Jaswant’s presence still iffy on 11 Aug SNS, SILIGURI, 30 JULY: The member of Parliament from Darjeeling, Mr Jaswant Singh’s presence att the crucial tripartite talks slated for 11 August in New Delhi has not yet been confirmed. “We have not yet contacted him over the matter. Maybe, we would request him to be present during the dialogue in a day or two,” said the GJMM media and publicity secretary, Mr Harka Bahadur Chettri today. Lauding the BJP's clear-cut support to the long standing Gorkhaland cause, Mr Chettri said that the Gorkha people would remember the BJP's role over this matter with grateful remembrance forever. “We are gratified that the BJP members of the Parliament have raised the statehood issue forcefully many a time in course of the ongoing Budget session of the Parliament. Unlike other parties which are indulging in mere equivocate posturing, the BJP propounds with cogency why a separate state is a paramount need for the long neglected populace of the Darjeeling Hills,” he said. Calling Mr Jaswant Singh's presence during the crucial rounds of dialogue an imperative, Mr Chettri said that his party would contact him at the right time. “We are looking forward to some kind of a thaw in the icy cold stalemate during the talks,” Mr Chettri said Blockades for ‘misfire’ cop arrest The blockade at the Kurseong Motor Stand on Thursday. Picture by Vivek Singh TT, Kurseong, July 30: Around hundred residents of Nayabazaar today split into two groups and staged separate road blockades simultaneously for the immediate arrest of a police sub-inspector, one of the five accused in the murder of a 27-year-old man of the area. The protests at Motor Stand and Kurseong Tourist Lodge — the distance between the two places is around 500 metres — began at 4pm and ended one hour later. Barun Sharma was killed at the house of his cousin Pratibha Pradhan in Nayabazaar on Monday night when the service revolver of Tezendra Ghalay, the sub-inspector of Kurseong police station, went off. Sharma had taken Ghalay, along with four constables, to the house when the men in khaki had asked for water. While all the constables were arrested and charged with murder, Ghalay is yet to be picked up. “Ghalay is the prime accused in the case and has not been arrested yet. Beginning today, we will hamper traffic everyday till the officer is arrested,” said Krishna Singh, one of those who led the blockades. Pramod Chhetri, another protester, said the duration of the blockades would increase by one hour everyday. He, however, refused to disclose at what time the protest would start everyday. “We also demand that the probe be handed over to some other agency as the investigators and the accused belong to the same police station and there is always a possibility of bias,” said Chhetri. The residents will also submit a memorandum containing their demands to the Darjeeling district magistrate tomorrow. “If our demands are not met, we will launch a hunger strike in front of the police station,” said Singh. Kurseong subdivisional police officer Rakesh Singh said: “Since the accused persons were posted at the Kurseong police station which is carrying out the probe,we will definitely forward the case to the criminal investigation department. We have been looking for Ghaley who has gone into hiding.” Protest against girl death TT, Siliguri, July 30: Residents of Dagapur and Darjeeling More staged an hour-long road blockade this afternoon after the death of a teenaged girl. The protesters alleged that 14-year-old Kushang Lama had been murdered and demanded the arrest of the culprits. The girl’s body was found in an abandoned house yesterday. The residents lifted the blockade at Darjeeling More at 6.30pm after the arrival of Pradhannagar police who assured them of a proper investigation. ABAVP torches CPM leader’s house SNS, JALPAIGURI, 30 JULY: The Akhil Bhartiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad (ABAVP) and CPI-M activists of Jaigaon have allegedly ransacked and torched a CPI-M member's house last night at Jaigaon. A police car was also damaged. Levelling the allegation, the CPI-M member of Jaigaon 1no Gram Panchayat, Mrs Golapi Oroan, a CPI-M member of Number I gram panchayat said that enraged by the changeover of the gram panchayat from the Left Front to the Congress as a result of a no-confidence motion put up by her and a RSP member, the CPI-M and the ABAVP activists had ransacked and torched her house. Recounting the sequence of events, she said that the Left Front had been dislodged from the control of the GP board yesterday in consequence of a confidence vote tabled by a RSP member Mr Rinku Khati and heself on 1 July. “We put up the no-confidence against the GP pradhan Mrs Padma Das for her uninhibited indulgence in corruption and nepotism. The motion was put to vote yesterday and the Left Front board was dislodged. The Congress has formed the board,” she said. “This has exasperated the CPI-M and the ABAVP activists. They have not accepted my challenge to rampant corruption. They have attacked and torched my residence rendering me destitute, “ she added. Informed of the ransacking the Jaigaon police reached the spot. Burt the enraged activists damaged a police vehicle. According to the officer-in-charge, Mr Pradip Sarkar, Mrs Oaraon has filed an FIR. “We are trying to arrest the miscreants,” he said. However, the local leadership of the CPI-M and the ABAVP rubbished the allegation that their activists were involved in yesterday's incidents. INDIAS SWINE TALLY 509 New Delhi, July 30 (IANS) India continues to report fresh swine flu cases with 11 people including six children being detected with the virus Thursday, taking the total number to 509, health officials said here. At least “2,326 people have been tested so far out of which 509 are positive for Influenza A. Of the 509 positive cases, 365 have been discharged,” said an official statement issued here. The new cases were reported from Delhi (4), Pune (3), Kozhikode (2), Cochin (1), and Hyderabad (1). In Delhi, out of the four cases, three people, including two children aged 12, contracted the virus from a person who had the flu. In Pune, all the three cases - all 11-year-olds - got the virus through those who had the flu. The same was reported in Hyderabad where a five-year-old boy contracted the virus. As more swine flu cases continue to pour in, the government announced that two new health facilities, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), will also conduct the tests. “We have not stopped the H1N1 testing as yet. Apart from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, two other institutes including AIIMS have been equipped to carry tests too,” Health Secretary Naresh Dayal said. The other institute is the Patel Chest institute in the capital. Lid off substandard medicine Malaria, TB, typhoid pills fail test despite panel alert

