Landslide blocks road to Sikkim - Debris cleared after eight hours

A car fell into water after skidding off a culvert without barriers spanning a stream on NH31A near Chitrey on Wednesday morning. Although the vehicle (in the picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha) fell from 15 feet above, all five occupants escaped with minor injuries. Kalimpong police said Manish Gurung, Biru Gurung, K.B. Gurung, Kishor Lama, and the driver of the car, A. Nag — all from Rongbull near in Darjeeling subdivision — had been in the car. tement given by the five at the Teesta outpost of the Kalimpong police station said the accident took place when the car developed a mechanical failure. The statement was recorded for insurance claim and no complaint has been lodged. The men were on their way to Gangtok and the mishap took place about 40km from Rongbull

The Telegraph: Siliguri, June 17: A landslide triggered by night-long heavy rain blocked the only road to Sikkim for more than eight hours today, leading to long queues of vehicles on both sides of the debris. A part of the road was cleared by 1pm.

Residents of Sevoke, 20km from here, said the hillside came tumbling down on NH31A that also connects Kalimpong around 4am. Although no houses were damaged, the debris covering about 30 metres of the highway — from Coronation Bridge to the Sevoke police outpost — stopped traffic till the highway was partly cleared.

This is the first major landslide in the hills after Cyclone Aila struck on May 26. At that time there were 40 landslides, which killed 28 people.

It has been raining in the area since last evening, although the monsoon is yet to arrive in the sub-Himalayan region. “The heavy rain triggered the disaster. We realised that the highway was blocked only in the morning. But apart from blockade on the highway and disruption in vehicular movement, there has been no major damage,” said Ganesh Roy, an officer of the outpost.

“The debris covered about 30 metres, making it impossible for any vehicle to ply the road. Initially we stopped vehicles on either side of the landslide spot. Later with the help of the local people and the PWD workers, the debris was removed by 1pm,” Roy said. Rajib Dey, a professor of Sikkim Manipal University who was heading for his workplace at Majhitar, about 100km from here, was forced to stay put at Sevoke Bazar till the afternoon. “On any other day, I would have reached Gangtok by 11.30am,” said Dey.

Although the tourist season is on the wane, some visitors were stranded too. “We had started for Gangtok but found the road blocked when we crossed Sevoke Bazaar,” said Arindam Mukherjee from New Alipore in Calcutta. “We had walked up to the landslide site to see the damage. By then, work had started to remove the debris from the road and the local people had assured us that it would be cleared in a few hours.”

Instead of returning to Siliguri, Mukherjee started for Sikkim late in the afternoon. Ravikant Sharma, another tourist from Orissa’s Sambalpur on way to Lava near Kalimpong, however, decided to return to Siliguri. “When we went to enquire, we were told that it would take at least four-five hours to clear the road,” Sharma said around 11am. “We decided not to take any risk and stay in Siliguri instead.”

Subir Sarkar, the in-charge of North Bengal University Weather Observation Centre, however, said the monsoon was yet to arrive in the region. “A low pressure on the Bay of Bengal caused rainfall in the sub-Himalayan region yesterday. The weather is likely to remain unchanged in the next 24-hours,” Sarkar said.

CPM MLA heckled at Bagdogra

Statesman News Service : SILIGURI, 17 JUNE: The CPI-M MLA from Phansidewa near Siliguri Mr Choton Kisku was allegedly heckled by Adivasi activists during a panchayat poll campaign at Mooni Tea Estate adjacent to Bagdogra last evening. The situation became so bad that the MLA had to flee the spot, even as the Adivasi activists assaulted his security guard Mr Prakash Minz and made an unsuccessful attempt to snatch his service revolver. A police team from Bagdogra police station later arrived at the spot and brought the situation under control. According to the MLA Mr Kisku, the incident took place at around 8.00 p.m. yesterday when he was waiting for his turn to address an election meeting at Mooni Tea Estate. “Our leader, a former Siliguri mahakuma parishad member Mr Julian Minz was addressing the open gathering of some 300 party supporters, while I was seated on the dais. Suddenly a group of about 25 inebriated men forayed in and demanded that the meeting be stopped at once. "When we refused, they plunged onto the dais and heckled me and Mr Minz physically. Sensing that the situation was worsening, my security guard made a route for me and I instantly left the place on a bike. Mr Minz, on the other hand, found shelter in the house of a local party member,” the MLA said. But with the MLA escaping the scene, the agitated group turned to his security guard Mr Prakash Minz and subjected him to physical assault. “They tried to snatch his service revolver, but then he too managed to flee the spot on a bike,” Mr Kisku added. The CPI-M leaders then contacted Bagdogra police station and a police team reached Mooni Tea Estate some time after 9.00 p.m. and brought the situation under control. The police also escorted the CPI-M leader who had taken shelter at a local residence out. Both the MLA Mr Kisku and the state urban development minister Mr Asok Bhattacharya have accused the Congress of being behind the incident. “The Congress has started a dangerous game, playing the ethnic card in this panchayat poll. They are instigating attacks on CPI-M activists during electioneering. Apart from Mooni Tea Estate, our activists are being targeted at areas such as Batasi GP, Matigara etc.,” Mr Bhattacharya alleged at a Press conference this morning. The Congress has denied the allegation outright and said the incidents are indicative of growing public resentment against the CPI-M. The three-tier panchayat poll in Siliguri is slated to take place on 28 June.

