Salary hike for DGHC workers - Finance dept approached to lift job embargo as indefinite fast enters 2nd day Darjeeling District Hospital: Facing the heat of hunger strike VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, Darjeeling, Sept. 15: The government has decided to increase the salaries of the 8,000-odd contractual workers of the DGHC on the second day of their indefinite hunger strike. At the same time, the state hill affairs department has written to its finance counterpart to lift the embargo on recruitment of Group D employees, a move that had aimed to appease the protesters. The developments have, however, failed to bring cheers to members of the Janmukti Astai Karmachari Sangatan, an affiliate of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. Around 6,500 members of the JAKS began the hunger strike from yesterday demanding job regularisation. The hunger strike has also crippled the services offered by the 308-bedded Darjeeling District Hospital as 71 of its workers joined the agitation. B.L. Meena, the administrator of the DGHC who is co-coordinating with the state government, said: “The chief minister today approved the enhancement of salaries of the contractual workers but the hiked amount will be known only tomorrow.” Sources said the DGHC has proposed 100 per cent hike in the salaries ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000. The workers’ body had earlier demanded that the hike should make their salaries at par with the state government employees. Meena said the hill affairs department, which looks after the DGHC, had moved a file to the state finance department requesting it to lift the embargo on recruitment of Group D staff. “There was an embargo on recruitment of Group D and this had delayed the process of regularisation,” Meena added. However, the government’s assurance seems to have come a “bit too late” as it had agreed to start the job regularisation process within three months of a meeting between JAKS members and additional chief secretary Ardhendu Sen in Calcutta on June 9. Citing this breach of promise, the JAKS said it would not withdraw the hunger strike unless the regularisation process starts. “We have not heard anything but even if the government has decided to enhance the salaries, it has acted a bit too late,” said Deepak Sharma, spokesperson, JAKS. Sharma also described the move for lifting the embargo on recruitment merely an eyewash. “The embargo is only for fresh recruitment in Group D category. We have been working in the DGHC for the past 21 years and hence the embargo should not be applicable to us,” he said. On the problems being faced by the district hospital, Ranajit Ghosh, the superintendent, said: “Supplying water from our hospital tanks is becoming tough as the plumbers have also joined the strike. I did manage to get a private plumber but things are not yet smooth as the new plumber is not aware of the different pipelines.” A short-staffed hospital has already started cancelling pre-scheduled operations and is only taking care of emergency cases. “Two technicians are looking after the blood bank and they are being forced to work for 24 hours. There are no technicians at the ECG unit and the physician himself is doing the ECG during emergency,” Ghosh said. With almost one-third of the total hospital workers on strike, the permanent employees are also being stressed out. “For how long can they carry one?” said a doctor. The hospital has a shortfall of 11 doctors. Surendra Gupta, the district magistrate of Darjeeling, admitted that there could be problems. “Although we have alerted the hospital and formed medical teams, the sheer number of people sitting on a hunger strike could pose a lot of problems,” he said. Hunger strike triggers water woes in hills TT, Kalimpong, Sept. 15: Residents of the hill town will have to do without water for what looks like an extended period — thanks to the ongoing indefinite hunger strike of the DGHC’s contractual employees. About 50 employees of the DGHC’s public health engineering (PHE) department, which supplies water to the Kalimpong Municipality area, are part of the 1,500 members of the Janmukti Asthai Karmachari Sangatan, who are on hunger strike demanding regularisation of jobs. The Sangatan is affiliated to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. Anil Chhetri, the executive engineer of the PHE department here, said the department was unable to supply water to the residents because of the strike. “Only the subdivisional hospital is being supplied with water as a special case.” Asked why alternative arrangements were not being thought of to ensure supply to the residents, Chhetri said the agitating employees would not allow the department to work on those lines in the present situation. “We have very few regular staff. Most of the staff engaged in the supply like plumbers, welders and supervisors are on strike.” With things not looking impressive, the hill residents are being forced to make their own arrangements. A container of 1,000 litres of water costs between Rs 150-300 in the market, depending on the distance between the source and the place of residence. “I will have to shell out Rs 200 on alternate days to meet my needs,” said a resident of B.L. Dixit Road. The water woes come at a time when the residents have been complaining about the quality of water they have been getting for the past one week. “I couldn’t even think of drinking the water even after boiling it,” said Rita Rai, a housewife, pointing finger at muddy water. The PHE engineer admitted that the quality of water had been affected by a number of reasons, including snapping of pipelines at many places because of the recent landslides, heavy deposit of silt in the reservoirs and overloaded filter. “Intake structures at Neora, Relli and Thukchuk have also suffered heavy damage,” he said. Chhetri said the muddy water was the result of makeshift repairs of the pipelines. Efforts were, however, on to completely restore the snapped lines and clean up the reservoirs as well. “We have issued a work order for the clean-up. It will take time though because it will first have to be done on a trial basis,” he added. Numbers matter in race for mayor post ‘Spit’ teacher holds key to top slot

