Left loses third tier to rivals - Cong-Trinamul wins 13 of 22 Gram Panchayats

Congress supporters celebrate their victory at Naxalbari, around 30km from Siliguri, on Thursday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo The Telegraph: Siliguri, July 2: After breaking the CPM stranglehold on the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad, the Congress and the Trinamul Congress made inroads into the third tier, bagging five more gram panchayats than the Left Front. Of the 22 gram panchayats under the SMP, the Left Front, which was in power in 17, has retained only eight. The Opposition this time has grabbed 14 of them. The Congress- Trinamul Congress alliance has won in 13 panchayats, when earlier they held only five. The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad has bagged one. Among the four panchayat samitis of Matigara, Naxalbari, Kharibari and Phansidewa, the Left Front was in power in three samitis save Kharibari, which the Congress had bagged a year ago when a Forward Bloc member changed loyalty. This time, the Congress has won Naxalbari and Phansidewa. “We have more than doubled the number of our gram panchayat seats and we look forward to forming and running most of them with the Congress,” said Gautam Deb, the Darjeeling district Trinamul Congress president. The Adivasi Parishad, which has won the Hatighisa panchayat in the Terai, had backed Independents in four seats of the panchayat samitis in Phansidewa and Naxalbari. Both the samitis have slipped out of the hands of the Left Front. CPM leaders, however, are not yet ready to admit that all’s not well. “We have won by going it alone in eight gram panchayats while the Congress had to forge an alliance with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the Adivasi Parishad,” said Jibesh Sarkar, a state committee leader of the party. “But it is an unexpected result and we will definitely sit down to analyse it.” Shankar Malakar, the Darjeeling district Congress president, sounded pleased. “We have got not only three seats in the SMP but the two panchayat samitis also. The CPM has lost a large number of seats in all these four samitis and people throughout the subdivision have voted in our favour.” In Matigara panchayat samiti, the Left Front got eight of the 14 seats while the Congress bagged six. In Kharibari, the Left won six against the Congress’s five of the 11 seats. At Naxalbari, where there are 18 seats, the Congress got nine, Trinamul Congress three, Left Front three and Adivasi Parishad-backed Independents three. In Phansidewa, the Congress bagged 12 of the 21 seats, the CPM got eight and the Adivasi Parishad-backed Independent won one seat. Chattre, aides on hunger-strike Statesman News Service : JALPAIGURI, 2 JULY: The Gorkha Liberation Organisation chief and prime accused in the GNLF chief, Mr Subash Ghisingh, assassination attempt in 2001, Mr Chattre Subba and five co-accused launched a hunger strike for an indefinite period in Jalpaiguri jail today. The agitators were demanding immediate release from jail. Informing this, Mr Subba's lawyer in the case, Mr Akhill Biswas said: “Mr Subba and five others have been in Jalpaiguri jail for the past seven years but the judgement is yet to come. “The hearing of all the 76 witnesses along with several other judicial proceedings are also complete and the public prosecutor has completed his argument too. But when it was our turn to argue in defense, the case was transferred from the Jalpaiguri session court to an additional fast track third court for further argument and judgement. We do not know why the case was transferred as the session court had the complete authority to declare the judgement.” “Frustrated with the turn of events, Mr Subba and the five other co-accused launched a hunger strike in the jail today. The case would next be heard on 13 July,” the lawyer added. Stating that she was not aware of the hunger strike by Mr Subba and the five others, the Jalpaiguri district magistrate, Mrs Vandana Yadav said: “If they have launched the hunger strike, we will request them to withdraw it but we can not arrange their release as it is a judicial matter. We have nothing to do in this regard.” Councillor gets bail for leader assault Swapan Saha in court. (Biplab Basak) The Telegraph: Siliguri, July 2: A newly elected Trinamul Congress councillor of the Malbazar Municipality was arrested yesterday with five others for attacking his party leaders and those of the Congress. Swapan Saha, who won from Ward 1 and is among the three Trinamul winners in the civic body, was granted bail by the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Jalpaiguri today. Members of the Congress and Trinamul yesterday assaulted their leaders and ransacked a vehicle belonging to one of them after the Left Front won back the municipality in Jalpaiguri district after 10 years. They held the leaders responsible for failing to stitch up an alliance for the civic polls — one of the reasons, they felt, for the rout at a time when an anti-Left Front wind is sweeping Bengal. Saha and 10 others had been named in FIRs filed by Subhasish Ghosh, the block Trinamul president, and Pulin Goldar, a Congress leader. Although Ghosh had refused to admit yesterday that his party members had assaulted him, he had named Saha in the complaint. The car ransacked by the supporters belonged to Goldar. “We had arrested six persons, including Saha, while five others are yet to be picked up. They had been booked for assault, ransack and fighting,” said Nikita Foning, the subdivisional police officer of Malbazar. In court, there was an unexpected development with Goldar withdrawing his complaint. The court granted bail to all the six. The next day of hearing has been fixed for July 