8-hour blockade - Plains groups intensify threat to remove picketers

Policemen stand guard in front of the blockade at Panchnoi on Wednesday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo TT, Darjeeling/Siliguri, Dec. 30: From January 2, the blockades on three national highways will extend to eight hours, the student wing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha announced today. While it will be for seven hours on New Year’s Day, the blockades will be in place for eight hours from the next day. However, for disbursement of salaries, the party will “relax its agitation” to enable all government offices in the Darjeeling hills to remain open till January 7. In the plains, the blockades have triggered possibility of flare-ups with anti-Morcha forces gearing up to remove the picketers forcefully from tomorrow. “We had given the state government 48 hours to remove these blockades, but nothing has changed so far. Tomorrow, we will march up to Panchnoi and Dagapur and our supporters will physically remove those blocking NH55,” said Mukunda Majumdar, the president of the Bangla O Bangla Bhasa Bachao Committee, in Siliguri today. He said a letter had already been sent to the Darjeeling district administration about the committee’s intent if the government failed to remove the blockades — on NH55, NH31 and NH31A — that have been there since Saturday. “We are aware that police might stop us from clearing the blockades. In that case, we will sit on the roads and burn effigies of Bimal Gurung and shout slogans and remain there until the Morcha blockades are lifted and relay hunger strikes are stopped by the administration. Inconveniencing people cannot go on,” Majumdar said. The district administration, however, stuck to its wait-and-watch policy. “We are monitoring the situation closely and briefing our superiors on a regular basis. We had tried for informal talks with the Morcha, but they are not willing,” said Darjeeling district magistrate Surendra Gupta. Today, traffic on the national highways to Darjeeling (NH55), Sikkim (NH31A) and the Northeast (NH31) was shut for five hours. According to sources in the Northeast Frontier Railway, two trains — the Alipurduar-bound Mahananda Express and the Capital Express bound for Kamakshya in Assam — ran late by about two hours because of squatting on the tracks at Sevoke. Till tomorrow, the highways will remain closed to traffic from 10am to 4pm. “On January 1, the blockade will start from 9am and will carry on till 4pm. On January 2, the roads will be closed for eight hours starting from 8am,” said Keshav Raj Pokhrel, the general secretary of the Vidyarthi Morcha. Asked about its programmes after January 2, Pokhrel said it would be announced at an “appropriate time”. Till date, traffic within the Kurseong and Darjeeling subdivisions had remained largely unaffected. “We will organise blockades in Kurseong from tomorrow,” said Pokhrel. But sources said blockades would also be set up at two spots in Darjeeling. Pokhrel refused to confirm the locations. The Morcha student wing, which has so far succeeded in bringing traffic bound for Bhutan to a halt, has decided to adopt a similar strategy on the route leading to Nepal from tomorrow. The Vidyarthi Morcha plans to set up a blockade 35km from Siliguri, at Panitanki, the gateway to Nepal through its border town Kakarvitta. The sources said the administrative officials were urging agitators to sit for a meeting to end the impasse. Admitting that the district officials had made such a request, Pokhrel said: “We did not start this agitation to sit for a meeting with the district officials. Unless the Centre intervenes, we will carry on with our programmes.” Even as the student wing continues to intensify its agitation, Morcha central committee member Amar Lama said in Darjeeling: “We have decided to keep all government offices open till January 7. We are relaxing our agitation from time to time and this is one instance.” The “relaxation” has been announced to facilitate the disbursement of salaries to government employees. In the past, the Morcha had adopted a similar stand during the month ends. All government offices except banks, post offices and LIC offices in the hills have been shut from Monday. Realtor clean chit to army on Sukna land - Controversy unnecessary as government had not wanted any NOC: Siliguri builder TT, Siliguri, Dec. 30: Siliguri realtor Dilip Agarwal today broke his silence on the Sukna land scam and tried to give a clean chit to the army, saying that since the plot did not belong to the army, “the question of an ‘army land scam’ does not arise”. Agarwal, who has been accused of “influencing” senior army officials to get a no-objection certificate to set up a school adjoining the army camp in Sukna, said today that the land on which the institution was to be set up “never belonged to the army”. So the controversy was “unnecessary”, he said in a press release. However, in no report of The Telegraph had it been said the land belonged to the army. What had been reported is that Agarwal influenced senior army officials to get the NOC, which is necessary for security reasons as the plot is located near an army cantonment close to the international border. Clarifying that there was “no room for any misunderstanding”, Agarwal said the land in question was leased out by the state government to four companies, including his, to promote tea tourism. However, as this would involve heavy flow of tourists, including those from abroad, the army had raised objections. It was after this that the four companies negotiated with