BREAKING NEWSCentral team visits Aila, landslide-affected areas Kurseong, 7 JUNE, The Telegraph: Yesterday, an Inter-Ministerial Central Team visited Aila affected areas in Kurseong region, to take stock of the situation. The team was under the leadership of Mrs Nalini Pathak, assistant director, ministry of finance and department of expenditure, along with Mr D Sarangi, senior official, ministry of central road and transportation, and Mr DP Singh, development officer, urban development housing and poverty alleviation. Today, the team visited landslide affected areas in Darjeeling and relief camps. Before meeting with the CM, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, in Kolkata on the subject of relief and rehabilitation, the Central Team will hold a meeting in Darjeeling with government officials to assess the damage. A team of Congress leaders headed by Congress senior leader, Mr Kesav Rao, along with former Darjeeling MP, Mr Dawa Narbula, visited landslide affected areas in Darjeeling. ;SNS A spitting image of what ails Bengal’s education - Teacher-cum-Trinamul councillor sprays inspector’s face with spittle for refusing to accept demands | ||||||||
| OUR CORRESPONDENT, The Telegraph:Siliguri, June 8: | ||||||||
Day’s lesson from a schoolteacher to Bengal’s children: if you disagree with someone, spit on his face. Ranjan Sil Sharma, secretary of a teachers’ association, puckered his mouth and squirted betel juice into the face of the district inspector of schools, Siliguri, today. Once, twice, thrice. In full view of journalists and TV camera crews. The man taught the immediate lesson, Riazul Islam, had refused to endorse the association’s demands relating to transfers and promotions. The attack, which left Islam’s face spattered with tiny red splotches, took place at the schools inspector’s office. It came a day before the Centre, which has marked education down as a key engine for the country’s progress, attempts to clear 390 higher education institutions. Sil Sharma, secretary of the Trinamul Congress-backed Bengal Primary School Teachers Association, is Trinamul councillor in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation. He also teaches students through Class I to Class IV —“almost all the subjects taught in these classes”, he said — at the Netaji Government-Sponsored Free Primary School in Siliguri’s Subhaspalli. Sil Sharma had led a team of 20 association members to Islam’s office around 12.30pm with a list of demands. When the official refused to put his initials on the list, an angry exchange broke out that ended 20 minutes later with Sil Sharma’s heroics. The teachers walked out around 1pm. Day’s lesson No. 2: when caught red-handed, keep denying. “Not one among us who met the district inspector did any such thing,” Sil Sharma said. “None of us misbehaved. He (Islam) is levelling false allegations,” he insisted even after reporters told him they were there and saw him spit. The media had been tipped off by Sil Sharma about a possible showdown at Islam’s office. The schools inspector did not get up from his seat till the teachers had left. He then rang up his seniors to complain about the “atrocities committed by people engaged in a noble profession”. “Such behaviour is not expected from teachers. They should face severe action. You all are witness,” he told the reporters. Islam has filed a police complaint against Sil Sharma and two other association members, Shikha Chatterjee and Anukul Dutta. School education joint secretary Sukumar Mahapatra said Sil Sharma could be punished “but we must find out if he is guilty and if there was provocation”. He said the maximum punishment could be suspension, whose duration would depend on the “gravity” of the crime. The Trinamul district chief said: “I have asked two senior district leaders to find out about the incident and submit a report to me. Being a responsible political party, we shall definitely take steps against anyone found guilty.” The association, though backed by Trinamul, is not affiliated to it. Most of its senior officials, however, are Trinamul members. Biswajit Bhowmik, chairman of the district primary council, a government body that regulates appointments in primary schools, called a news conference to condemn Sil Sharma’s act. “This is absolutely unacceptable coming from teachers. We have received a complaint from the district inspector and will forward it to higher authorities. The charges are very serious,” he said, adding that Islam told him the teachers had used filthy language. Police fired at least 10 rounds in the air and burst tear gas shells when supporters of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad, who were enforcing a bandh, became violent today. The Parishad said two persons, Hemant Mahato and Manson Kharia, had suffered bullet injuries and were admitted to