Illegal liquor seized, legally - Driver of jeep carrying driver carrying alcohol arrested

The jeep with the seized liquor bottles. (Suman Tamang)

TT, Darjeeling, Dec. 2: Police today seized more than 400 bottles of liquor and a vehicle that was illegally transporting them at a time when the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s Gorkhaland Personnel is engaged in curbing the inflow of alcohol to the hills.

The seizure is expected to send a message to the public that the police’s presence is intact even as the non-confrontation policy of the state government has virtually rendered the cops toothless in the hills. In the past, the GLP had displayed hundreds of bottles of seized illegal liquor much to the embarrassment of the state police. The government had at that time declared such seizures illegal as the GLP did not have the authority to conduct raids.  “I was conducting a naka check at Bokshi jhora (3km from town) around 1.15 this morning when we intercepted the jeep which was loaded with illegal liquor,” said I.J. Thapa, inspector in charge, Darjeeling Sadar police station.

The vehicle had a registration number, WB-76-2589. Roshan Gurung, the driver and a resident of Harijan Barrack at Dr Zakir Hussian Busty in Darjeeling, has been arrested and booked under Section 46 of the Bengal Excise Act. There was no other passenger in the jeep. “A total of 414 bottles of rum, brandy and gin have been confiscated,” said Thapa.

The seizure highlights the fact that despite the Morcha “ban” on the sale of liquor since November 7, bootlegging continues in the hills.

The police were trying to verify whether the liquor was spurious or not. “The label shows that the liquor was manufactured in Bhutan and Assam and were meant for defence cantonments (which is not correct),” said Thapa. Many of the seized bottles, which can hold up to 750ml, were shown as having only 150 ml of liquor.

Lt Col (retd) R. Allay, chief of the GLP, said: “It is really nice to hear that the police too have become active. It is after long that they have seized illegal liquor and we welcome it.”

Morcha president Bimal Gurung had “banned” sale of liquor in town from November 7 as part of a non-cooperation movement against the government. However, tourists are being allowed to carry bottles for their own consumption.

“We have also relaxed the ban to some extent. Bimal Gurung has directed us to allow people to bring liquor for weddings. Many also need it to conduct rituals. However, these are strictly monitored by the Morcha leaders who give permission after checking the wedding cards,” said Allay.

GNLF Strike Today

SNS, SILIGURI 2 DEC: Peeved at the administration’s denial to grant permission for a proposed convention at Panighatta in Kurseong sub-division, the GNLF-backed Gorkha Janjati Manyata Samaraho Samity is going ahead with its shutdown in the Terai belt from 6 am tomorrow.
As announced, the strike would continue for four days, i.e. till 6 December.
“We had served a ultimatum to the administration yesterday for granting us permission for the convention. But since there has been no response from the administration till this evening, we have decided to go ahead with the four-day long strike in the Terai belt. To make the shutdown a success, our supporters will come out on the streets from early morning tomorrow,” the Samity president and GNLF leader Mr Rajen Mukhia said, after holding an emergency organisational meeting at Panighatta this evening.
As per Mr Mukhia, other than the essential services and the tea estates, everything else would come under the purview of the bandh. “But if the administration does not relent, we might also include the tea estates in the strike from the second or third day,” he said.
The strike is likely to affect the localities such as Panighatta, Nepania, Belgachi, Ord, Lohagarh, Kadma More etc, which are located in and around Bagdogra and Naxalbari. Traffic on the Bagdogra-Naxalbari road that connects to Nepal at Panitanki, is also likely to bear the burnt, as the bandh organisers plan several pickets along the arterial route.
Contacted over the issue, the ASP Darjeeling (HQ) Mr Akhilesh Chaturvedi said that the police were ready to tackle any untoward incident that might emanate during the bandh.
“The local police are already on alert and we would deploy additional forces, if required,” the ASP said.
The DM Darjeeling, who was in Kolkata this evening, said, it was not possible for the civil administration to grant permission for some event without the clearance of the local police.
“The SDO Kurseong has denied permission for the Panighatta convention due to the objection from the local police outpost,” the DM said, adding that the administration was fully prepared to handle any eventually. Branded as an ‘apolitical body’, the Gorkha Janjati Manyata Samaraho Samity was floated very recently to press for the Schedule Tribe status for all Darjeeling Gorkha's ~ a demand that the GNLF supremo Mr Subash Ghisingh first raised in 2008.
The Samity announced to hold a three-day long cultural convention at Panighatta from 4 to 6 December, which was being viewed as a GNLF ploy to make a come back in the Hills politics. Thus, apprehending a commotion with the rival GJMM, the Kurseong civil administration denied permission for the event.

