VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, IDarjeeling, Nov. 5: A nondescript valley will soon have an engineering college, the first of its kind in the hills that promises to change the face of the largely tea-based economy of the place.
Calcutta-based Global Indian Educational Trust will set up the private college at Takdah, 35km from here, at a cost of Rs 22 crore.
N. Shah, chairman of the trust, said 12 acres of land had been purchased from local people. “We will apply for to the government for some land on lease,” he said. The college will require around 21 acres and the trust hopes that the government would offer the vacant plot of the sericulture department adjacent to the site that has been already bought.
“We plan to start construction immediately and the college should be ready by July 2010,” Shah told The Telegraph. Apart from engineering courses, the authorities are also planning to start courses in pharmacy and hotel management.
Asked about the choice of location, Shah said: “Students definitely need a peaceful ambience and we always believe that even though there are a number of reputed schools in the hills, higher education is still neglected.” The residential college hopes to attract students from across neighbouring areas including the northeastern states and Nepal.
The trust is planning to name the college either Darjeeling Institute of Technology or Takdah Institute of Technology. “We have not yet finalised the name,” said Shah.
Initially, the college will have a capacity to admit 500 students but the authorities are hopeful that at least 1,000 students can graduate annually after four years.
Asked if the required permissions had been sought, Shah said: “To start a college we have to be a registered trust, which we are. Once the structure comes up, we need to apply to the West Bengal University of Technology (for affiliation), which we will definitely do.”
Narbu G. Lama, the convener of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Teesta Valley constituency, said party president Bimal Gurung would lay the foundation stone of the college on November 7.
Various student unions have been agitating for greater opportunities of higher education in the hills. The demands range from setting up of a central university to the opening of medical and engineering colleges.
When GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh was the chairman of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, he had talked about a medical college in Darjeeling at the old Sadar Hospital site and an engineering college at Deolo in Kalimpong. However, none of the plans materialised.
The trust claimed that although it was their first venture in north Bengal, they are already running the Global Institute of Engineering and Management near the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Calcutta that offers courses in aviation, IT, engineering and business management.
Tiff over sari claims 7-yr-old
TT,Gangtok, Nov. 5: An argument between two women over a sari has allegedly claimed a seven-year-old boy. The bludgeoned body of Arpit Sharma was recovered from a Sikkim jungle today.
Arpit had gone missing from Rangpo Junior High School on Monday. He used to live with his grandparents in Rangpo’s Lower Bazar, while his parents were in Bihar. Police said the family was engaged in the carpentry and masonry.
Investigations revealed that the school authorities had told Arpit’s grandparents that a woman posing as his mother had taken away the boy from the institution to the Singtam hospital around 10.30am on Monday on the pretext of visiting a doctor.
The next day the boy’s guardians filed a missing person’s diary.
Asked whether the family suspected anyone, Arpit’s aunt told the police an incident involving a neighbour, Bina Devi Sharma, 24, whom the boy had seen stealing a sari from their home.
“The boy’s aunt embroiders saris and one such item strung out in the balcony of the house was stolen during Diwali. Arpit had seen Bina Devi wearing the sari a few days later. This led to an argument between the boy’s aunt and the accused woman,” an officer of the Rangpo police station said.
The investigations zeroed in on Bina Devi as a prime suspect and she was interrogated today by the Rangpo police. “Even though she did not admit the crime initially, she gave us some clues that led us to search the Sawney jungle (near Singtam, about 35km from here) and we found the bludgeoned body,” the officer said. “The woman later confessed the crime saying that she had kidnapped and killed the boy to take revenge.”
The police also recovered the school shirt and the bag of the boy near a stream.The body was handed over to the boy’s guardians after a post-mortem.
Accused Bina with Police Pic: Voice of Sikkim
Tiff over sari claims 7-yr-old
TT,Gangtok, Nov. 5: An argument between two women over a sari has allegedly claimed a seven-year-old boy. The bludgeoned body of Arpit Sharma was recovered from a Sikkim jungle today.
Arpit had gone missing from Rangpo Junior High School on Monday. He used to live with his grandparents in Rangpo’s Lower Bazar, while his parents were in Bihar. Police said the family was engaged in the carpentry and masonry.
Investigations revealed that the school authorities had told Arpit’s grandparents that a woman posing as his mother had taken away the boy from the institution to the Singtam hospital around 10.30am on Monday on the pretext of visiting a doctor.
The next day the boy’s guardians filed a missing person’s diary.
Asked whether the family suspected anyone, Arpit’s aunt told the police an incident involving a neighbour, Bina Devi Sharma, 24, whom the boy had seen stealing a sari from their home.
“The boy’s aunt embroiders saris and one such item strung out in the balcony of the house was stolen during Diwali. Arpit had seen Bina Devi wearing the sari a few days later. This led to an argument between the boy’s aunt and the accused woman,” an officer of the Rangpo police station said.
The investigations zeroed in on Bina Devi as a prime suspect and she was interrogated today by the Rangpo police. “Even though she did not admit the crime initially, she gave us some clues that led us to search the Sawney jungle (near Singtam, about 35km from here) and we found the bludgeoned body,” the officer said. “The woman later confessed the crime saying that she had kidnapped and killed the boy to take revenge.”