Alipurduar Hospital. Dr Tapas Pine of the hospital confirmed that the duo had suffered bullet injuries and said their condition was serious. The two were shifted to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. The Parishad had called a 12-hour bandh in the Kalchini block of Alipurduar subdivision today, demanding the arrest of a Congress sabhapati and a samiti member for trying to protect a person accused of rape and murder. Ranjit Mochary was arrested on June 1 on the charges of raping a woman and murdering Sukha Oraon, who had tried to resist the accused. Mochary was beaten up when the panchayat pradhan and some others were reportedly trying to hush up the incident by offering money and land to the rape victim and Oraon’s widow. “Our members told the police that if the pradhan and the samiti member were not arrested in four days, we would catch them and hand them over to the police,” said Raju Bara, a state committee member of the Parishad. Today, around 3pm, while the NH31C was blockaded at several places by the Parishad supporters, a vehicle belonging to the SSB coming from Jaigaon was stopped at Hasimara, 40km from Alipurduar. “The jawans suddenly started beating us with their batons and rifle butts. They did not even spare the women,” said Anjali Bara, the Jaigaon-Hasimara zonal committee secretary of the tribal outfit. In the violence that followed, the Parishad members set fire to a police prison van and damaged an army truck and two other police vehicles. Police sources said the Adivasis shot arrows and hurled stones at them. A fire engine that had come to put out the blaze was stoned and a State Bank of India ATM was damaged. “Fourteen policemen were injured in the attack by Parishad members. The condition of six policemen is serious. We burst 20 to 25 rounds of tear gas shells and fired 10 rounds in the air to disperse the mob. The police had to fire in the air as they were outnumbered. We rushed in extra forces to quell the mob,” said Anand Kumar, the superintendent of police of Jalpaiguri. The violence and the blockades on the national highway caused immense hardship to local commuters as well as tourists. BJP for scrapping DGHC, Cong sit on the fence Statesman News Service : SILIGURI, 8 JUNE: The West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded the dissolution of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council while the Congress seeks time before spelling out its stand on the sensitive matter. The GNLF leadership expressed serious reservations over the GJMM-sponsored proposition to scrap the DGHC and revert to the three-tier panchayat structure, branding it ‘retrogressive.’
The state unit of the BJP today made clear its stand on the GJMM demand to dissolve the DGHC, saying that the demand was in sync with the prevailing popular mood in the Darjeeling hills. “We want prompt dissolution of the council to make way for the three-tier panchayat structure. This process being over, all the parties should sit together to deliberate on a new concept of autonomy in tune with the mounting self rule aspirations of the hill populace,” said the state BJP vice-president Mr Sabyasachi Bagchi.
“The DGHC has become a discredited institution in the hills owing to its manipulation by the Subash Ghising dispensation in the course of its two decade long career. It is synonymous with corruption and nepotism. Popular resentment should be respected and the body should be dissolved without delay,” Mr Bagchi averred.
Treading a cautious path, the Pradesh Congress leadership refused to spell out its stand today on the emotive issue. “We must weigh the pros and cons before taking an official stand on the matter,” said the state Congress vice-president Mr Pradip Bhattacharya.
“The matter is not as easy as it is being projected. The council came into being as per the provisions of the Constitution and if it is to be dissolved it must be done in accordance with constitutional provisions,” the state Congress leader said.
Meanwhile, a section of the GNLF leadership said that scrapping the institution would amount to an attempt to stab the autonomy concept in the back. “No right thinking person in sympathy with the mounting self rule aspirations of the hill people should even touch such a proposal, not to speak of its consideration,” said a senior party leader, on condition of anonymity. |
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| Congress general secretary K. Keshava Rao also visited landslide-hit areas in Darjeeling on Sunday. Picture by Suman Tamang |
Darjeeling, June 7: The three-member central team on a recce of the hill town is satisfied with the “immediate relief measures” taken by the district administration after Cyclone Aila, but senior citizens who met the officials have complained about the lack of long term initiatives to avert killer landslides.
