Players plenty, poll contest tight

The Telegraph: Siliguri, June 26: The presence of 111 Independents backed by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Adivasi Vikas Parishad and the Congress-Trinamul alliance has changed the dynamics of the three-tier elections to the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad scheduled for Sunday. Unlike earlier occasions when the contest was limited between the Left parties, the CPM in particular and the Congress, Trinamul and the BJP, this time the fight in most seats is not going to be a one-to-one. State urban development minister and local MLA Asok Bhattacharya, however, is confident that the Congress will not be successful in opening its account in the mahakuma parishad. But he admitted that the contest would be a tough one. “The fight will definitely be tough as in the lower rungs — panchayat samities and panchayats — there have been several anti-Left alliances between the Congress, Trinamul, Morcha and the Parishad,” said Bhattacharya, who is also the Left Front convener of the district. While the Morcha-backed candidates have filed nominations in 38 panchayat, five panchayat samiti and two mahakuma parishad seats, the Parishad has fielded 42 in panchayats, 21 in panchayat samitis and three in mahakuma parishad as Independents. “This has changed the calculations of political parties, particularly the CPM and Congress as most of these Independents are from tea estates, where the two parties have trade unions and a base,” a political observer said. He explained that this time, in the gardens, the Morcha and the Parishad link would be more at work than affiliation to prominent garden unions like the Intuc or the Citu. For example, the CPM cannot say this time that it will get all the votes from a tea estate having a tribal population where the Citu is the only trade union. The same stands true for the Congress. “Chances are that the tribals will vote for the Parishad member.” Congress and Trinamul Congress leaders are confident that their alliance — though the parties have failed to strike a deal in one of the seven mahakuma parishad seats — and the results of recent parliamentary polls would help them sweep the election. “The anti-CPM wind is strong throughout the state and north Bengal is no exception. Despite some petty differences among ourselves, we are confident that the Congress-Trinamul alliance will succeed in bagging the mahakuma parishad. Regarding the independent candidates, it is the CPM which will lose most of the votes,” said Shankar Malakar, the Darjeeling district Congress president. Gautam Deb, the district Trinamul president, echoed him. The district administration in the meantime is busy making last minute arrangements to facilitate free and fair elections as 3,22,769 voters from four blocks get ready to cast their votes in 470 booths to elect seven members of the mahakuma parishad, 64 of panchayat samitis and 360 from panchayats. “We are engaging more than 3,500 polling personnel,” said Surendra Gupta, the district magistrate of Darjeeling. The counting would be held on July 1 at four centres, one in each block — Naxalbari, Matgara, Kharibari and Phansidewa. Gorkha tribute to Manekshaw The Telegraph: Shillong, June 26: One of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw’s favourite lines, many in the defence forces say, was his own: “If someone says that he is happy to die, he should be either a liar or a Gorkha.” Today, on the eve of the general’s first death anniversary, a bust of Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw was unveiled, fittingly, at the 58 Gorkha Training Centre in Happy Valley here. It was a tribute from the Gorkha soldiers who fondly called the Field Marshal “Sam Bahadur”. The bust, unveiled by Maj. Gen. K.S. Sethi, general-officer-commanding, 101 Area, has been designed by reputed Calcutta-based sculptor Gautam Pal. In August last year, a small park, christened Sam Bahadur Memorial Park, was opened at the Gorkha Training Centre which Manekshaw frequented since 1976. In addition to the park, a museum set up in 1980 to honour Sam Bahadur has uniforms worn by him, trophies, scrolls of Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan and photographs. The Manekshaw Museum also has the original certificates of the Legion of Merit conferred on him by the US on April 14, 1970, and the Shiromani Award handed over by President Zail Singh on January 20, 1987. “He was a man of unflinching moral courage and leadership skills par excellence. His life will always be a source of inspiration, not only for the soldier community of 58 Gorkha Training Centre, but also for the entire nation,” Maj. Gen. Sethi said, after unveiling the bust. Sam Bahadur was appointed the first colonel of 8 Gorkha Rifles Regiment at Dehradun on May 24, 1953. Later its headquarters was shifted to Shillong. When the 5 Gorkha Rifles Regiment was set up in Shillong, the headquarters of both the regiments was together known as 58 Gorkha Training Centre. Field Marshal Sam Bahadur was the lifelong Honorary Colonel of 8 Gorkha Regiment. MP visits water project site at Cedars estate Statesman News Service: KURSEONG, 26 JUNE: The Rajya Sabha MP from Darjeeling, Mr Suraj Pathak (in picture), visited the Balasun Water Project site at Cedars Tea Estate area near Sonada yesterday and took stock of the people's grievances centering round the project. He also held a meeting with the project officials and PHE officials. Notably, some local people had lost their farmland along with their standing crops as these were within the project site near the Balusun bank at Cedars. Deprived of the means of livelihood the locals are demanding adequate compensation against the loss they have incurred due to the project. The deputy general manager of the Ramky Infrastructure Ltd, which has been entrusted with the project implementation task, Mr Subrato Kaur said that his company was fully prepared to suitably compensate the land-losers. Mr. Pathak confirmed, following the meeting with the concerned officials and the locals, that nine persons would be rehabilitated soon. “They