TT, Darjeeling: The GNLF will start an indefinite bandh in Panighata and its surrounding areas from tomorrow to protest the district administration’s refusal of permit one of its frontal organisations to hold a three-day event.

Since morning, GNLF supporters will be on roads in Panighata and its suburbs, blocking traffic and requesting people to shut down shops, offices, educational institutions and other establishments, said Rajen Mukhia, a party leader. He is also the president of the Gorkha Janjati Manyata Samaroh Samiti, the organiser of the event.

Yesterday, Mukhia said they would resort to the strike from December 4, but changed the decision today. “We had planned a cultural programme and some discussions. It is sheer undemocratic on the administration’s part to refuse us permission,” Mukhia said.

ABAVP to set up units at Darjeeling tea estates

SNS, JALPAIGURI, 2 DEC: The Akhil Bhartiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad has decided to form units in four tea estates of Darjeeling district. According to the ABAVP Terai Committee secretary Mr Sushil Tirkey, they have targeted the Long View, Lohagarh, Shimulbari and Fagu tea estates for the purpose. “The four plantations have a sizeable adivasi population and they had expressed support for us,” Mr Tirkey said.
In addition, the AVABP is planning to expand base to Garubathan, largely inhabited by people of the Nepali / Gorkha community with political affiliation towards whoever holds the key to Darjeeling. “Registration of our trade union is almost complete and soon it would start functioning in different tea estates of the Darjeeling hills, Terai and the Dooars,” Mr Tirkey added.
The ABAVP Dooars-Terai Coordination Committee is likely to elect a new committee on 6 December. According to the ABAVAP DTCC president Mr John Barla, the committee would be renamed as the ‘Dooars-Terai Regional Unit.’ “The new unit would bring in its ambit North Dinajpur and Cooch Behar districts in north Bengal and the Kishanganj district of Bihar. We already some units in these places and those would be incorporated in the platform. We might extend our organization to Malda as well. The new committee would start functioning from 7 December,” Mr Barla said.

EMPTY CYLINDER SLUR ON HOSPITAL

TT, Darjeeling, Dec. 2: Relatives of a 38-year-old admitted to the Darjeeling district hospital this morning has alleged that the patient was put on an “empty” oxygen cylinder.

Rinzen Lama, a resident of Rajbari, was brought to the hospital about 7.30am with liver problem and was gasping for breath. “When we came to visit him at 8.15am, we found that the oxygen cylinder given to him was empty. This is gross negligence and we demand immediate action against the erring staff of the hospital,” said Yuraj Lama, Rinzen’s nephew.

Yuraj claimed that one of their acquaintances was an ambulance driver attached with the district hospital. “He told us how to check if a cylinder was empty or not. We realised that there were no bubbles in the water container which indicated that the cylinder is empty,” he said.

From the cylinder, a pipe leads to a half-filled water bottle before it supplies oxygen to the patient.

“We immediately informed the nurse who behaved rudely with us and directed us to the higher authorities. Later, a ward boy brought another cylinder from the next floor and administered it to my uncle,” said Yuraj. The nurses on duty, however, alleged that Rinzen’s relatives misbehaved with them, an allegation refuted by Yuraj.

The “empty” cylinder was brought to the office of the superintendent of the hospital Ranajit Ghosh who, however, did not immediately confirm whether the cylinder was empty or not.

“I have started an inquiry and action will be taken against those found guilty,” said Ghosh. There were enough oxygen cylinders at the hospital. An oxygen cylinder can be used for anything between 24 and 36 hours, said Ghosh.

Rinzen’s relatives had a heated argument with the nursing staff at Ghosh’s chamber alleging that many of the employees were not on duty.

The patient is still in the hospital and his condition is improving, sources said.

Chartered hill rail rides on rise

Schoolchildren walk on a toy train track at Salbari near Siliguri on Wednesday. (Kundan Yolmo)

TT, Siliguri, Dec. 2: The season of chartered rides is in full swing and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) is doing brisk business again.
Stakeholders say the heritage tag has been able to draw a good number of tourists to book rides despite problems like the absence of a director for the DHR and the volatile situation in the hills ahead of the fourth round of tripartite talks on the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s demands.

“Around 25 bookings for chartered rides till February have been confirmed. The bookings were made directly with the DHR or through travel agencies. We organised five rides for foreign groups just last week. It is a good figure but the post of the director who handles the bookings is lying vacant. Nevertheless, people are making enquiries,” said P.K. Bandhopadhyay, the Kurseong station manager and the nodal officer of the DHR.

