BJP for review of GJMM’s approach to Gorkhaland Statesman News Service SILIGURI, 25 JUNE: The BJP today called upon the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) to review its fast track approach towards the Gorkhaland demand, clearly hinting that the statehood aspiration emanating from Darjeeling Hills may not be achievable by the March 2010 deadline fixed by the GJMM chief, Mr Bimal Gurung. “With the UPA coming to power in Delhi, there is a need to review the fast track approach towards Gorkhaland and to reformulate the statehood agitation as a whole,” the BJP national spokesperson, Mr Rajiv Pratap Rudy, said at a news conference in Siliguri this afternoon. The comment has come a day after Mr Rudy held a three-hour long meeting with GJMM chief, Mr Gurung and other party leaders in Darjeeling yesterday, over the BJP’s probable role in realising the demanded statehood. “There is no denial that as far as the BJP is concerned, the NDA not coming to power is a set back for the Gorkhaland demand. But the BJP would continue its stride to raise the issue both within the Parliament and outside. Our Darjeeling MP, Mr Jaswant Singh, will facilitate workshops, seminars with influential groups in Delhi in favour of the Gorkhaland issue,” Mr Rudy said. Adding further, he said that both the GJMM and the BJP were waiting for the third round of tripartite talks to be convened by the Centre on the Darjeeling impasse. “A joint delegate from our parties recently met the Union home minister, Mr P Chidambaram, in Delhi urging him to hold the third round of talks. We are waiting for a positive response,” Mr Rudy said. GJMM central committee leader, Mr Amar Lama, who was also present at the meeting, said that the party would soon announce a fresh agitation on the Gorkhaland issue and that might include an indefinite Hills strike as well. “We agree with the BJP’s suggestion to reformulate the agitation, but I must make it clear that the GJMM would decide its own course of action. We had supported the BJP in Lok Sabha polls because it was the only national party that took a sympathetic approach towards Gorkhaland. For us, it hardly matters if the NDA has come to power or not. We know the statehood will have to be achieved through struggle,” Mr Lama said. Survey in malaria-hit hill block

The Telegraph:Kalimpong, June 25: A survey will be carried out in the Gorubathan block of the Kalimpong subdivision, where 50 people have been affected by malaria. Sources said the regional malaria director for north Bengal, Tulsi Pramanik, along with a team of experts, will visit the areas hit by the disease and suggest preventive measures. According to the health department officials, the exercise will be the first of its kind in the area and it will be of immense help in fighting the malaria menace. The places hit by the disease include Mission Hill, Fagu, Kumai and Gorubathan, located on the foothills bordering the Dooars. “Malaria occurs in the block pretty much every year. The study will help us in checking the spread of the disease in an area where health facilities are, to say the least, minimal,” said an official. “Of the 50 patients, 31 have been afflicted by plasmodium falciparum, which is more fatal that plasmodium vivax, the other form of malaria,” said a health official. All patients are being treated at the Gorubathan Block Primary Health Centre. The official said a long dry spell after a rainfall might have created a situation conducive for mosquitoes to flourish. Disaster cell after Jaswant plea VIVEK CHHETRI , THE TELEGRAPH: A file picture of the National Disaster Response Force at work in Darjeeling after Cyclone Aila struck in May, triggering landslides Darjeeling, June 25: The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has decided to post a response force here following a request from Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) which is drawn from the paramilitary forces are currently located at only eight centres across the country — Guwahati, Calcutta, Bhubaneshwar, Arakkonam near Chennai, Pune, Gandhinagar, Bhatinda and Greater Nodia. General (retd) N.C. Vij, the vice-chairman of the NDMA in a letter to Singh, a copy of which is with The Telegraph, said: “I may also mention here that we are shortly positioning a team of the NDRF in Darjeeling to ensure ready availability of rescue and relief effort.” Vij has maintained that a cabinet note (for government approval) was also being prepared to station two battalions each at Patna and Vijayawada. The NDRF has been constituted as a specialist force for disaster response under the provisions of the Disaster Management Act 2005. “It is a multi-disciplinary, multi-skilled force with highly skilled training and state of the art equipment of international standards for providing prompt and effective response to any natural and man-made disaster situation including nuclear, biological and chemical emergencies,” Vij has written. The decision to post a trained team in Darjeeling comes after Singh, the MP who won the Lok Sabha election with support from the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, met Vij following the May 26 landslides which killed 29 people in the hills. At that time, an NDRF team had come from Guwahati to conduct a search operation in Darjeeling. The NDMA is also looking at long term measures and has told Singh that it is preparing a Detailed Project Report for a National Landslide Mitigation Project. On the national level the NDMA is also looking at co-ordinating the activities of the Geological Survey of India, with the ministry of surface transport. “As you are aware the preparation of any medium term or long term mitigation plan requires multi-disciplinary specialised inputs. The Geological Survey of India, which is the nodal agency for the management of landslides in the country, is under the administrative control of the ministry of mines. GSI has therefore been requested to associate itself with the representatives of the Ministry of Surface Transport in the preparation of medium and long term mitigation