TT, Jan. 14: The state government has decided to extend the tenure of the DGHC administrator, sending a subtle message that it would be firm in its dealings with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.
Sources in the chief minister’s secretariat said in Writers’ Buildings today that B.L. Meena’s term would be extended by at least another six months. Home secretary Ardhendu Sen said: “The proposal to extend the term of the DGHC administrator is being actively considered.” Meena’s term expires on January 31.
“The extension does not bother us as we are not concerned with the DGHC. We do not want the council but want a separate state as its alternative,” Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said in Darjeeling today.
During the third round of tripartite meeting in New Delhi on August 11, the state, Centre and the Morcha had agreed to repeal the DGHC Act of 1988, provided an alternative arrangement was agreed upon by the state government and the hill party. However, with the Morcha sticking to statehood as its alternative, dissolving the DGHC has hit a roadblock.
The cry to remove Meena first started when the government failed to meet its deadline to regularise 3,472 casual workers of the DGHC by November 17, 2009. On October 30, Sen, as additional chief secretary, had assured the Morcha that the regularisation would be done within the time frame. Later, the state retracted its stand, saying no time frame could be provided for the regularisation.
Machendra Subba, president, Janmukti Asthahi Karmachari Sangatan, which has been spearheading the agitation for regularisation of workers, today said: “If Meena has been given an extension, he should work from Darjeeling.” Meena has set up an office-cum-residence at Pintail Village near Siliguri in the plains.
“This is the second time that the state has sent such a strong message. The first one was when the government backtracked and stated categorically that it could not set any time frame for regularisation of workers,” said an observer.
Adivasis to knock on Delhi door
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| Parishad members at a dharna in Siliguri on Thursday. (Kundan Yolmo) |
TT, Siliguri, Jan. 14: The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad, peeved about the state’s silence on its demand to accord the Sixth Schedule status to the Terai and the Dooars, has decided to knock on the Centre’s doors.
“We had met the state chief secretary at Writers’ Buildings on January 29 last year and submitted a memorandum to the chief minister through him, but have had no feedback. So we have decided to approach the Centre,” Birsa Tirkey, the state president of the Parishad, said over the phone from Calcutta.
He said a delegation of Parishad members would visit Delhi in the first week of February and meet Union home minister P. Chidambaram and two ministers from Bengal, Pranab Mukherjee and Mamata Banerjee.
“During our meeting with the chief secretary, we had submitted a 13-point charter of demands that included the setting up of a college in which the medium of instructions would be Hindi, a technical institute in the Dooars, a medical college, improvement of healthcare facilities and the reopening of tea gardens,” Tirkey said.
Considering the state’s apathy to the Parishad demands, it is only autonomy that can save the region from backwardness, he said. “We are not against the state government as we are aware that unless we get its nod we will not achieve autonomy under the Sixth Schedule. But we have been purposely ignored by Writers’ Buildings. We are holding a secretariat meeting in Calcutta on January 16 to chalk out our plans for Delhi and prepare for our meetings with the ministers.”
The Parishad has been opposing the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s demand of inclusion of the Terai and the Dooars in Gorkhaland that it wants and had even clashed with them on the issue in the Dooars.
Presently, the Parishad is organising dharnas at Silguri, Alipurduar and Malbazar for the special status demand, which Tirkey said would continue till January 17. It will also organise road blockades at different places, including the national highways, unless it receives a positive assurance from the state by then.
Gorkhaland stir hits Darjeeling's Tea
IANS, Darjeeling, 13 January : Shutdowns and agitations in support of a separate Gorkhaland state have begun to hit Darjeeling's tourism, apart from ruining the flavour of its tea industry.
'Tourists are still visiting Darjeeling, but the uncertainty is creating apprehensions among them,' said Pradip Singh Arora, vice president of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hotel Owners' Association. 'They can't stay here freely. There are apprehensions among tourists that when a bandh (shutdown) starts, they have to leave the place,' Arora told IANS. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), which is spearheading the movement in the hills for a separate Gorkhaland state, have organised indefinite shutdowns over the past two years, severely hitting the tea and tourism sectors - the region's bread and butter. And during the past one month, intensified agitations have disrupted normal life even further.
Echoing Arora, Travel Agent Federation of India (eastern India) chairman Anil Punjabi told IANS: 'The frequent bandhs are affecting the tourism sector in a major way.' The tea industry is also not untouched, though pro-Gorkhaland agitators say they will exempt the tea and tourism sectors from shutdowns.
Nepal tea enters India at half the Darjeeling Tea price
 Kolkata, 14 January : At a time when Darjeeling tea price is ruling high in the domestic market, orthodox tea from Nepal, which tastes similar to that of the Darjeeling variety, is making inroads into the market through private selling.
Industry sources said the Nepal crop costs half of the Darjeeling variety and is a favourite with retailers as it helps them sell tea close to that of Darjeeling at a much lower price. But industry sources admitted it is difficult to ascertain what amount of Nepal tea is entering the Indian market as the crop is sold through private selling. At a few retail counters in Kolkata, Nepal tea is available at Rs 400-500 per kg while Darjeeling orthodox of a similar quality would cost buyers around Rs 1,000 per kg.
Indian Tea Association estimates show that almost 6.5 million kg tea has been imported from Nepal during the January-October period last year. According to a vision 2020 report of the Nepal Tea Crop Global Development Alliance, almost a million tonne of orthodox Nepal tea enters India.
10 children among 31 killed in Garhwa mishap
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| Rescuers at the accident site. (Telegraph picture) |
TT, Ranchi, Jan. 14: A fatal cocktail of bad roads and brake failure left 31 labourers dead and 17 injured in the Bhagwan Valley area on Bhavnathpur-Ketar Road in Garhwa district this afternoon.