JALPAIGURI, 17 JUNE: A leopard killed a man named Ajay Tamang, at Chuyapara Tea Plantation under Kalchini block last night. ;SNS

THREE CPI-M ACTIVISTS KILLED,ALL SET FOR ANTI-MAOIST OPERATION

Kolkata, June 17 (IANS) Suspected Maoists Wednesday shot dead three CPI-M workers in West Midnapore district, even as the West Bengal government declared it was ready to launch operations with central forces to free troubled Lalgarh of the rebels.

“The state police will lead the operation. The central forces will provide the back-up,” state Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen told reporters on his return here after day-long parleys with the district administration and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officers at Midnapore town - the headquarters of West Midnapore district that includes Lalgarh.

State Director General of police Sujit Sarkar also took part in the discussions. In the morning, suspected motorcycle-borne Maoists struck again killing three young Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) activists who were members of a local resistance group against the rebels in broad daylight at Badhashuli in Jhargram subdivision.

The killings are seen as an attempt by Maoists to expand their base to areas surrounding Lalgarh, 200 km from here. So far seven activists of the ruling party have been killed and six are missing in the violence since last week. “We have to see to it that the level of bloodshed is absolutely minimum,” the home secretary said as five companies of paramilitary forces besides a large posse of state police personnel reached the district.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told the ruling Left Front partners that 500 Maoists - 100 of them fully trained in combat and others semi-trained - had sneaked into Lalgarh from neighbouring Jharkhand.

Central Home Minister P. Chidambaram said in Delhi the state government must reclaim the Maoist-controlled region but felt the communist rulers were “worried about the consequences” of the violence.

“There are adequate central paramilitary forces” available to tackle the violence, he told reporters. However, Bhattacharjee said as the ultras were now trying to expand their operations to nearby areas like Goaltor and Salboni, the immediate effort would be to confine them to Lalgarh.

“We will test their patience. There will be no attacks on them immediately but once their (ultras’) patience wears thin, they are bound to attack and then police and the CRPF will launch a counter attack,” a leader present at the Left Front meeting quoted the chief minister as saying. State Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty warned the villagers not to cooperate with the Maoists, who were using “innocent villagers, women and children” as human shield to ward off any move by the administration to flush out the rebels.

But speaking to a Bengali news channel over telephone from Lalgarh, top Maoist leader Bikash said: “People are with us. We will strongly resist with the help of the people. If there is bloodletting, the administration will be responsible.” The People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), which is in the vanguard of the tribals’ agitation in Lalgarh alongside the Maoists, said the whole country will be in flames if the central forces entered Lalgarh.

“If the government deploys the central forces, then it will commit a blunder. The entire state, and even the country, will be in flames,” said PCAPA leader Chhatradhar Mahato. The PCAPA and the Maoists have dug up the roads at three points and felled at least 100 trees on other approach ways to Lalgarh to prevent the entry of the central forces.

The state government has sought 50 companies of the central forces, but Delhi has so far rushed 13 of them. Apart from the five already in the district, eight more are expected to reach Lalgarh in a day or two. Four companies of the Cobra force, specially trained to take on Maoists, are also being rushed in from Orissa.

