that could help us crack the case,” he said. Yash said that as Jalaluddin belongs to Kolkata, a Bengal connection in the blasts was likely.
The IB officer said that after his operations in UP, Jalaluddin was to visit the Pink City and hand over RDX and other explosive material to a Bengali Jaipur resident called Madhu. (Hindustan Times)

Re: DHANYABAD PRASHANT TAMANG

Listen to the song :"Gorkhali Ko Choro Hun Mo"