measures,” the letter reads. A GSI team visited the Darjeeling hills soon after the killer landslides struck. Amar Lama, a central committee member of the Morcha, said: “We welcome Jaswant Singh’s initiative and the prompt response of the NDMA to his appeal.” BJP plans for Dooars growth The Telegraph: Siliguri, Jun. 25: The BJP will focus on development work in the Dooars which it feels has been totally neglected like the hills by the Left Front government. “The Left Front government has adopted a lackadaisical approach towards development in these two regions. The BJP has taken into account the lack of adequate infrastructure in the Dooars and will work towards implementing development projects there,” BJP spokesperson Rajeev Pratap Rudy told journalists today. The move comes at a time when the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has failed to create a base in the Dooars. Echoing Rudy, Morcha central committee member Amar Lama said: “We are sympathetic to the tribals… There are various political reasons which have kept us apart. But they, too, have started realising that their socio-economic condition will not improve unless they unite with us.” Parasites, not Flu behind pigeon deaths GANGTOK, 25 JUNE: The Sikkim state animal husbandry department set at rest all the speculations doing rounds regarding bird flu outbreak in the wake of large scale pigeon deaths at Singtam in East Sikkim, saying that the pathological probe has ascribed deaths to some blood sucking parasites. According to Dr KC Bhutia, joint director, Disease Investigation Cell, state animal husbandry department, the investigation into the first batch of samples sent to the Regional Disease Diagnostics Laboratory of Guwahati, has attributed bacterial infection to the pigeon deaths. “The birds getting wet during the rains created conditions conducive for the parasites to breed,” Dr Bhutia said. As per the official records, 56 cases of unnatural pigeon deaths over the past two months have been reported from a particular region of the state. Springing into action with flu panic spreading among people, the state animal husbandry department has pressed into service a full-fledged mobile unit to keep vigilance over the developing situation in Singtam. This apart, de-contamination campaign at the pigeonholes at residences has also been launched. “These measures have yielded positive results and no fresh case of pigeon death has been reported from anywhere in the state over the past two weeks,” said Mr Bhutia. ;Statesman News Service NGO slams cop comment on Maoist link Nandi at his residence in Jalpaiguri on Thursday. Picture by Biplab Basak The Telegraph:Siliguri, June 25: A representative of Swadhikar today took strong exception to the comment by a police officer that the NGO would be monitored for its suspected Maoists link. K. L Tamta, the inspector-general, north Bengal, had told journalists yesterday that several NGOs, operating in the Dooars, especially in the closed tea gardens, had links with ultra Left outfits and Swadhikar was one of them. Swadhikar is based in Jalpaiguri and claims to be working to uphold the rights of the rural people and tea estate residents. “We also monitor the implementation of welfare schemes in rural area. In case, there are lacunas in the execution of the schemes, we take up the matter with the authorities concerned and at times, even organise movements with local people. If the inspector-general feels that an NGO cannot take up people’s cause, he is wrong,” said Bhaskar Nandi, the president of Swadhikar. Nandi is also a politburo member of the CPIML (PCC). The officer had said jobless workers of the closed tea estates were likely to be indoctrinated and inducted into Maoist outfits. He named only Swadhikar in his comments, which came in the backdrop of the Centre proscribing CPI (Maoist). Calling Tamta a stooge of the CPM, Nandi said: “The IG is politically biased and is with the CPM. He is trying to mount pressure on us and malign us before the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad elections as we are backing 38 independent candidates against the CPM.” Asked about Maoists, Nandi said: “Our party general secretary had received an open letter from the CPI (Maoists) last month, seeking our support on the Lalgarh issue. We also replied through an open letter, mentioning that the CPIML (PCC) does not support assassinations and killing of medical staff and common people.” He went on: “The IG can’t stop us by cancelling Swadhikar’s registration or by arresting me.” Nandi said his outfit was with the deprived tribal people in Lalgarh and other parts of Bengal. Maoist: friend in need for all - How Bengal’s two main contenders for power used the guerrillas BISWAJIT ROY Armed Maoists on the road between Bhimpur and Lalgarh before the police action began. (Samir Mondal) The Telegraph: BISWAJIT ROY The enemy’s enemy is always a friend and both the CPM and the Trinamul Congress had courted the Maoists to fight their war on various battlegrounds — from Keshpur-Garbeta to Nandigram and Lalgarh — in the past 10 years. The relations of Bengal’s two main contenders for power with the Maoists soured only when the extremists crossed their paths to enforce their own political agenda. Way back in 1998, the CPM had found “communist brotherhood” with the People’s War Group, one of two constituents of the CPI (Maoist), when the ruling party was engaged in a bloody turf war with the Trinamul-BJP combine in the Keshpur-Garbeta region of West Midnapore. According to Maoist sources, the CPM and the People’s War had reached an “understanding at the local level” after activists of the Trinamul-BJP combine killed relatives of rebel leader Asit Sarkar to avenge the murder of a BJP leader. “CPM members in the villages who had also been facing the Trinamul-BJP onslaught invited our squad to join them. They offered shelter, food as well as ammunition. We went for joint action,’’ recalled a Maoist leader. Two men were said to be instrumental in this episode. One of them was Koteshwar Rao, better known as