G.S. MUDUR, TT, New Delhi, July 30: Patients in India continue to be exposed to substandard medicines six years after a government panel had examined the problem and recommended rapid corrective action, a study has revealed. The study by an international research team has found that several samples of medicines used in the treatment of malaria, tuberculosis and other infections failed tests to assess pharmacologically active ingredients of the drugs. Immunologist Amir Attaran at the University of Ottawa, Canada, collaborated with economists and other researchers in India, the US and the UK to analyse 281 drug samples from Delhi and 260 samples from Chennai picked up in July 2008 and March 2009. Overall, 12 per cent of the samples from Delhi and 5 per cent of the samples from Chennai failed one or both of two tests. Despite its small sample size, Attaran said, the study provides a snapshot of reality with serious implications for health. Even a 2 per cent failure rate might mean thousands of patients in India might be buying drugs unlikely to work, he said. They have reported their findings in the journal Public Library of Science One. Substandard drugs have lower concentrations of pharmacological ingredients than what they should actually contain. The results show that little has changed since 2003 when a 10-member panel led by the then head of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, R. Mashelkar, had documented that substandard drugs in India made up 8 per cent to 10 per cent of the domestic pharmaceutical market. The panel had suggested corrective steps to be implemented by 2006. Attaran and his colleagues found failure rates ranging from 2 per cent to 17 per cent(see chart). “We used crude tests — the quickest and least expensive — to catch the most obvious problems. Samples that fail these tests should not be used as medicines,” Attaran told The Telegraph. All samples from five of 26 chemists’ shops in Delhi and 16 out 26 shops in Chennai passed tests, but samples from 10 shops in Delhi and 8 in Chennai had 6 per cent to 10 per cent failure rates. Samples from three shops in Delhi had 20 per cent to 30 per cent failure rates. This non-uniform failure patterns across chemist’s shops suggest that the problem of substandard drugs appears to be driven by a small subset of manufacturers or shops thriving in a poorly regulated environment, the researchers said. A member of the panel that had been chaired by Mashelkar said that although the government had initiated action on the panel’s recommendations, the pace of the corrective steps have been disappointing. “The laws are still weak, there is little deterrence, and substandard and fake drugs still pose a serious problem in India,” Vijay Karan, former Delhi police commissioner and panel member, said. An official in the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation — the agency which regulates medicines in India — said inspections in various states suggested that about seven per cent of drugs in India might be substandard. A drug industry analyst has questioned the new study’s methodology, arguing that it has information gaps and appears intended to create a scare about drugs from India using a small sample size. But he conceded there were reasons for worry. “We don’t know whether identical brands were picked up from the two cities (Delhi and Chennai) and how close they were to expiry dates,” said Chandra Gulhati, editor of theMonthly Index of Medical Specialities, India, a journal of drugs. But potential sources of problems are variations in manufacturing standards, and transportation and storage of medicines, Gulhati said. “Some chemists’ shops might be switching off their refrigerators at night.”

PHOTO NEWS

Accountant General (Sikkim), Shri Dinesh Bhagata addressing a press conference on CAG report on Government of Sikkim for the year ended 31^st March, 2008. (PIB)

Kalimpong Photographer in Kolkata Exposition

Lighting the lamps by the dignataries during the Opening of the Exposition

Samiran with his three items in the gallery of the exposition

Kolkata, 29 July : The 6th Photography exposition organised by ALOKREKHEY held at North Gallery of Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata was inaugurated by Mr.Wasim Kapoor, eminent painter today . It was attended by Smt Bulbul Roy Hon. jt. sec. Academy of Fine Arts Kolkata as Guest of honour while the Chief Guest was Mr Benu Sen, eminent photo artist . This Photography Exposition for the first time in Kolkata includes prints on paper and canvas. Other dignataries present were eminent photo personaliies Debidas Banerjee and Wasim Kapoor.