The dead included 10 children and eight women who were part of a group of 50 labourers who were on their way from Saina village in Bihar’s Rohtas district to Kupa village in Garhwa on a truck that was loaded with 100 bags of paddy as well.
According to the police, while negotiating a steep curve, about 12km away from Kupa, the truck first skidded on loose stone chips on the road. As the driver tried to control the over-loaded vehicle, the brakes failed and the truck hurtled down a 15-feet-deep ditch. The driver and his assistant survived the accident by jumping off in the nick of time, but the others were not so lucky.
The accident spot is about 265km from the state capital under Bhavnathpur police station area of Garhwa district.
Chief minister Shibu Soren announced Rs 1 lakh ex gratia for the families of the deceased and said the state would bear the medical expenses of the injured. He also directed the district administration to take steps to prevent such accidents in the future.
Sources said the deceased were from Kupa, Melwan and Secharia, three villages in the district, and were returning after harvesting crops in the neighbouring state. Ten of the deceased were from the same family.
Soon after the accident, a 5000-strong mob led by local MLA Anant Pratap Dev demonstrated at the spot, demanding compensation of Rs 5 lakh, a government job and a house to the kin of each deceased. They did not allow the district administration to remove the bodies till late in the evening.
State police spokesperson and IG, human rights, V.H. Deshmukh said the truck turned turtle and fell off the road.
Pilgrim stampede kills seven
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| The Jetty 3 bridge, the stampede spot at Kakdwip. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha |
DEBASISH CHATTOPADHYAY, TT, Kakdwip, Jan. 14: Six elderly women and a child died in a stampede at Kakdwip this morning, crushed by other pilgrims hurrying to board a Sagar-island-bound ferry for the Sankranti holy dip at the auspicious hour.
All the victims were from outside Bengal and among the 6.5 lakh people who visited Ganga Sagar this year.
According to witnesses, the stampede happened around 4.30am when thousands of pilgrims started jostling to board a ferry at Jetty 3 in Kakdwip, about 120km from Calcutta.
The vessel was to take them to Kachuberia on the Sagar island, an hour’s journey.
A sadhu said the rush was because the holy dip was to start soon after. “The dip was to start from 4.47am and go on till 7.59am. The pilgrims were in a hurry to reach Sagar before the deadline expired,” said Himanshu Smirti Tirtha.
Santosh Giri, whose three-year-old son Aditya died, said: “We had been waiting at Jetty 3 from 4am to board the ferry. But there was a sudden rush among the pilgrims once the launch arrived at 4.30 to take us to Kachuberia. I saw dozens of pilgrims falling on my child who was holding my wife Mamata’s hand. One of the pilgrims also fell on me when I tried to rescue them.”
The 42-year-old man, who works as a havildar in the army and is based in Bihar’s Samastipur, said though he escaped with minor injuries because of “my strong built”, his “dream of a happy home was smashed”. “I paid a heavy price for coming on this pilgrimage. My son is no more and my wife is fighting for life with multiple injuries,” he said, standing near the jetty.
The women who died were Amjaria Devi, 75 and Kishori Devi, 52, from Uttar Pradesh, Rukmini Devi, 75, Meena Devi, 52, and Sarabati Devi, 70, from Haryana. The body of one woman is yet to be identified, police said.
The government has ordered a probe to ascertain if there was any lapse on the part of the administration. “We have ordered a probe into the stampede,” chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said at Writers’ Buildings.
The injured were admitted to the Diamond Harbour sub-divisional hospital. Some were brought to Calcutta late in the afternoon.
Today’s accident was the second in two days in which pilgrims died. Yesterday, a dozing driver rammed a bus carrying Ganga Sagar pilgrims bent on making it to Calcutta by morning into a stationary truck on Durgapur Expressway, killing eight people.
Khalil Ahmed, the South 24-Parganas district magistrate who accompanied Srikumar Mukherjee, the minister of state for disaster management to the spot, gave a different version. He said the stampede happened when a bamboo barricade gave way. “People started falling on each other when the barricade fell leading to the stampede,” he said.
Basu in coma
SNS, KOLKATA, 14 JAN: Mr Jyoti Basu has been put on haemo-dialysis after his condition turned “very critical” today. Doctors attending on him said the conditions of his heart and kidney were deteriorating fast.
Doctors of AMRI Hospital said his general health condition turned critical early this morning and was heading towards a multi-organ failure. His oxygen requirement increased as he is on ventilator.
After the haemo-dialysis there will be a blood transfusion and whether he is responding to the treatment will be known only after four hours. His urine output was low and doctors are considering performing tracheotomy tomorrow after reviewing his health condition.
Doctors have changed the dose of the antibiotic and are worried over the C-reactive protein count in the blood going down. According to the medical bulletin released by the hospital authorities, his condition deteriorated in the evening. Blood cannot be pumped in sufficiently to various parts of the body.
His blood pressure remained normal after two units of blood transfusion for two consecutive days and his lungs have become stiff. Doctors are worried as any operation at this stage will be risky.
Dr AK Maity, consultant cardiac surgeon of the hospital, said the lung stiffness could be cured but with his heart not working properly and renal dysfunction, it could not be said if the stiffness could be cured completely.
Mr LZ Drukpa, the health minister of Bhutan, today visited the hospital and enquired about Mr Basu’s health. Later in the evening, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, former Speaker of the Lok Sabha, visited the hospital and said that Mr Basu’s condition had improved slightly after haemo-dialysis. Left Front chairman Mr Biman Bose and other CPI-M leaders also visited Mr Basu in the hospital.
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