Cry in party for House debate - Section of Morcha leaders wants BJP to move motion for state

TT, Darjeeling, Aug. 2: A section of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leadership wants the BJP to move a motion in favour of Gorkhaland in the Lok Sabha so that their demand is debated and the views of other political parties on statehood is revealed. With Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh raising the issue while speaking on the finance bill on July 24, some Morcha leaders believe that the momentum should not be lost. “It has been a good beginning. Not only Jaswant Singh but Sushma Swaraj and Rajiv Pratap Rudy also mentioned Gorkhaland in their speeches in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. We, however, believe that the BJP should soon follow it up with a motion,” said a central committee leader of the Morcha. The leader said the issue was being discussed within the Morcha, but a final decision had not yet been taken. “If a motion is moved and accepted by the chairperson, it will ensure a healthy debate. Unlike other questions that are raised during special mention of public importance, it is mandatory for the government to answer to a motion,” said the leader. According to the Morcha, if the BJP moves a motion in favour of Gorkhaland, it can be assumed that it is the party’s official stand on the demand. “A party usually uses its whip and directs all its members to support a particular motion in case of a division (in the House),” the leader added. Division is a parliamentary parlance for voting for or against a motion. “No MLAs from the hills could move a motion in the Assembly as at least one tenth of the total number of members must sign and submit the application for it,” the Morcha leader said. The Darjeeling hills only has three MLAs in the Assembly and they do not fulfil the one-tenth criteria. “But the BJP has the required numbers in the Lok Sabha,” he added. Binay Tamang, the assistant secretary of the Morcha, admitted that certain leaders were talking about the need to introduce the motion. “The party, however, has not yet decided whether to write an official letter to the BJP or not.” Councillors plan to stay TT, Darjeeling, Aug. 2: The boards of councillors of the hill municipalities whose terms expired last month have decided to carry on with their functions despite the government appointing a four-member committee to run them. “We will carry on with our functions till elections are held. We want a three-tier panchayat system for the polls to be held,” said P. T. Ola, chairman, Darjeeling Municipality. Candle rally demands arrest of SP SNS, KURSEONG, 2 AUG: Demanding the immediate arrest of the sub-inspector of Kurseong police station, hundreds of residents of Naya Bajar- Kurseong organized a candle rally today on the premises of Kurseong town at around 7.00 p.m. A daily wage labourer Barun Sharma (27), a resident of Naya Bajar, was shot dead by policemen at the victim's cousin sister's residence at Naya Bajar in Kurseong at around 9: 30 p.m. on 27 July night. Sub-inspector, Mr Tejendra Ghalay, is one of the prime accused in killing Barun Sharma. Four out of the five policemen on duty at the time have already been arrested by the Kurseong police, under section 302 and 34 of the IPC. Mr Tejendra Ghalay, the fifth, has not been arrested as yet. The arrested police constables have been identified as Mr Shanta Rai, Mr Dilip Chettri, Mr Saroj Chettri and Mr Bijay Pradhan. One resident of Naya Bajar, Mr Krishna Singh said: "Mr Ghalay is the prime accused and has not been arrested as yet, hence we will stage several protest programs until he is arrested." As per a senior police officer, the case has been forwarded to the CID and the police have been looking for Mr Ghalay everywhere and he will be arrested soon. Protesting against the incident, the residents of Naya Bajar had recently staged a road blockade at Kurseong Motar Stand for an hour and submitted deputations to the concerned authorities demanding that the present investigation agency be changed and that the absconding accused be immediately arrested. Garden to open after six years Back to work TT, Siliguri, Aug. 2: Raipur Tea Estate, which has been closed for the past six years, is set to reopen tomorrow. A tripartite agreement involving the government, trade union leaders and Amritpur Tea Co. Ltd was signed yesterday after the Debt Recovery Tribunal ordered the bank which had confiscated the keys and deeds of the garden to release them after its dues were paid. The estate on the outskirts of Jalpaiguri town and 50km from here was abandoned by the management of Amritpur Tea Co. Ltd in 2003 because of