Earlier in the day, the houses of three CPI-M leaders were ransacked and damaged by the PCAPA members, with armed Maoist rebels - now patrolling important roads and intersections in the area - keeping a close watch. During the last few days, the agitators have torched CPI-M offices, driven away the party’s supporters and forced police to wind up several camps, thereby establishing a virtual free zone.

Lalgarh has been on the boil since last November when a landmine exploded on the route of the convoy of Bhattacharjee and then central ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitin Prasada. Police arrested some school students and allegedly harassed tribal women following the landmine blast. In protest, angry tribals virtually cut off the area from the rest of the district.

Maoists have been active in the three western districts of the state - West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. They also backed the Trinamool-sponsored movement against the state government’s bid to establish a chemical hub at Nandigram in East Midnapore district.

Sikkim asks Centre to ensure smooth traffic on Sikkim highway

The Hindu: Wednesday 17 June Gangtok (PTI): Sikkim government has asked Centre to ensure uninterrupted traffic on its sole highway connecting the landlocked state with the rest of the country, fearing reports that Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) may soon call bandh in Darjeeling hills demanding separate statehood.

The Himalayan state has been hit by the periodic spells of disturbances and bandhs on political issues in Darjeeling for the past several years resulting in blockade of the sole and arterial highway of the state, Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling has said to union Home Minister P Chidambaram.

The 92-km long National Highway 31-A connects Gangtok, capital of Sikkim, and Siliguri in Darjeeling district of West Bengal.

"The Centre should look into ways and means to bring about an amicable and permanent solution so as to ensure uninterrupted flow of traffic between Siliguri and Sikkim via NH 31-A," Mr. Chamling told Chidambaram on Tuesday at New Delhi.

The people of Sikkim had to suffer untold hardship for days together due to shortage of essential supplies even as the state's economy, particularly the tourism industry, had been hit hard, due to frequent blockades in the highway, the chief minister said.

Mr. Chidambaram assured Mr. Chamling that the Centre would provide all assistance and support to the border state regarding issues related to the road connectivity, an official release said today.

BENGAL REWINDS TO BLOODY '60s

The Times of India, 18 JUNE TNN, KOLKATA: The bodies of three CPM activists have been rotting in the sun for the last four days in Dharampur, a village in West Midnapore around 250km from Kolkata, with no one to perform their last rites. Vengeance has been ruthless in these parts of the Maoist badlands.

Today's Bengal is a throwback to the Naxalbari uprising of the 1960s after tribals killed a police sub-inspector. The year was 1967, and the Left-led United Front was in power in the state. The Maoist violence has also ignited memories of the Sainbari killings in Burdwan in 1969 where CPM laid a siege.

Forty years later, the state seems set for another round of bloodletting with the main opposition, Trinamool Congress, adopting the same tactic as the Left in the '60s: upstaging the ruling party on people's insecurity. Ballot and bullets have ruled these parts since 1999 with rival groups in far flung pockets in West Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia, Birbhum and Hooghly fighting protracted gun battles.

Violence and counter-violence are a major tactic of political parties to command support in the villages. The CPM maintained its sway with its organisational machinery, winning the battle of ballot from the Writers Building down to the panchayats. Maoists were outsiders in West Bengal until the late 1990s when CPM minister Sushanta Ghosh shook hands with them to stop the Trinamool-BJP onslaught in 2000. In fact, Maoist strategist Koteswar Rao (Kishanji) told TOI in a recent interview that he himself collected bullets from the CPM party office. Sensing trouble in his backyard, Ghosh then turned the gun on the Maoists who had already spread their network in some pockets of West Midnapore.

But their might was inconsequential to the power battle until the Nandigram carnage in 2007 when large sections of CPM supporters broke ranks and sided with Trinamool. The defiance in Nandigram over the land stir kickstarted a change at the grassroots leading to cracks in the red fort.

The armed capture of Nandigram — that sent a sense of cold horror all over Bengal as Governor Gandhi put it — led to clamour for change that the ruling CPM couldn't stall. Maoists also had a role in masterminding the opposition's resistance in Nandigram. But learning from Naxalbari uprising, Maoists did not advance towards towns and cities. Instead, they chose the terrain of Jangalmahal as their mainstay and began expanding their base with support from a section of tribals disillusioned with the official Left. The laid-back administration and corrupt partymen were instrumental in the Maoists getting toehold.