would be issued appointment letters by the concerned company for jobs in the on going project,” he added. He further said that the project when complete would solve the longstanding water crisis plaguing the Darjeeling hills. “It would be pressed into operation hopefully by next year,” Mr Pathak assured. Cobras clear fields as police move on - Elite force removes landmines, gets ready for Ramgarh foray PRONAB MONDAL, The Telegraph: Jawans patrol the road leading to Kadashole. Picture by Pradip Sanyal Goaltore, June 26: Around Thursday midnight, 190 members of the CRPF’s Cobra unit left the base camp here with one brief: sanitise the 6km stretch of paddy fields past Pingoboni and up to the forest that starts a few hundred metres before Kadashole. The Cobras split into two groups and fanned out about 2km deep into the fields on either side of the road. “We knew the entire stretch would be full of improvised explosive devices,” an officer explained. “But unlike mines that explode on pressure, these devices have wires and need to be detonated. So the Cobra force personnel were told to find out if there were any Maoists lurking in the fields to do the job.” The Cobras were armed with sniper rifles with night-vision telescopes and told to shoot Maoists at sight. Police said the operation was successful as the Maoists could not detonate any of the mines they had planted along this stretch and which were eventually either defused or destroyed through controlled explosions by experts from the CID’s bomb squad in Calcutta. Initially, when operation Lalgarh began at Bhimpur last week, there were only 40 members of the Cobra unit. Yesterday, 150 more were sent to Goaltore, where the 40 were already stationed. Today, after the operation ended at Kadashole for the day, the Cobras made a security ring around the camp that had been set up over there. Early tomorrow morning, a few hours before the force sets out for Ramgarh and resumes its operation, the Cobras will spread out into the forests and sanitise it so the force does not face any resistance. The forest ends about 1km from Ramgarh, so nearly 5km of it would have to be sanitised. The police said they have been instructed to go about 500 meters deep into the forest. “In any case, the force has been instructed to fire mortars into the jungles, whether or not they spot any Maoists,” an officer said. “This way, we can reduce resistance to the minimum because the forests provide good cover for the Maoists.” Once in Ramgarh, the Cobra jawans will take position there ahead of the advancing forces. This is being done because under pressure from the forces, some of the Maoists may attempt to flee the jungles and take shelter in Ramgarh.The police said the Cobras waiting there will be the “reception committee” waiting to greet the fleeing Maoists. “We are hoping that some of them will fall into this trap,” an officer said. “But for that we will have to wait for tomorrow.” Satellite tracks rebel position PRONAB MONDAL, The Telegraph: Goaltore, June 26: The country’s spy in the sky today helped the forces kick off their first full-blooded assault on the Maoists holed up in Lalgarh. Using images captured by Risat-2, which the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) had launched in April, the forces recaptured that slice of the liberated zone where the Maoist concentration was believed to be highest. “From the images, we could figure out that the villages along the stretch from Goaltore to Ramgarh were empty. But the forests had a huge concentration of people, suspected Maoists,” said a state police officer. Central and state officers met in Midnapore town last night and drew up their plan on the basis of inputs from Risat-2, the country’s first satellite that can send images of the ground even after nightfall. Since Tuesday, a senior military intelligence officer had been scanning the images — thrown up by Risat-2 from an altitude of 550km — analysing them at Fort William and sending the inputs to the state home department. The intelligence was forwarded to Midnapore IG Kuldeip Singh. Although the satellite — developed with help from Israel — provided black-and-white still images with a lag of six hours, they threw up many clues about Maoist movement. “The images revealed that the Maoists had mobilised a huge force and so we decided to get more personnel at Golatore,” said a senior state police officer, explaining the delay in launching the final assault. The officers first felt the need for credible intelligence of the areas deep inside Lalgarh when the Maoists beat back a state paramilitary team at Pingboni on June 19. “As we didn’t have any intelligence from the ground, satellite images of the area were the only option. The state government got in touch with the Union home ministry earlier this week to activate Isro,”said an official. Battle for Kadashole Sujan Dutta of The Telegraph, who witnessed the gun battle, reports from the field Central forces on Friday engaged the Maoists in by far the fiercest firefight in the Lalgarh operation, pushing through territory from where Bengal police were beaten back last week and reaching within 6km of Ramgarh, the suspected rebel hub. The site of Friday’s gun fight was the mouth of the forest in Kadashole, 8km from the Goaltore base camp from where 10 companies — six central and four state, totalling 1,000 personnel — set out in the morning. The forces came across several bombs on the way. The Maoists detonated some, too, but most went off before the forces were within range. On Saturday, the forces are expected to try to complete the march to Ramgarh. A rusty wired-up can covered with newsprint sits in the middle of the road on the edge of the Kadashole forest. Battalion commandant Pankaj skirts around it and instructs his men to follow suit but a young man is impatient: Insas rifle in one hand and devil-may-care in the mind, he kicks it away.He lives, intact and unharmed, as do we. Another bloody dud. The fifth. Pankaj laughs. He asks his lieutenant to withdraw to Kadashole but first secure the flanks. The lieutenant sidles up and asks: “We have just come