Samiran Paul a freelance photographer and a member of Kalimpong Press Club also participated in the exposition. His three photographs on himalayan landscapes depicting cultures of Gorkhas were selected for the exposition.

ALOKREKHAY is a family which boasts of members who come from diverse walks of life and approach photography differently, and are yet bound by the common threads of friendship and a passion for the art.

It has Debidas Banerjee, one of the most revered and experienced photographers in India who mainly works in promotion of photography among the people. One of the premier photographers of India, Debidas Banerjee has got more than 800 acceptances in national and more than 300 acceptance in international salons and more than 100 awards in his illustrious photographic journey. His creation titled "The Lonely Sphered" is the Indian picture which received Mandella Gaudi award in Reus in Spain in the year 1995.

Dedicated to the cause of photography, he grooms young talent by teaching, writing articles and organising seminers.In 1995, he was invited to Suwon, South Korea to attend Suwon Castle Fortification. He also visited Honkong and Macau as a guest lecturer of FAPA's conventionon invitation is the same year. He has also acted as a member of the jury in various national and international salons.

COMBINATION OF COLOURS

Photo:Samiran Paul

BGP Meeting in Maharastra

BGP Media Cell : The first ever meeting of BGP in Maharastra state will be held on 9.8.09 at Wilson College, Chaupati, Mumbai which is likely to be attended among others by Dr. Enos Das Pradhan, Vice-President, C.K. Shrestha, Working President, Sukhman Moktan, Secretary General, Prof. Munish Tamang, Secretary, Central Programme Cell, Joel Rai, Col (Retd) B.S. Rana, Bhupendra Adhikari, Commodore (Retd) K. S. Rai and Gorkha social activists of Mumbai. The meeting is likely to hold discussion with the local Gorkha residents of financial capital of India about the need of a pan-Gorkha social body for the cause of Nepali speaking Gorkhas of India. In the meeting the BGP leaders would highlight the seven point national agenda of the organisation which tops the creation of a separate state for the Indian Gorkhas by the centre govt. Apart from this, literature, documents and other requisite materials of the BGP will also be distributed in the meeting. BGP has requested all concerned who are outside Mumbai to request their relatives and wellwishers of the Gorkha community to attend the meeting and take part in the session.Contact numbers are : TEL: 399 99521 FAX:: 399 99831.

RAILWAY PROVISION FOR DISABLED

PIB, Lok Sabha , 30July: To permit easy access to the disabled persons, Railways have made special provisions like standard ramps, non-slippery walkways, wheelchairs, earmarked parking lots for vehicles used by disabled persons, signage etc., at ‘A-1’ and ‘A’ category Railway Stations and planned for completion such facilities at ‘B’ category stations by March 2010.

Toilets and water taps suitable for needs of the disabled passengers, ‘May I Help You’ booths etc., have also been provided at such Stations/Platforms.

Railways have also planned to provide facility of inter platform transfer and engraving on edges of platforms. Inter platform transfer facility has been planned by way of connecting all the platforms at the stations through Foot Over Bridge subway with ramps or by providing lift at each platform to connect Foot Over Bridge subway. A work for provision of 50 escalator/lifts has been sanctioned for major stations of all zonal railways.

Indian Railways also have about 1600 passenger coaches which have a separate compartment specially designed for wheel chair borne passengers. These compartments have facilities like wider entrance door, wider aisle and knee space to permit easy movement of wheel chair, toilets adapted to need of such passengers, arrangements for securing wheel chair during the journey etc.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Ministry of Railways, Shri K. H. Muniyappa in a written reply in Lok Sabha today. (pib)

REVISED TATKAL SCHEME

PIB, Lok Sabha , 30July:As per the announcement made in the Railway Budget 2009-10, Advance Reservation Period (ARP) for Tatkal Scheme has already been revised from 5 days to 2 days for journeys commencing from August 1, 2009. Action has also been initiated to make this scheme available destination-wise and for levying of revised minimum Tatkal charges. All accommodation including general and Tatkal accommodation is meant for general passengers with the only difference of Advance Reservation Period. Creation of additional reserved accommodation is a continuous process for which Railways run new trains, augment the load of existing trains, run special trains, etc. This information was given by the Minister of State for Ministry of Railways, Shri K. H. Muniyappa in a written reply in Lok Sabha today. (pib)