Chartered ride, a major draw for foreign tourists, begins from mid-September and extends till April. Tourists from Europe and America fascinated by the idea of travelling in first class coaches drawn by century-old steam locomotives generally avail of the rides.

They have a choice of many routes — Siliguri-Tindharia (30km), Siliguri-Kurseong (50km), Kurseong-Darjeeling (30km), Tindharia-Siliguri (30km), Kurseong-Siliguri (50km) and Darjeeling-Kurseong (30km) — at Rs 20,000 per ride.

“We have received 30 requests from the US and the UK for chartered rides from January to April. Although the trips are yet to be confirmed, the enquiries suggest that the appeal of the DHR among foreign tourists is increasing,” said Rajen Baid, the director of Cinderella Tours and Travels and the president of the DHR India Support Group.

Some tour operators are apprehensive that the tripartite talks scheduled on December 21 in Darjeeling may disturb the ongoing season.

“We have around 10 chartered ride bookings after December 15. But the political situation in the hills is unpredictable as the tripartite talks are scheduled to take place on December 21. We cannot count on the present peace prevailing in the hills now. If a strike is called, reshuffling the dates of the rides or even refunding the payments of our clients entails a lot of problems,” said Sanjay Goswami, the director of KBS Tours and Travels, an agency that offers DHR ride packages.

Exports to China hit new peak- Nathu-la trade up

Traders from the Tibetan Autonomous Region at the Sherathang mart on Monday. Picture by Prabin Khaling

TT, Gangtok, Dec. 2: Landslides and inclement weather this monsoon did little to dampen trade with China through Nathu-la with Indian exports crossing the crore mark for the first time at the end of the fourth season of trading that ended on Monday.

According to data provided by the Sikkim commerce and industries department, the total exports from India this season stood at over Rs 1.35 crore, surpassing the Rs 95 lakh that was recorded in the last season.

With obsolete items making up the trade list of the Tibet Autonomous Region — it includes yak pelt, sheep wool, borax (a cleaner and disinfectant) and salt — the imports from TAR was dismal till last month when items worth Rs 2.95 lakh were sold to the Sikkimese buyers.

Senior officials of the commerce and industries department said the Indian exports comprised mainly canned food, textiles, utensils, vegetable oils, tea, dry fruit and spices. According to the agreement between the two countries, India can export 29 items, while traders from TAR can send only 15.

Customs officials at Nathu-la at 14,400ft said 3,737 Chinese buyers came over to the Sherathang trade mart on the Indian side, while 1,157 Indian businessmen crossed over to the Renquinggang trading post on the Chinese side.

“There was absolute goodwill between the two sides at the closing ceremony yesterday. However, the demand for revising the list of items that can be imported from China still remains a contentious issue,” said a senior government official present at the event. The Sikkim director for commerce and industries, Ujjwal Gurung, had hosted a lunch for the traders.

Sources in the Indo-China Traders’ Association said the traders from TAR had boycotted trade in May and June this year demanding that the list of items be revised.

S.K. Sarda, the president of the Sikkim Chamber of Commerce, welcomed the rise in the export volume. “It is a positive development, as the volume of trade picked up in the second half of the season. I have positive feedback from Delhi that a revised list of items for import has been approved and there should be some good news at the year-end,” Sarda said.

He also said traders from Sikkim would have an advantage over their counterparts from other states when the trade is opened to all. “The Indian government had allowed only traders from Sikkim to do commerce through Nathu-la for the first five years and the next season, starting in March 2010, will be the last,” Sarda added.

Soccer School Plan for Sukna

Thapa inspects a ground in Sukna on Wednesday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

TT, Siliguri, Dec. 2: Former football player and coach Shyam Thapa is planning to start a soccer academy at Sukna which will help promote young talent in the region.
“I went to attend a programme in Darjeeling in October where I discussed my plan with Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung. He immediately accepted the proposal and assured me of all support,” Thapa said at the Sukna Games and Sports Association, 9km from here.

The proposed residential academy, which is likely to become functional from March, will be able to accommodate 40 players. The players will be divided into two groups, aged between 15 and 17 years and 18 and 20 years, said Thapa. “Each group will comprise 20 players. I have plans to set up branches of the academy in Darjeeling, Mirik, Gorubathan, Pedong, Nagrakata and Birpara, which will function as non-residential coaching centres,” he added.

The former soccer star is from Dehradun and has played for East Bengal and Mohun Bagan Athletic Club. He has also represented Bengal at the national-level and played for the national team.

“When I joined the Tata Football Academy as a technical director, I realised that it is an established academy, where I can only share my experience with the players. But if I can start a similar academy here, then I can nurture more talents from the hills and the Dooars, who cannot prosper simply because of lack of exposure,” he said.