Kishanji. The media-savvy Maoist now in Lalgarh was then the People’s War politburo member in charge of Bengal and adjoining states. While the Maoist sources said Kishanji had resented the “tactical understanding” with the CPM and Trinamul, other Naxalite groups like the PCC CPI(ML) insisted that he had not only approved but also taken active part in implementing it. Ideological grandstanding apart, all generals resort to dirty tricks and unholy alliances, they argued. The other person was the pyjama-clad CPM strongman, now minister for western region development, Sushanta Ghosh, who had allegedly solemnised the short-lived CPM-Maoist deal. He denies it now. “I had no relations with them. Since they were also facing Trinamul-BJP attacks, some of their leaders had approached us for a joint resistance to avenge the killing of their family members. But we chose to work independently. Their leaders later went for an alliance with the Trinamul-BJP against us,’’ Ghosh said. The CPM-Maoist bonhomie turned into a bloody fight as the equation changed with the threat of the Trinamul-BJP turf takeover receding and the rebels trying to spread their influence at the cost of the CPM. In the new equation, the vanquished Trinamul sought Maoist assistance to take on the CPM’s armed forces. “This time, some Trinamul men were inducted into our squad and given arms training,’’ a Maoist leader said. Such a Trinamul-Maoist joint squad was ambushed by a CPM gang at Chhoto Angaria village on West Midnapore’s border with Hooghly and Bankura in 2001, effectively wip- ing out the armed resistance to the CPM’s stranglehold on the region. Chhoto Angaria made the Maoists fierce foes of the CPM and Trinamul inched closer to them. In Nandigram, Mamata Banerjee’s party let the Maoists operate when it was still competing with the Congress, Jamait Ulema-i-Hind, SUCI and others for control of the Save Farmland Committee. The CPM said the Maoists were active in Nandigram since January 2007. The Trinamul camp insisted that the gue-rrillas had nominal presence there before the police took the help of CPM cadres to launch an offensive on March 14. “Since the resistance (to the police-CPM combine) needed armed support, the Maoists started imparting arms training to local youths at Sonachura. They were also in the Save Farmland Committee but we never allowed them to dominate us and managed to rein in their over-enthusiastic men by speaking to their higher leadership,’’ said a member of the Trinamul think tank. But tension between the two sides mounted as both pressed for their own political agenda as the election season neared. “The Maoists started campaigning for a vote boycott and insisted on resisting the CPM’s armed onslaught in November 2007 with arms. But we feared it will spin out of control and focused more on electoral politics and resistance forms suitable to the polls since we knew popular support was with us,” a Trinamul leader said. The Maoist squad later left the area accusing the mainstream Opposition of not supplying arms and ammunition as promised, he added. The CPI (Maoist) leadership later blamed Trinamul for sacrificing the potential of the Nandigram resistance as the spearhead of the anti-special economic zone (SEZ) struggle for electoral gains. In Lalgarh, too, all anti-CPM forces joined hands under the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities as popular anger mounted against police’s illegal detentions, arbitrary arrests, night raids and beating of innocent people in the name of tackling Maoists. The anger exploded after the police brutalities on women following the blast on the chief minister’s route last November. The committee drew its strength from elected village representatives across Lalgarh. According to sources close to the Maoists as well as Trinamul, Jharkhand Party factions led by Aditya Kisku and Babu Bose, pro-Jharkhand Party Naxalite outfits such as the one led by Santosh Rana as well as the mainstream Opposition parties participated in the committee. While committee spokesman Chhatradhar Mahato was in Trinamul, its president Lalmohan Tudu was with the Aditya group and vice-president Santosh Patra a CPM rebel. Secretary Sidhu Soren was a greenhorn in politics in comparison. As the committee barred political parties and groups from asserting their own identity, the Maoists, active in the area for long, also joined the forum. However, sources said they were not a dominant force initially in the 45-member central body of the committee. Although Trinamul had a nominal presence in the area, Mamata saw potential in the committee and attended its rally supporting its agitation. However, tension began as the Maoists started dictating terms to the activists from the Jharkhand Parties, Trinamul and the Congress and the bitterness led to mutual killings in some cases. According to Trinamul leaders, the Maoists had asked the anti-CPM forces to field one candidate together to ensure the ruling party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha polls in the region. Trinamul had no problem with this as the party had conceded Jhargram to the Congress, but the Jharkhand Party factions did not agree. The Maoists retaliated by extending the poll boycott in the entire area while Mamata and the other anti-CPM forces accused them of helping the CPM win by huge margins from Jhargram, Ghatal, Bankura and Purulia despite its eroding base among tribals. With Maoists determined to ensure their supremacy in the Lalgarh and expand their base, the Trinamul camp is now bitter that the rebels ultimately dished out Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his party a chance to recover from its worst poll debacle by inviting the Centre-state joint crackdown. Kishanji questioned Mamata’s “class character” and accused her of failing to return the favour extended in Nandigram and not standing up against the Centre’s involvement in operation Lalgarh. With Bhattacharjee and Mamata now engaged in one-upmanship over the ban on the Maoists, the guerrillas count both among their enemies, hated in equal measure.