Dissolved board at work, DM says illegal - Civic chairman issues ‘invalid’ certificates | ||||
TT, Darjeeling, Aug. 3: The board of councillors of the Darjeeling Municipality today discharged its “daily functions” with the chairman of the dissolved body Pemba Tshering Ola signing cheques and disbursing monthly salaries in a move that has been termed “illegal” by the district administration. With the government failing to hold elections to the three hill municipalities of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong last month, the state had formed four-member committees headed by the subdivisional officers (SDO) to run the civic bodies. The other members in the committee are the former chairpersons, vice-chairpersons and representatives from the directorate of the local bodies. The SDO was made the sole signing authority for each of the municipalities. The Morcha, which has linked the civic elections to the implementation of a three-tier panchayat system (the hills only have a single tier system which has been in limbo since 2005), has rejected the government’s arrangement. Instead, it had announced that the present board of councillors — all of whom are members of the Morcha — would continue to “discharge their functions”. The five-year tenure of the civic boards had expired on July 14. Around 11.30am, Ola came to his office. He signed applications for residence certificates and leafed over service books of civic employees signing the documents wherever needed. Later in the afternoon, he also signed the monthly salary statement and the cheques. The cheques bearing the signature of the chairman was honoured by the State Bank of India branch here. The salary was disbursed late in the evening. The exact amount withdrawn is unknown as B.B. Maiti, chief manager of the SBI, said he was not authorised to speak to the media. It was, however, learnt that Ola’s signature was honoured as the bank had not received any instructions to the contrary. According to Ola, the monthly salary of the 538 permanent workers of the municipality came to around Rs 69 lakh. The wages of the day labourers amounted to Rs 3.46 lakh while Rs 14 lakh is disbursed as pension every month. Darjeeling district magistrate Surendra Gupta said: “There is no doubt that all these activities are illegal. The subdivisional officer is the head of the committee and the signing authority.” Asked if the banks were informed that cheques signed by the former chairman or vice-chairman should no longer be honoured, Gupta said the subdivisional officer might have issued the letters to that effect. Bharat Biswas, subdivisional officer of Darjeeling, however, denied having any knowledge of the day’s developments. According to Gupta, all residence certificates issued by Ola today will be considered illegal. Ola, on his part, insisted that the government had not defined the roles of the members of the present body and hence his signatures, as far as residence certificates were concerned, were not invalid. “If the members are unaware of their duties, they should write to us and get the doubts clarified,” said Gupta. TT, Darjeeling, Aug. 3: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has said it will “deploy” Gorkhaland Personnel along the Bengal-Sikkim border from tomorrow to curb illegal flow of liquor and timber between the two states. Morcha president Bimal Gurung said at a news conference here this evening: “During the 1986 Gorkhaland agitation, the forest around Goke (about 30km from Darjeeling) was completely destroyed as timber was smuggled to Sikkim. Even today, timber worth Rs 2 lakh is transported illegally to the neighbouring state daily and we, along with the forest officers, will stop such activities. “Illegal liquor of around Rs 50 lakh to Rs 60 lakh is also smuggled into the Gorkhaland area from Sikkim everyday. We will deploy the GLP at various points like Rangpo, Melli, Reshi, Singla and Munsong, all along the border area, to stop this inflow.” The GLP is a special cell of volunteers raised by the Morcha. Each member gets a monthly salary of around Rs 1,500. Rahul Srivastava, the superintendent of police of Darjeeling, could not be contacted for his comment on the GLP’s role. The Morcha decision to use the GLP to curb “illegal activities” on the national highway seems to have been sparked by an incident in which a driver of the Sikkim Nationalised Transport had filed an FIR at Rangpo alleging that he had been beaten up by them. The FIR was filed on July 29. The GLP has been patrolling the highway, the only road link to Sikkim, since the Morcha called a strike from July 13. The practice has continued since then and the GLP has claimed that it had confiscated drugs from vehicles plying to Sikkim. “However, after the incident in which some GLP members allegedly beat up the SNT staff, certain people are trying to sour the relation between the people of Sikkim and Darjeeling. Even K.L. Tamta (the inspector general of north Bengal) is trying to stop us but we will not tolerate illegal activities and will continue to oppose them,” said Gurung. The Rangpo incident had prompted the Morcha to carry out its own investigation. Colonel (retd) Ramesh Allay, head of the GLP, said after the “inquiry”, the driver was found to be at fault. “Our personnel had intercepted the vehicle as the driver was found in an intoxicated state. He also had some ganja in his possession and we have proof of it in the confiscated items,” said Allay. “Moreover, the driver told the GLP that his name was Santosh Pradhan but when our people called up the assistant transport officer in Gangtok, we found that he was one Aitaraj Pradhan. We did not hand him over to police but informed the SNT officials about the incident. Later, he levelled the allegations that the GLP had beaten him up,” claimed Allay. Tribals assault headmaster SNS, JALPAIGURI, 3 AUG: Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad supporters today assaulted the headmaster of the Hashimara High School, confined him and ransacked the school office alleging misappropriation of funds by the headmaster.