the government to change the terms of the lease so the land could be used for educational purposes. Accordingly, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the army and the four companies. The new agreement mentioned that the land would be used for educational institutions. Agarwal claimed that all the terms and conditions of the agreement were in the “army’s favour”. This included employment of dependants of army personnel, employment of ex-servicemen, reservation and 50 per cent concession in fees for children of army men and inclusion of army personnel in the school’s security committee. “So where does the question of me doing any extra favour to or influencing army officials arise?” Agarwal said. “On pen and paper the agreement was weighed in favour of the army. It was to benefit the entire force.” Trying to clear the controversy over the issue of the NOC by the army, Agarwal claimed the fact was that no NOC was required. “Please note that the state government did not ask for any NOC from the army before leasing the land to us for tea tourism,” Agarwal said. “This, inter alia means that the NOC was not required for development of land near a military station.” He said that since the land belonged to the state government, its opinion should also have been sought in the matter. Agarwal, who is also the managing trustee of Geetanjali Educational Trust, which was supposed to set up the school in Sukna, refuted the charge that a senior position in the trust had been offered to an army official. “The trust does not have any army official on its board and nor did it make any such promise,” Agarwal said. He also wondered where the figure of Rs 295 crore as project cost had come from. “No financial transaction, even for a single penny, has taken place,” he said. “So where does this figure come from? With whom was this amount transacted?” DGHC workers upset over Gurung’s remarks on jobs SNS, KURSEONG, 30 DEC: The Jan Mukti Asthai Karmachari Sangathan leadership has expressed disappointment over of the GJMM president’s Mr Bimal Gurung’s recent statement where he claimed that the DGHC casual workers should plunge headlong in the Gorkhaland movement without worrying about the job regularisation process. Reacting to Mr Gurung’s statement, the Jan Mukti Asthai Karmachari Sangathan Kurseong branch, spokesperson, Mr Binanjay Gurung said that it was demoralising for the rank and file of the organisation.  “We are ready to make sacrifice for the paramount statehood cause. But does it imply that we would have to remain casual DGHC workers till the separate state is created?” he asked. He further said that the Gorkhaland and the DGHC regularization process should not be muddled together.  “One is the collective dream of the Gorkha community and the other the long standing demand of a section of the DGHC casual workers. We hope, the party leadership would take a sympathetic view of our grievances,” he added. Liquor seized in Hills Despite the ban imposed on the supply of liquors in the Hills, an initiative that was taken under the GJMM agitation against it, police today seized 75 cases of liquor worth Rs 2 lakh from the residence of Sudip Waiba (38), in Targaon-Ambootia tea estate and arrested him. Mr SG Wangdi, a police officer at Kurseong police station, said that under the Bengal Excise Act, a case has been filed against the accused and said that the accused was involved in the business of supplying liquors since a long time. Today police raided Waiba's house and seized 75 cases of liquors, believed to be imported from Bhutan. Notably, on the night of 13 December, the Kurseong police had also seized 16 cases of liquor worth Rs 40,000 at Montiviot road near Sudapatole in Kurseong.  Police had also seized a vehicle ~ Victa D-I Turbo ~ in which police believe the liquor had been transported to Darjeeling. Besides, on 2 December, the Darjeeling police had seized 414 bottles of liquor at Daali in Darjeeling. Student of the same school caught for stealing 82 thousand Kalimnews, 31 Dec:One Madhyamik Pariksha appearing School boy and two dropouts of Class VI were arrested by Jaldhaka Police for stealing Rs. 83 thousand from the cash locker of Jaldhaka High School. The theft was made in the night of 15th/ morning of 16th December 2009 by making an entry in to the School building through the ceiling. Dhiren Chhetri, 17 (all names are changed)  student of the same school who was sent up for Madhyamik Pariksha just a few days back accompanied by Mani Gurung,16 (all names are changed) and Birendra Gurung,16 (all names are changed)  student of Class VI of another local school entered into the wooden building of Jaldhaka High school by breaking a back door of a class room. They broke the ceiling of the room and made its way into the Office room through the ceiling and by breaking one steel almirah/locker, a table locker and seven locks stole Rs 83 thousand.  According to the school source the amount was drawn from the local Bank and couldnot be deposited in the SBI Kalimpong due to the strike of GJMM. The cash of C.P.F. ,G.P.F. and Income Tax of  the staff of the school amounting to Rs. 52,000 and remaining amount of school fees and other contingencies including Madhyamik Pariksha form fill up was kept in the School locker by the School Clerk. They were supposed to deposit the amount the next day as the School had Annual School Sports on 11th and the school was closed on 12th and 13th and there was strike on 14th.  The trio confessed that after stealing the money they distributed the amount among themselves. The Jaldhaka police recovered Rs. 36,580 from them ad later another Rs. 22,000 and the rest is to be recovered . 