Thapa resigned from the Tata Football Academy in October.

“There was a time when 75 per cent of the players in the national team were from Bengal. But the scenario has changed. We hardly have any players from the state who plays at the national-level on a regular basis apart from Bhaichung Bhutia. Keeping this in mind, I have decided to set up the academy to coach young players,” he added.

The former player is looking for a suitable ground and place to accommodate the aspiring players. “I am preparing a project report which I will submit to Bimal Gurung. Initially Rs 1 crore will be required to run the academy. Later the cost will be reduced to about Rs 50 lakh a year,” he said.

Kidney stealer tag on cops helps thief slip

TT,Raiganj, Dec. 2: A youth who had allegedly decamped with Rs 25 lakh from the office of an construction company in Thane managed to slip away from a team of policemen in mufti today by inciting a crowd that was made to believe that he was being kidnapped by human organ traffickers.

An officer and a constable of the Maharashtra police and a cop from the local police camp accompanying them were injured as the crowd went after them with stones. The visiting policemen had to be admitted to the Raiganj district hospital.

According to North Dinajpur suptd of police Milon Das, sub-inspector A.S. Patil and constable Vilas Patel had arrived here from Thane yesterday evening.

“They said they were looking for a youth, aged about 25 years, in connection with a break-in that took place in the Kalyan area of Thane in October. They also said the accused was a resident of Vatol, which is about 20km from here, and his name was Sagar. We had sent them to the Vatol police camp where they spent the night,” Das said.

This morning, the visiting team, along with the in-charge of the Vatol camp — all of them in plainclothes — tried to track down Sagar but drew a blank.

“Sagar has records of minor thefts and the local police always kept tabs on him. They knew that he had been away working in Mumbai. They were also aware that he had returned from there recently,” Das said.

Back at the hospital, injured constable Vilas Patel said Vatol police camp in-charge W.B. Lama had accompanied them in their search for Sagar. All three policemen were getting their mobile phones charged at a shop in a marketplace in Tejpur, about 2km from Vatol, when Lama spotted Sagar. It was 2pm and the policemen had almost given up hope.

“As soon as we tried to take the youth to the police camp, he started shouting that we were kidnapping him for his kidneys and within moments a large crowd surrounded us. When Lama tried to convince the mob that we were policemen and the youth was a wanted felon, they did not listen to us and started pelting us with stones. They managed to snatch Sagar from us and he vanished. I and my sub-inspector were badly injured on the arms and chest,” said Patel, before being wheeled into the X-ray room in the evening.

He said the three of them somehow managed to escape from the 400-strong crowd that thinned once Sagar fled.

“I nearly drew my service revolver, such was the intensity of the attack,” a shaken Patel said. Sub-inspector A.S. Patil, who spoke little, described Sagar as just over five feet in height, slim, dark complexioned and with sharp features. The Maharashtra policemen had come armed with only Sagar’s description and name. “They didn’t have a photograph,” an officer from Raiganj said.

The district police chief said the inspector-in-charge of Raiganj police station, Sujit Ghosh, has been sent to the area with a large force. “We will not spare the attackers.” Later in the evening, Ghosh said all able-bodied men in Tejpur had fled from the area.

“Sagar seems to be a hardened criminal with a presence of mind. He could incite a mob by shouting that he was being kidnapped for kidneys. The Vatol area has a reputation of being a hotbed of organ trafficking and we had arrested Rezzak, one of the kingpins involved in the racket, from there last year,” Ghosh said.

When The Telegraph contacted the Bazarpeth police station in Kalyan, Thane, over the phone, officers there said they were yet to hear from the team that went to Raiganj. Inspector D.K. Sonar, who came to the line, said Sagar was the main accused in a break-in that took place in an office of a construction company in an apartment building on the night of October 27. “He worked as a night watchman. He had forced open strong steel almirahs in the company’s office and decamped with cash worth Rs 25.4 lakh. We are concerned about our men who were attacked and we are getting in touch with the Raiganj police,” Sonar said. He said inquiries with Sagar’s employers had revealed that he was from Vatol in North Dinajpur.

A doctor attending to the two policemen said A.S. Patil had fractured his arm while Vilas Patel was injured on the chest.

Rhino attacks forester

TT, Siliguri, Dec. 2: The rhino that left Gorumara National Park last month after losing a fight with another over a female rhino and reached Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary damaged a vehicle of the forest department near Mongpong this evening.

An officer of the wildlife squad of Malbazar searching the rhino to tranquillise and deport it to Gorumara suffered minor injuries in the sudden attack by the rhino. The animal was sighted briefly.