shortage of funds. In 2005, it had opened for a month, only to shut again. Aloke Chakraborty, the joint general secretary of the Intuc-affiliated National Union of Plantation Workers, said: “The management had borrowed money from the bank and since it could not repay it, the issue was pending before the Tribunal. The bank possessed the keys and deeds of the estate. We took up the matter with the management and started pursuing it.” The Intuc union then pressured the management to clear the Rs 10 lakh that it owned the bank, following which the keys were handed over to the management by an order of the tribunal on July 17. Yesterday at a meeting convened at the office of Rajat Pal, the deputy labour commissioner of Jalpaiguri, the tripartite agreement was signed. “According to the agreement, not a single permanent worker, out of the 640, can be retrenched. Apart from provident fund and gratuity, the management will pay 60 per cent of the total wages and ration that have accumulated so far in three annual instalments, starting from the Puja this year,” Chakraborty said. N.K. Basu, associated with the Indian Tea Planters’ Association who was present at yesterday’s meeting, said it was good that the initiatives had borne fruit. “The garden will reopen tomorrow and initially some token payments will be made to workers,” he said. Carron in trouble The management of Carron Tea Estate at Nagrakata block in Jalpaiguri has taken serious exception to the indefinite strike called by the Intuc-affiliated National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW) after some of their labour leaders were allegedly assaulted on Friday evening. P.K. Basu, the managing director of Basu Tea Pvt Ltd that owns Carron, said: “Whatever happened on Friday was a political clash and has nothing to do with the management. The NUPW, however, has called an indefinite strike, which is adding to our already existing losses. If such situations prevail, we would be forced to take drastic steps.” College gets Chamling’s name GANGTOK, 2 AUG.: The Sikkim chief minister Mr Pawan Chamling, who has been steering politically the mountainous tiny state for four consecutive terms, is now institutionalised as a new Sikkim college has been named “Dr Pawan Chamling Study and Research Centre” after him. It has the mission of ‘globalising the statesman’s thoughts’ and an interim committee has been formed in this regard. The international committee of the centre is to be headed by a Nepal-based journalist and writer, Mr Damber Kumar Giri. Other members of the committee would be nominated from all parts of the nation while the advisory committee would comprise distinguished personalities. “The centre would spread far and wide the cultural plurality of the Himalayan state and the epoch making thoughts that Mr Chamling embodies. The centre will highlight the historic initiatives tak-en by the chief minister in the fields of environment and green mission,” an official associated with the committee said. The centre would focus on inspiring the Nepali speaking diaspora spread over the world as regard to its cultural traditions. Rains cause landslide in JN Marg, places inaccessible SNS,GANGTOK, 2 AUG.: Torrential overnight rains triggering a mudslide along the Jawaharlal Nehru (JN) Marg stretch at 17th Mile near Kyongsala has rendered Nathula border, Changu lake and Baba Mandir inaccessible till further notice. The road leading to the above tourism spots is reported to have been completely washed near Mandakini Falls during the landslides, which occurred in the wee hours on Saturday. The landslide also claimed the life of a Border Roads Organisation (BRO) labourer working as a machine man. The incessant downpour and landslides have forced the tourists to call off tours to the eminent tourist spots like Changu, Nathula and Baba mandir. The locals have attributed the slide to the cutting of the JN Marg by the BRO on its road-widening project. “These have left most of the lands fragile and vulnerable to slides,” they alleged. “None of the vehicles plying to Tsogmo Lake and Baba Mandir will be allowed until the restoration process is over”, said the police officials, adding that the weather conditions might delay it further. Separate Examinations for Classes IX and X Kolkata, 2 August: West Bengal Board of Secondary Education has announced that from 2012 there will be separate examinations for Classes IX and X. Students appearing in Madhyamik Pariksha in 2012 will have to prepare only for the syllabus of Class X. They wll sit for the Class IX examination separately. Presently the Madhyamik Pariksha is held with questions comprising from syllabus of both the Classes IX and X.