Nalini Pathak, the secretary of the finance and fiscal planning ministry and team leader, said: “We had made on-the-spot visits and found out that timely action had been taken and immediate relief was satisfactorily provided by the district administration.”
Most of the senior citizens, too, agreed that they had little to complain as far as providing relief was concerned but they made it clear that it was time to work on a long-term plan.
Calling for an end to knee jerk-reactions, Uday Mani Pradhan, a businessman, said: “We had major landslides in 1934, 1950 and 1968. We have no long-term measures in place even after that. The road between Darjeeling and Kalimpong is being dug up by telecommunication companies laying optical fibre cables and this has to be stopped as we have four months of monsoon to follow.”
The team also included D. Sarangi, the secretary of the road, transport and highway ministry and D.P. Singh from the ministry of housing.
The people who have borne the brunt of landslides for years provided some suggestions. “We need a satellite township. How long will Darjeeling take the burden of the population,” said Prahlad Roka. Singh, a travel agent.
The housing secretary said his ministry was willing to build at least 24 model houses for the hills — using the latest technology to serve as a guideline — if it is provided with land by the district administration.
Trilok Dewan, a retired IAS officer, was of the opinion that an inquiry should be conducted on the failure of the IMD to dissipate early warnings about the cyclone. “The compensation package might be adequate for the plains but for the hills it has to be reworked,” he added.
District magistrate Surendra Gupta explained to the team the difficulties faced by the administration in tackling the situation. He said regular interactions with the people were very useful for them. “These meetings should be held regularly,” Gupta said.
The central team that arrived here yesterday visited almost all places hit by landslides in Darjeeling and Kurseong.
OUR CORRESPONDENT, The Telegraph: Siliguri, June 7: Bengal chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti today said the government would reopen three closed tea estates in the Dooars in the next eight to 10 months. Chakrabarti, who met a delegation of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad at the circuit house in Jalpaiguri this evening, said: “We have assured the Parishad members that three of the gardens — Chinchula, Chamurchi and Sikarpur-Bhandapur — will reopen in eight to 10 months.” “We are also hunting for prospective owners for Ramjhora and Kanthalguri. In the case of the other closed estates, there are a number of problems including pending litigation. The chief commissioner of state land and land reforms department has been given the responsibility to look into these cases,” he added. The chief secretary, who was on a three-day visit to north Bengal, said the Parishad had raised some other demands including granting of rights of vacant or unused lands in estates to the garden workers. “We will form a committee under the state land and land reforms secretary once I return to Calcutta,” the chief secretary said. “The government will also seriously consider the demand to establish two colleges where the medium of instruction will be Hindi and two Hindi high schools in the region.” The secretaries of the labour and the backward classes’ development departments will be in Jalpaiguri at the end of this month to look into the Parishad demands. Birsa Tirkey, the state president of the Parishad, said the meeting was satisfactory. “However, if these issues are not dealt with and resolved, the government will face intensive movement.” 10 SWINE FLUE CASES IN INDIA June 7th, 2009 - 10:15 pm ICT by IANS , Thaindian News :New Delhi, June 7 (IANS) India Sunday reported two fresh cases of swine flu taking the total number of confirmed people infected with the virus to 10 so far, health officials said. Those who tested positive for influenza A (H1N1) include a 25-year-old man who sat in close proximity to a techie who had returned from the US May 31 with the infection. “The man travelled with the techie by British Airways flight BA 277 May 31. All his close contacts are being traced and would be quarantined,” said a health ministry official. Of the 10 cases, seven are from Hyderabad, which also reported the first case in the country May 16. A 35-year-old man who reached Delhi from New York June 2 has also tested positive for the flu. “He developed flu like symptoms two days after reaching Delhi and tested positive for it. The man is on home quarantine and his contacts have been provided with medicine,” the official said. The 28-year-old techie who arrived from Philadelphia May 31 had gone home after his arrival at the airport. He later developed high fever and approached the Chest Hospital in Hyderabad June 2. The next day he tested positive for H1N1 influenza. India reported its first swine flu infection May 16 - that of a 23-year-old man who travelled by Emirates Airline