The police also recovered the school shirt and the bag of the boy near a stream.The body was handed over to the boy’s guardians after a post-mortem.
Accused Bina with Police Pic: Voice of Sikkim
Denied mobile phone by dad, boy kills self
TT, Malda, Nov. 5: A 13-year-old boy in a Malda village took his own life for not getting a cellphone that his father had promised him. Gopal Sarkar, a Class VII student of Dalna High School, committed suicide by hanging from a wooden beam of his house at Dalna, about 35km from here, yesterday evening.
Gopal had been asking for a handset after some of his classmates had been gifted mobile phones by their parents. The boy’s father, Kamal Sarkar, is a middle-class farmer and on Tuesday, he had promised to buy a handset for his son the next day. “We have come to know that the father had said he would buy one for him on Wednesday and when he returned home empty-handed, the boy hanged himself,” an investigating officer said.
Police sources said Gopal was the eldest of three brothers and a sister. The boy refused to go to school yesterday after his father had told him that he would not be able to buy him the handset.
Malda police superintendent Bhuban Mondol said the Habibpur police were treating the case as suicide and the body had been sent for post-mortem. “It is very unfortunate that such a young boy could end his life for a mobile phone,” said Mondol.
Kamal told the police that his son had been pestering him for a handset in the past week, saying his friends were flaunting their cellphones at the school.
“I had told him to wait as I had some more paddy to sell. Gopal had said he wanted a Chinese handset that was cheap and he would not make calls, but only listen to radio. However, he could not wait for a little while longer and killed himself,” the father told the Habibpur police.
Swapan Roy, a psychiatrist here, said one could not blame parents for such incidents. “Immature minds are easily swayed by the need of things others proudly display and develop an obsession for them. With exposure to television and advertisements, young children are easily lured to coveting such things. When such a young person commits suicide, he does not think of the consequences at all,” Roy said.
He added that schools should not permit mobile phones and wondered why some institutions still allowed their use on campus.
Clash in Kalchini
TT, Alipurduar, Nov. 5: People suspected to be owing allegiance to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and Congress supporters clashed while canvassing for votes for the Kalchini by-election last night, breaking the otherwise peaceful campaigning in the four seats which go to polls in north Bengal on Saturday.
Around 7.30pm, Morcha supporters were campaigning for Wilson Champromary, the Independent the party supports, when they were allegedly attacked by Congress members. The incident took place behind the residence of Mohan Sharma, the Kalchini block president of the Congress.
Police said the two sides had gone at each other with fists and lathis and several motorbikes belonging to the Congress supporters were damaged. Since the clash took place close to the Kalchini police station, the situation did not turn ugly as the police intervened soon.
The Congress and the RSP, too, have fielded candidates in Kalchini.
TT, Malda, Nov. 5: A 13-year-old boy in a Malda village took his own life for not getting a cellphone that his father had promised him. Gopal Sarkar, a Class VII student of Dalna High School, committed suicide by hanging from a wooden beam of his house at Dalna, about 35km from here, yesterday evening.
Gopal had been asking for a handset after some of his classmates had been gifted mobile phones by their parents. The boy’s father, Kamal Sarkar, is a middle-class farmer and on Tuesday, he had promised to buy a handset for his son the next day. “We have come to know that the father had said he would buy one for him on Wednesday and when he returned home empty-handed, the boy hanged himself,” an investigating officer said.
Police sources said Gopal was the eldest of three brothers and a sister. The boy refused to go to school yesterday after his father had told him that he would not be able to buy him the handset.
Malda police superintendent Bhuban Mondol said the Habibpur police were treating the case as suicide and the body had been sent for post-mortem. “It is very unfortunate that such a young boy could end his life for a mobile phone,” said Mondol.
Kamal told the police that his son had been pestering him for a handset in the past week, saying his friends were flaunting their cellphones at the school.
“I had told him to wait as I had some more paddy to sell. Gopal had said he wanted a Chinese handset that was cheap and he would not make calls, but only listen to radio. However, he could not wait for a little while longer and killed himself,” the father told the Habibpur police.
Swapan Roy, a psychiatrist here, said one could not blame parents for such incidents. “Immature minds are easily swayed by the need of things others proudly display and develop an obsession for them. With exposure to television and advertisements, young children are easily lured to coveting such things. When such a young person commits suicide, he does not think of the consequences at all,” Roy said.
He added that schools should not permit mobile phones and wondered why some institutions still allowed their use on campus.
Clash in Kalchini
TT, Alipurduar, Nov. 5: People suspected to be owing allegiance to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and Congress supporters clashed while canvassing for votes for the Kalchini by-election last night, breaking the otherwise peaceful campaigning in the four seats which go to polls in north Bengal on Saturday.
Around 7.30pm, Morcha supporters were campaigning for Wilson Champromary, the Independent the party supports, when they were allegedly attacked by Congress members. The incident took place behind the residence of Mohan Sharma, the Kalchini block president of the Congress.
Police said the two sides had gone at each other with fists and lathis and several motorbikes belonging to the Congress supporters were damaged. Since the clash took place close to the Kalchini police station, the situation did not turn ugly as the police intervened soon.
The Congress and the RSP, too, have fielded candidates in Kalchini.
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