10. Ghosh, however, has made it clear that he has no intention of withdrawing the police complaint. “These are some members in our party who have joined politics for financial gains. They are not ready to follow any guidelines — even if it is laid down by Mamata Banerjee — if it affects their interests,” Ghosh alleged. “It is imperative that the party takes some decision to curb such incidents or else, it will embolden these people. About the charge that we had not fought as an alliance, we had only implemented the instructions of the state leaders,” the block Trinamul president said. “It is unfortunate that we lost the board only by one seat but that cannot be a justification for the attack.” Gautam Deb, the chairman of the Trinamul core committee for north Bengal who started for Calcutta today, said he would brief the state leaders on Malbazar. “We will definitely analyse the reasons for defeat, but it is up to the state leadership to decide on the punishment of the attackers.” Roadblock in lockout protest The Telegraph: Siliguri, July 2: Workers of a tea estate in the Terai today blocked NH31 at Bagdogra for two-and-a-half hours after a lockout was declared. The blockade, which left nearly 500 vehicles stranded, was lifted around 12.30pm following police intervention. The authorities of Singhiajhora Tea Estate, located near Bagdogra, declared the closure last night citing lawlessness and detention of the manager. “On Tuesday, some casual workers asked the manager to change the pro-rata system while paying them for plucking tealeaves,” said Bhaskar Chalia, the secretary of the Terai Branch of the Indian Tea Association. “Yesterday, around 100 of them did not report for duty and persuaded the permanent workers to join them.” The workers kept the manager confined to a veranda. “He was forced to give a written assurance to them and had to walk out of the estate.” Under the pro-rata system, casual workers have to pluck a minimum quantity of leaves. If one plucks more or less, he/she is paid extra or less wages. The garden has around 300 workers and produces nearly 2.50 lakh kg of tea a year. Trade union leaders have accused the garden of violating a tripartite agreement. “The management is sending casual workers to pluck in low yield areas. The workers had protested against this. But the authorities, instead of sitting with them, declared a lockout,” said Aloke Chakraborty, the Darjeeling district chief of the Intuc. Landslide hits NH The Telegraph: Siliguri, July 2: Traffic was disrupted for more than 30 hours at Sevoke on NH31 following a landslide yesterday morning. Boulders and mud brought down by the slide had covered a stretch of 100 metres near Coronation Bridge at Ganeshjhora, 30km from here. Those who had to travel to the Dooars and Northeast from Siliguri took a detour through Jalpaiguri. The road was reopened for traffic at 5.30pm. Reserved wards for SMC polls Statesman News Service SILIGURI, 2 JULY: With barely three months to go before the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) polls, the Darjeeling district election authorities have proposed to reserve 16 out of the 47 Wards in Siliguri for women candidates. The Darjeeling DM, and the district election officer, Mr Surendra Gupta, issued the draft notification, proposing the reservation of seats in the SMC, on 2 July. The notification suggests that 13 wards in Siliguri be reserved for women general category candidates, and another seven wards be set-aside for the scheduled caste (SC) category. The seven wards identified for reservation for the SC category are 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28 and 30. Of these, ward numbers 20, 22 and 28 will again be set-aside for the scheduled caste women. The 13 wards proposed to be reserved for the women general category are 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 19, 25, 31, 34, 37, 40, 43 and 47. The total number of wards reservations proposed in the 47-ward Siliguri civic body stands at 20 (13 women general, 3 women SC and 4 SC-all). These however, are only a draft proposals, and the political parties, and individuals, are free to put forward objections or suggestions within a stipulated time frame, which extends for roughly three weeks from now. “The reservation of seats will only be finalised after considering the objections and suggestions from the public, if there are any,” the DM Mr Gupta said. Sikkim declares 2010 as Tourism Year Press Trust of India Gangtok, 2 JULY: Having declared the year 2010 as the Year of Tourism, the Sikkim government has drawn up a plan incorporating as many as 13 local festivals in the list of popular events to be staged next year to woo tourists from across the country and abroad. Officials of the tourism department said that the celebration of the Year of Tourism will commence with the Sikkim Discover Festival to be held in March/April, next year and conclude with the State Flower Show to be held at the state capital in March, 2011. In April, next year, a number of cultural events will be held at Rabong, Aritar and Temi-Tarku to delight the visitors. Apart from this, an international Rhododendron festival will be held at Shingba Lachung in North Sikkim and Varsey in West Sikkim during the first three weeks of May 2010. Also Hee-Bermoik Cultural Heritage Festival will be held in West Sikkim, they said. The events on the occasion of the World Environment Day to be held on 5 June next year will be another attraction for the tourists, while in July the visitors may enjoy the monsoon and the plantation drive throughout the Himalayan state. The tourists will be encouraged to plant saplings at popular tourist destinations and participate in conferences and workshops to promote awareness for conservation of bio-diversity.