from New York to Hyderabad via Dubai. He has now been discharged after treatment. Meanwhile three suspect cases — one each at Cochin, Delhi and Kolkata - have been isolated at the identified health facility. Health screening of passengers coming from the affected countries is continuing at 21 international airports and over 1.3 million passengers have been screened so far. Samples of 176 persons have been tested of which 10 have been tested positive for Influenza A (H1N1). The Central Rapid Response Team is assisting Andhra Pradesh for instituting public health measures that need to be taken in the event of a cluster reporting. The WHO has reported about 21,940 confirmed cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection from 69 countries and 125 deaths till June 5. West Bengal Govt admits Shortcomings in Aila relief June 7th, 2009 - 10:26 pm ICT by IANS: Kolkata, June 7 (IANS) The West Bengal government Sunday conceded that there were inadequacies in reaching relief to remote areas devastated by Cyclone Aila and said it was considering stepping up efforts to improve the delivery system. Briefing newspersons after a nearly two-hour all-party meeting, boycotted by main opposition Trinamool Congress, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said the parleys were “successful”. Bhattacharjee said his Left Front government was in constant touch with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre and stressed the need for centre-state joint effort to tackle the calamity. However, the Congress and some other parties objected to the government giving details of the extent of the devastation and the relief efforts only at the meeting and not in advance. This prompted the government to convene another all-party meeting June 14 on the issue. The meeting at the state secretariat was held 13 days after Cyclone Aila tore through the state May 25, levelling houses, uprooting trees, snapping power cables and leaving a trail of destruction in 13 of West Bengal’s 19 districts. So far 137 deaths have been reported while nearly 600,000 houses suffered damages in the calamity which has affected over 8.7 million people. To a query whether holding the all-party meeting sans the Trinamool was not akin to playing Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark, the chief minister shot back: “Ask the prince why it has not come. We are doing our work. If they don’t come that’s unfortunate. I think it would have been better had they come. But we can’t wait.” “We circulated two papers. One was on the extent of damages, deaths, number of people affected, crop land destroyed etc. The other was a summary of the memorandum we have submitted to the centre demanding a Rs.10 billion grant,” he said. “During the second meeting, the parties can give their views on our notes,” Bhattacharjee said. He said all the parties including the Congress mentioned the shortcomings in reaching relief to the far-flung areas. “This we are considering. We are thinking on a plan to improve the relief efforts in the ground level.” The parties also asked the government to ensure that there was no political partisanship in giving relief. “We have to rise above narrow political affiliations. All parties need to join hands,” he said. Bhattacharjee said his government was working in coordination with central ministries like home and finance. Asked whether the state government was also coordinating with the railway ministry headed by Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, he said the union home ministry was the nodal department on such issues. “The finance ministry is also very important. We are coordinating with them. But we want cooperation from all.” State Congress working president Subrata Mukherjee, who led his party’s two-member delegation at the deliberations, criticised the government for calling the meeting so late and at a very short notice. “On June 5 only we came to know of the meeting. And why are they calling it so late? And the government did not even care to inform us in advance about the steps they have taken and the magnitude of the tragedy,” Mukherjee said. He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi were gravely concerned about the cyclone damages, and have assured full cooperation to the state. “In fact, (the state’s) Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta admitted at the meeting that the state government has received unprecedented help form the centre,” he said. Mukherjee claimed that the chief minister himself was not “totally happy” with the relief operations, and had admitted loopholes in relief distribution. “He conceded that the repair of breached embankments in the Sundarbans was not complete. He said 75 percent of work has been done. But I doubt it. “But it’s a matter of regret and pain that the state government has not been serious in tackling the tragedy. As a result, people are suffering,” he said, alleging there were reports of the government adopting a partisan approach in distributing relief.
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