2 more adults were arrested for keeping a cash of  Rs. 10400 received from the trio. All the three accused in the theft case belonged to Katarey Busty of Lower Tungsung, Jaldhaka about 5 kms away from the School and arrested u/s Sec 461 and sec 379. They were produced before the Judicial Magistrate S Kundu in SDJM Court Kalimpong on 30th December 2009 and the trio were sent to the Juvenile Correctional Home in Darjeeling and later shifted to Jalpaiguri Juvenille Correctional Home till. Other two were denied bail and are in Kalimpong Correctional Home. It is also learnt that some of the money they had distributed among themselves from the booty were taken by others who blackmailed them, some by their parents and some lost. These three students came from poor families and had the fascination of having mobiles and others enjoyed by their friends.  It is assumed that neither of these involved in the theft case had any moral teaching in the school in their homes and the society. The local residents having heard of the incident and doubts on the movements of these young boys did not find its responsibility to inform the school or police but on investigation was found to have cooperated them to conceal the case.  It was also found that their guardians lack honesty, society lack responsibility and the school lack effective and practical moral teaching. It is high time for all to be serious to counter these types of anti social activities.   Amid dark times, the inspiring people of 2009 SNS, It was a dark year, 2009, sealing a dark decade. It began with the world in economic free-fall and the Gaza Strip being bombed to pieces (again). We watched the vicious crushing of a democratic uprising in Iran, a successful far-right coup in Honduras, and the intensification of the disastrous war in Afghanistan. It all ended at Brokenhagen, where the world's leaders breezily decided to carry on cooking the planet.  But in the midst of all this there were extraordinary points of light, generated by people who have refused to drink the cheap sedative of despair. The left-wing newsman Wes Nisker said in his final broadcast: "If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own." I want – in the final moments of 2009 – to celebrate the people who, this year, did just that: the men and women who didn't slump, but realised that the worse the world gets, the harder people of goodwill have to work to put it right. Inspiration One: Denis Mukwege. The war in the Congo is the worst since Adolf Hitler marched across Europe: it has killed more than 5 million people and counting. As I witnessed when I reported on the war in 2006, the violence has been turned primarily on the country's women: one favourite tactic is to gang-rape a woman and then shoot her in the vagina. For years these women were simply left to die in the bush. But one man – a soft-spoken Congolese gynaecologist with a gentle smile – decided to do something mad, something impossible. With scarcely any equipment and no funding, he set up a secret clinic for these women.  He was told he would be killed by the militias for undoing their "work". The threats said his own daughters would be murdered if he didn't stop. Everyone thought he was mad. But he knew it was the right thing to do. He became the Oscar Schindler of the Congolese mass rapes, saving the lives of tens of thousands of women. In the midst of a moral Chernobyl, he showed that the best human instincts can survive and, in time, prevail. It is rumoured he was number two in the Nobel Committee's list for the Peace Prize. He should have won. Inspiration Two: Liu Xiaobo. A year ago, a petition began to circulate in China demanding that its one billion citizens be allowed to think and speak freely. "We should end the practice of viewing words as crimes", it said. As if they were the Irony Police, the Chinese authorities promptly arrested the authors and many of its signatories. One of the most articulate and brave – Liu Xiaobo – was sentenced to 11 years in a re-education camp for "subversion".  The Chinese authorities believe human rights are a "plot" to weaken China. In fact, China will be immeasurably stronger when it stops persecuting its citizens when they try to develop their minds and defend each other. Liu is not alone. Hu Jia is in prison for warning about China's hidden Aids crisis. Huang Qi is in jail for warning that the poor construction of school buildings in Sichuan – because the builders bribed the local authorities – meant hundreds of children died unnecessarily in the earthquake. There is a long list, and for every prisoner, thousands more are too frightened to speak. But these dissidents stand as models of the truly great nation China will be one day, when it stops persecuting these people and starts electing them. Inspiration Three: Evo Morales and Malalai Joya. Although they were born thousands of miles apart, these two people embody what real democracy can mean. When Evo Morales was a child, the indigenous peoples of Bolivia weren't even allowed to set foot in the capital's central square, which was reserved for white people. Today, he is the President, and for the first time in his country's history, he is diverting the billions raised from the country's natural resources away from the pockets of US corporations. It is building schools and hospitals for people who had nothing, and poverty is being eradicated in a stunning burst of progress. Malalai Joya is the youngest woman ever to be elected in Afghanistan, and she was swiftly banned from taking her