Around 200 ABAVP supporters reached the school at about 2 p.m. and gheraoed the headmaster Mr Samiran Sikdar and halted classes. They, however, allowed the other teachers to leave the school.
According to the ABAVP Jaigaon-Hashimara regional committee secretary Mr Raju Bara, the headmaster is involved is several scams.
“Mr Sikdar has misappropriated the school development fund, students’ book grant fund etc. It is a co-educational residential school but the headmaster is partial in providing hostel facility to the students. He does not follow the state government norms regarding admission procedure and charged Rs 300 instead of Rs 65 from each student for admission this year,” Mr Bara alleged.
The leader added that the headmaster also ignored the school management. “According to the state government norms, if three students of one family wish to study in one school, the family does not have to pay fees for the third child but Mr Sikdar ignored the instruction and charged money,” Mr Bara alleged.
“The headmaster was in the habit of threatening to close the school whenever we approached him to discuss the above-mentioned allegations. We would not withdraw our gherao programme till the school management meets us for a discussion. We demand the inclusion of some AVABP members in the school management committee,” the leader asserted. Mr Sikdar denied all the allegations against him and said that he ran the school according to the instruction of the school management committee.
The school management committee has decided to meet the ABAVP leadership to discuss the allegations and demands. TT, Alipurduar Aug 3: Three women died of malignant malaria at the Alipurduar subdivisional hospital on Monday. They are Swastika Koel, 19, a resident of Kokrajhar in Assam, Durga Thapa, 20, of Kumargram and Sumitra Oraon, 36, of Latabari in Kalchini. The superintendent of the hospital, H. Ari, said all the three were admitted after their condition had deteriorated. Sikkim to have B Ed college SNS, GANGTOK, 3 AUG.: To improve the quality of teaching in Sikkim, the state human development department (HRDD) has decided to set up a B Ed college at Soreng in the West district. The state government had constructed the complex for a science college.
Speaking on the matter, the joint director, higher education, HRDD Mr KN Subudhi said that the institute would train teachers, which would subsequently improve the quality of education in the state. Earlier the HRDD was compelled to recruit untrained teachers due to the lack of a government B Ed college in the state. Currently two private B Ed colleges are operational in the state. The move is being viewed as a positive one of the state government to make teachers’ education more accessible and affordable.
It is also informed that the college would be affiliated to the Sikkim Central University and duly recognized by the National Council of Teachers’ Education (NCTE). Mr. Subudhi further informed that NCTE officials would soon verify the infrastructure and manpower of the upcoming college and then allot recognition. The college would have an annual intake of 100 students (50 in each batch) and seats would be reserved for in-service teachers without B. Ed degree.
Last week, the state cabinet had resolved to set up B Ed and teachers’ training colleges to improve teaching in the state.
Following this, the cabinet made it essential for teachers to have either teachers’ training or B. Ed for recruitment in government schools in the state. First SWINE FLUE DEATH IE,New Delhi, 3 Aug:India registered its first swine flu death with a 14-year-old girl in Pune succumbing to the disease. The Pune student started showing symptoms of sore throat, running nose, headache on July 21 after which she consulted a doctor. The symptoms improved, following which she started attending her school. She developed fever again on July 25 for which she consulted another private medical practitioner but her fever continued and she was admitted to a private nursing home on July 27. As the patient's condition worsened, she was shifted to ICU and was put on ventilator on July 29 and she tested positive for swine flu on July 30. Despite being on Oseltamivir, an anti-swine flu drug, her condition deteriorated leading multi-organ failure and she expired this evening, a senior health ministry official said. |
There is no legal provision to allow their entry as they had come with documents showing them as refugee, Chhetra Bahadur Bhandari of the immigration office told Kantipur daily.
Gazmer and his spouse had landed at TIA, Kathmandu Saturday afternoon by a flight of Silk Air.
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Onlinekhabar, १४ साउन, अमेरिका । अमेरिकामा रोजगारका लागी पुनःस्थापना भएर पुगेका एक भुटानी शरणार्थी युवाको सोमबार हत्या भएको छ ।
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मृतक अधिकारी पाँच महिनाअघि बाबु आमासँगै अमेरिका गएका थिए ।
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