Ranjan Sil Sharma on Tuesday. (Kundan Yolmo) TT, Sept. 15: Siliguri in pocket, partners Congress and Trinamul Congress have both staked claim to the mayor’s post. However, the man who may be holding the key to deciding which party will get the top slot is the teacher infamous for spitting in the face of an education official. Ranjan Sil Sharma, a sitting Trinamul councillor, has retained Ward 36 as an Independent. The party had denied him a ticket, ostensibly because of the furore over the spitting incident in June. But it also had not put up a candidate against him, virtually ensuring his victory. Sil Sharma, though, is said to be peeved about the snub and has decided to support the Congress. “I received tremendous support from Congress leaders during my campaign and I will join that party,” he said today. If he indeed joins the Congress, it will have 16 councillors in its kitty, two more than Trinamul. But if Trinamul manages to woo him back, both parties would be locked at 15. In Calcutta, state Congress working president Subrata Mukherjee argued that numbers mattered. “Since the Congress has won 15 seats, we are going to claim the mayor’s chair. We have already informed Pranab Mukherjee, our state president, about this and we will soon choose our candidate,” said Mukherjee, who was part of the Congress’s campaign caravan in Siliguri. Partha Chatterjee, the Trinamul leader of the Assembly, asserted that the decision on who should get the post was not a foregone conclusion. The final say rests with Mamata Banerjee, he suggested. “Mamata Banerjee (Trinamul chief) will decide who the next Siliguri mayor will be,” Chatterjee said. Gangotri Dutta, a Congress favourite. Picture by Kundan Yolmo Two names were doing the rounds in Congress circles for the mayor’s job: Nantu Pal, the once-influential CPM councillor who had left the party ahead of the 2006 Assembly polls to join the Congress, and Gangotri Dutta, a senior leader and advocate. A section of the Congress feels Pal may not be the ideal candidate because of his CPM background. His change of loyalties had always been looked upon with suspicion by some Congress leaders. He had contested the Assembly elections on a Congress ticket against urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya and lost by over 74,000 votes. “We hope the leadership picks Gangotridi,” a Congress leader said. Fifty-eight-year-old Dutta is a first-time councillor and has served as the district president of the Mahila Congress from 1989 to 1991. She is a senior member of district lawyers’ cell of the party. Trinamul is likely to project its Darjeeling district president, Gautam Deb, as candidate for mayor. CPM gropes for answers CPM workers and supporters outside Siliguri College on Tuesday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo TT, Calcutta, Sept. 15: The Siliguri verdict has proved that the development plank can’t win elections, feels the CPM. Battered by “a wind of change” sweeping across Bengal since last year’s rural polls, CPM state secretary Biman Bose said: “It’s now clear that development can’t ensure everything (read poll victory). There was enough development in Siliguri.” “We need to know the details to explain why this (the Siliguri debacle) happened,’’ he added after a rally organised by the CPM’s student and youth wings in Calcutta. Bose, also the Left Front chairman, described the result as “unexpected” and said Opposition unity was “one of the factors” that opened to Mamata Banerjee the doors to north Bengal, considered her weak links until yesterday. The internal assessment of the Left and the CPM, likely to come up at the front meeting tomorrow and the party state committee meeting on Thursday, may rue “many local as well as state-level factors”. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who had been making subtle confessions recently — apparently to stave off anti-incumbency — by admitting his government’s “mistakes and misgivings”, was not present at the rally today. But neither Bose nor Nirupam Sen, the party politburo member and ideologue on industrialisation, today offered any self-critical appreciation of the sliding support while speaking at the youth forum. Instead, both trained their guns on the “terror of the Trinamul-Maoist combine, the Congress and the media”, not to mention the US. They complained of a “grand anti-communist conspiracy… abetted and aided by US imperialists”, which is out to unseat the Left in Bengal and wreck their opposition to “reforms based on Washington consensus” at the national level. To industries minister Sen, the demand for power at every home today instead of the cry for food like 50 years before signifies the development accomplished by the Left in its 32-year rule. But he blamed the “Opposition-media nexus” for confusing the voters. “There is no upper limit for development and people’s expectations. Now the misgivings on development are being used against us. The Opposition prevented us from setting up industry. Now it is being said that development would not be possible as long as Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is in Writers’ Buildings,” he said. “Some people always get confused by misinformation campaigns, but only for some time. We have to convince the people. There is no easy alternative. We have a hard and harsh road ahead,” he told party youths. Jaswant vows to fight for Gorkhaland A Morcha supporter offers akhada (silk scarf) to Jaswant Singh on his arrival at the Bagdogra airport. Picture by Kundan Yolmo TT Bagdogra, Sept. 15: Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh today said he would continue to strive for the creation of Gorkhaland, despite his expulsion from the BJP. “My plan to support the creation of Gorkhaland remains unaltered. It is a personal and political aim of mine to work for formation of the state and has nothing to do with my present status,” said Singh who is on a four-day visit to the hills. This is the MP’s first trip to Darjeeling after he was ousted from the BJP. Asked whether he can have the same confidence to work for the statehood as the BJP is not behind him, Singh said: “The BJP leaders support the demand for Gorkhaland and recently have made statements on the issue, reaffirming their stand. We feel as the BJP is still supporting the demand, it will definitely help in achieving Gorkhaland.” The Darjeeling MP, who was introduced in his book Jinnah: India-Partition Independence as “….Member of Parliament, in the Lok Sabha, having successfully contested the 2009 elections from the hill state of Darjeeling…” admitted that reference to the “hill state of Darjeeling” was a “publishing error”. It was The Telegraph that had first pointed out the discrepancy. “I came to know of this publishing error. The concerned publisher has accordingly rectified the errors in the next editions,” the MP said. Singh, who is likely to travel to the three subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong during his stay in the hills, said he was hunting for a house. “I have seen a number of houses in the hills but the prices were high and do not suit my pockets,” he said in a lighter vein before heading for the hills with his wife, grandnephew and associate Capt Bhawani Singh. “I will, however, definitely buy one house in the hills soon,” he added. On the nature of interaction with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the Darjeeling MP said: “This is one of my regular visits and I plan to return (to Delhi) on September 19. However, during the visit, it’s natural that discussion will be held with the Morcha leaders.” Asked on BJP president Rajnath Singh’s comments over Jinnah and himself in the wake of the book controversy, Singh underlined the need for maintaining democracy in the party. “He is the party president and can make such comments but there has to be democracy in the BJP because if you stop a person from expressing his opinion (writing a book), it affects a lot.”