Today, the CPM activists are unable to match the Maoists trained in guerrilla warfare. Maoist-led mobs are pulling down houses, blowing up property and forcing CPM cadres to leave the party — acts that go against their constitutional rights.

'OUR AIM IS TO BREAK CPM SHACKLES'

Sukumar Mahato Times of India, 18 June 2009,TNN:

He is leading the Lalgarh offensive in West Midnapore district of West Bengal. Around 24 years old, he is a veteran in Maoist ranks, serving as zonal committee secretary of Communist Party of India (Maoist) for West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts. Sukumar Mahato speaks to firebrand Maoist Bikash about his party's plans:

What are your immediate plans?

Our aim is to break the shackles that the ruling CPM has put on the people of this area. For nearly two decades, the people have not reaped the so-called benefits of parliamentary democracy. Gradually, everything began to be controlled by CPM. Its leaders even had a say in marriages and other social and personal matters.

There are many leaders against whom FIRs are pending. The police have taken no action against them. We will punish them. Those who have spent money or used political connections to avoid justice will be tried by people's courts.

The government is preparing to strike in a major way. How will you counter this?

We have seen media reports in which government officials have spoken about bringing in Central forces, COBRA or Greyhound personnel. We are prepared for any strike. PCPA is with us. In Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore districts, we have set up gram committees in over 250 villages. We shall ultimately liberate Keshpur and Garbeta. The state cannot stop us by using force.

Why have you resorted to violence?

We were forced into taking up arms by the administration. When we had guns pointing at us, one can't expect us to respond with flower petals. Violence was started by CPM. We took up arms to counter this. Many of them are educated unemployed youths. Family members of CPM leaders have got jobs that were meant for them.

Why do you target the police? Many of the constables belong to poor families.

We have appealed to the police a number of times, not to blindly follow the diktats of CPM. We have asked the police not to torture poor villagers. There are some who heeded our appeal. Those who we targeted worked at the behest of CPM and paid a price.

What is your ultimate goal?

We want public funds to be used by the people's committee. They will be accountable for all development work done. We have already done a lot of development work in the villages. CPM talks a lot about land reforms. Anuj Pandey and his two brothers owned 40 bighas of land. We shall distribute such land among the poor.

Its own worst enemy BJP has lost its credibility, identity

EDITORIAL, STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE:

IT is a measure of the sad disorientation of the Bharatiya Janata Party that Arun Jaitley’s reported resignation from the post of general secretary should be a subject of speculation in Lutyen’s Delhi even four days after its submission. Still more pathetic must be the party president’s initial attempt to keep the matter under the hat. Central to the crisis that now plagues the former ruling entity is the pronounced reluctance to face up to the rather grim reality. This is in striking contrast to the other party that is equally down at heel; the CPI-M has already conducted a post mortem that has been bitterly critical of its general secretary. This will be followed up by another round this week at the highest level - the Politburo. No such exercise was even thought of by the BJP for more than a fortnight after the results, not till Jaswant Singh circulated a note criticising the campaign managers at a core committee meeting. It was an open disapproval of the handling of the campaign and appointments to crucial parliamentary posts. The overwhelming crisis deepened when Yashwant Sinha resigned from party posts in protest against the reluctance of the party to evaluate the results.

At the core of this tendency to duck and dive reality is Rajnath Singh’s consistent attempt to delay any such discussion, taking recourse to the philosophical polemic of a chintan baithak. In the net, he has managed to erode the credibility of a party that has traditionally been known for its disciplined and astute style of functioning. It would be no exaggeration to submit that Rajnath Singh and his coterie have done more damage to the BJP post-result than the election per se. Stretched further, one could even argue that the BJP is today its own worst enemy. Noticeable also is the tendency to play down Jaitley’s resignation, describing it as perfectly in accord with the party’s one man-one post rule. The touted wisdom is that now with Jaitley being opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha, he has to give up the post of party general secretary. No issue with that logic; but there is little doubt that the resignation is directly related to the rot that has permeated the party. To the point that its very identity is now under a cloud. It is just as well that Rajnath’s tenure will not run beyond another six months. The worst action that he could have announced was to gag the party leaders from going public on its failures. He has stifled the voice of dissent. The blistering candour of Sushma Swaraj’s remark that “the situation is volcanic and even a small fire can ignite it” confirms that the Bharatiya Janata Party is rudderless.