through this village — Kadashole — can you tell me where the people are?” The security forces captured territory — eight kilometres of it — today in the operations to reclaim Lalgarh without knowing where the people are. Kadashole, the village of about 350 households that the forces entered and set up camp in, was deserted but for the very elderly and just about three other families. The CRPF battalion lieutenant was mystified just like his troopers. But theirs is not to reason why. “Tomorrow we’ll go to Lalgarh if we are asked to,” he said. The young man who kicked the can that could have been a bomb came along and said: “Do teen ko to marna hi hai is taraf ya us taraf (Two or three have to get killed on this side or the other).” Thankfully, nothing’s bloody. The dud that was kicked was just another calling card the Maoists left behind without camouflage. If you can read the lettering, it says: “We were here.” This is within five minutes of a firefight and the nerves are taut. Expletives strive to keep pace with bullets. There is no time or space for decency here. None of Bengal’s convoluted rhetoric about taking on the rebels “politically”. At this cutting edge, it is kill or be killed. For the record, the 66th battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force today cut through the Pingboni “border” and advanced about 6.5km to Kadashole in Bengal’s operation to reclaim Lalgarh. This is along a northern axis of the area of operations. Pingboni was where the Bengal Armed Police and the Eastern Frontier Rifles were beaten back by the rebel militia last Saturday even as the security forces pushed through the Pirakata-Bhimpur axis — a little to the south — to Lalgarh police station. The 66th reached Goaltore last afternoon. The battalion was originally stationed near Patna. The 66th has been in operations against Naxalites in Malkangiri in Orissa. The platoon commander says Malkangiri was different. In Malkangiri, he says, the Maoists stood and fought. Here, they plant bombs and vanish. “**** they think they can rule the country with such kuchcha bombs?” the platoon commander goes on. His battalion commandant is out of earshot. The advance party of the 66th marched through Pingboni, mostly off the road. There were two sections covering the flanks. The road was suspected to be mined — the suspicion turned out to be true — but there were a lot of duds. There were two explosions that were loud and could have been lethal. One exploded before the security forces reached the spot. The Maoists timed it too early. The second was an improvised explosive device. The Maoists’ armed squad did not appear to have the wherewithal to embed mines into metalled roads and cover them up. So they used implements to direct the impact of an explosion. In this instance, they had used a cutaway from a telephone pole about three feet in length. An anti-sabotage team that followed — and was not with the advance party — defused it near a bridge in two hours after five tries. Bengal police’s deputy inspector-general (CID), Siddhi Nath Gupta, and the CRPF’s DIG, B.R. Kamath, are with the platoon that is going along the road. Gupta gets a phone call from a superior — it is not clear whether the senior officer belongs to the CRPF or Bengal police. “Yes, sir,” Gupta says. “We are advancing towards Kadashole, kuchh mines mila hai (we have found some mines). I have called the BD (bomb disposal squad).” Even as Gupta is talking on the phone, commandant Pankaj instructs his men over the walkie-talkie: “Fire control order till direction of fire is known.” The troops are expecting fire. This is about three hours before reaching Kadashole. The media is held back behind a bridge till the bomb disposal squad does its job. It is a long while. But before that Gupta and Kamath — Bengal police and the CRPF — have an argument. Gupta is speaking on the phone and talking to Kamath at the same time. Kamath is worried about casualties among his men. He suggests that with the mines being found, it is advisable to watch instead of going ahead right away. That is probably what the phone call is about. “No, Sir, I will not pull one company back,” Gupta tells the superior on the phone. The orders probably are to draw back if the road is mined and if opposition is estimated to take casualties. Kamath, the CRPF DIG, asks what’s up. Gupta replies: “I am on the spot and I will take the decisions. How can we decide what we should do on the basis of telephone instructions!” But why is Gupta — the Bengal police are supposed to lead — going ahead without a mine-protected vehicle (MPV) in front? That was the drill when the forces went through the Jhitka forest to the Lalgarh police station last Saturday. Gupta replies: “We want to sanitise the road.” Twenty minutes later, the MPV is called up. But it is asked to stay at the bridge. Most of the troops are on the flanks as they near Murakati village on the left. It is not on the road. A blast and a column of smoke and then a burst of automatic gunfire. On the other flank, beyond a depression, about five figures are running away into the distance. There is more firing. One jawan on the road tells his officer: “Teen magazine to ho gaya.” A magazine in an AK has 20 bullets. This is the first firefight. There is another. That is just after Kadashole. The CRPF advance party has to lie down as forces behind them fire. They have spotted between eight and 10 people in civilian clothes kneeling on the road that leads to the forest, as if they are doing something to the road. On either side of the road, the land undulates. Forces behind the advance party spot the men first. They fire — over the head of the advance party. The advance party has to hit dirt. The suspected Maoists retreat while firing from single-barrel and double-barrel guns that were said to be .303 or country-made. The CRPF advance party fires away right up to the edge of the forest. The forces are asked not to advance further. The terrain here is so treacherous that it is difficult to distinguish between friend and foe. In between, there is the forest. Then there is another road to Lalgarh.