seat because she kept speaking up for the people who elected her – against the violent fundamentalist warlords our governments have put in charge of the country. They keep trying to murder her, but she says: "I don't fear death, I fear remaining silent in the face of injustice ... I am ready, wherever and whenever you might strike. You can cut down the flower, but nothing can stop the coming of the spring". She and Morales are authentic democrats, in contrast to the parody of it offered by Hamid Karzai and – too often – our own leaders. Inspiration Four: Amy Goodman and the team at Democracy Now! It's not hard to despair of the US at the moment, when even the silver-tongued King of Change seems unable to get real healthcare and cuts in warming gases through his corrupt Senate, and he is ramming harder into Afghanistan. A large part of the problem is the atrocious US broadcast media. The TV news is one lengthy blowjob for the powerful, seeing everything from the perspective of the rich, and ridiculing arguments for progress. It serves its owners and its advertisers by poisoning every political debate with death-panel distractions and silence for the things that matter.  But there is one remarkable exception. Broadcasting from a tiny studio in New York, on a budget raised entirely from its viewers, comes Democracy Now! Every day, the hour-long broadcast – hosted by the wonderful Amy Goodman – tells the real news. While the nightly news fills up with junk and gossip, they calmly, cleverly explain what is really happening. For example, while ABC and NBC were fixating on Tiger Woods' genitals, Democracy Now! was in Copenhagen, explaining how the world's rainforests were being stiffed. They, at least, can tell the trees from the Woods. It is the best single source for making sense of the world that I know – and it is a model of what the American media could be if it treated its viewers with respect. Inspiration Five: Peter Tatchell. Long before it was trendy to support gay equality, there was Peter Tatchell, taking huge risks for what was right. As one of the pioneers of direct action to oppose bigotry against gay people, he was never afraid to put his own body in the path of bigots. In 1999, he performed a citizen's arrest on the murderous Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, and was beaten so badly by his bodyguards he has never recovered. This year, he went to Moscow to defend the gay rights march there from viciously anti-gay police, and was beaten again. This year, he announced he had to withdraw from running as the Green candidate in Oxford East because the damage was so severe. Almost unbelievably, some people who claim to be on the left have attacked Tatchell because he criticises homophobes who happen to be black, Arab or Asian in exactly the same way he criticises people who are white. (He tried to arrest Tony Blair and Henry Kissinger for war crimes just as surely as he tried to get Mugabe.) But the real racism would be to hold non-white people to lower standards, as if their bigotries were less real or less deadly. A person who chooses to persecute gay people is monstrous and should be stopped – whatever their skin colour, and whatever their culture. Tatchell has dedicated his life to that cause, and he deserves our endless thanks, not dishonest abuse. What do they all have in common, all these people? When Mukwege built his clinic, they said he'd be dead within a week. When Tatchell said gay people could be equal, they laughed in his face. When Morales and Joya ran for office, they said people like them could never win. They dismiss Liu and Goodman now; but their arguments will win, in time. They show that when the world gets worse, that's not a reason to slink away in despair. On the contrary: it's a reason to work harder and aim higher. As the essayist Rebecca Solnit says: "Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. Hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth's treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal... To hope is to give yourself to the future – and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable." That should be the epitaph for these remarkable people – and for 2009. The Independent Telangana Center Calls All Party Meeting ENS, Delhi, 31 dec:To break the impasse over Telangana, the Centre has convened a meeting of “recognized” political parties in Andhra Pradesh on January 5. Home Minister P Chidambaram today sent the letter of invitation to eight parties: Congress, TDP, TRS, BJP, CPI, CPI(M), PRP and the MIM. The meeting is scheduled to be held at New Delhi on Tuesday, January 5, 2010, the Home Ministry said. The Centre’s decision came after detailed deliberations in the government and at the highest level in the Congress in the last few days on the political crisis. All parties were divided and even public representatives belonging to these parties were split on regional lines. Photo: Police detain BJP State President demonstrating outside Raj Bhawan demanding withdrawal of cases against the pro-Telangana students .The all-party Joint Action Committee, formed to spearhead the separate Telangana agitation, and the TRS tonight welcomed the announcement and decided to attend the meeting convened by the Centre. Congress MPs, MLAs and ministers from Telangana had earlier resigned demanding a clarification from the Centre on December 23 statement by the Home Minister. Chidambaram had said that the situation in Andhra Pradesh had altered since December 9 when the Centre announced the initiation of the process of formation of a separate state of Telangana.