Year’s end is neither an end
nor a beginning
but a going on,
with all the wisdom
that experience

can instill in us.

 

KALIMPONG NEWS 

Wishes U to have a …..

Sweetest Sunday,

Marvelous Monday,

Tasty Tuesday,

Wonderful Wednesday,

Thankful Thursday,

Friendly Friday,

Successful Saturday.

Have a great Year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Bandh withdrawn
KalimNews 1 Jan: There will be no bandh on 2nd January, a poster of GJVM read thus. The bandh of 2nd January is just a rumour states the poster.The people were perplexed as it was announced by the Morcha in a press conference that there will be a total bandh on 2nd January and were in the print in all the newspapers. 
GJMM declined to comment on the matter instead said that it was matter related to GJVM. No leaders of Gorkha Janmukti Vidyarthi Morcha could be contacted for clarification. 
Ethnic Clash Feared in Siliguri

Deep Gazmer & Pinak Priya Bhattacharya , TNN 1 January 2010, DARJEELING/JALPAIGURI: It may be snowing in the Hills, but the plains are on the boil. The politics of highway blockades took an ugly turn on New Year's Eve when alleged Gorkha Janmukti Morcha toughs smashed up an ambulance from Malbazar, and thrashed the driver and helper. As anger swept through Siliguri and Dooars, Bengali organisations sprang to action and blocked NH31 at three points, choking off the lifeline to Darjeeling. 

GJM reacted with more aggression, calling a bandh on January 2 in its proposed Gorkhaland area' that includes Siliguri and the Dooars. And the people of the plains cobbled up a Lalgarh-style Janasadharaner Committee' and announced a three-day bandh starting on New Year's Day. 

Just six hours later, GJM withdrew its January 2 bandh, apparently after a communication' from the home ministry on tripartite talks. "Our leader (Bimal Gurung) received a call from the home ministry and has been assured the next meeting on Gorkhaland will be held soon at a political level," GJM Vidyarthi Morcha secretary Keshav Raj Pokhrel told TOI.

But the hunger strikes and blockade of national highways will continue. So will the Janasadharaner Committee's blockades. 
Trouble broke out at 11 am, when GJM student supporters stopped an ambulance at Sevoke, 23 km from Siliguri, and beat up the driver, Malbazar's Surojit Sarkar, and helper. The vehicle's windshield and windows were smashed to bits. As the news reached in Malbazar, shops and offices shut down and people poured into the streets. 

As news of the assault on the ambulance crew spread in the plains, outfits like the Janajagaran Mancha and Odlabari Mancha sent out squads to set up their own blockades, eyeball to eyeball with GJM cadres on NH31 at Malbazar, Odlabari and Chalsa in Jalpaiguri district. Blockades in Darjeeling district have halted tourist traffic and movement of supplies on the highway that connects NH55 (to Darjeeling) and NH31A (to Gangtok).

"We cannot stand by and watch this violence. We will block NH31 from 10 am to 4 pm from Friday," said Jiban Mitra of the Odlabari Mancha. The GJVM, on the other hand, has decided to step up the agitation. "On January 3, we will start an indefinite blockade of all national highways (31, 31A and 55) in North Bengal along with all roads to Sikkim and Assam," said GJVM secretary Kehsavraj Pokhrel in Siliguri.

The GJVM has washed its hands of the incident, saying none of its cadres were involved in the beating. However, its bandh call has heightened tension in the plains because areas such as Siliguri, Phansidewa, Mal, Meteli, Nagrakata, Dhupguri and Rajganj, in the Dooars and Jalpaiguri, come in GJM's self-drawn Gorkhaland' map. 
The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP), which has already warned GJM of a "counterattack" if it tries to include the Dooars in Gorkhaland', threw its weight behind the anti-Gorkhaland brigade. "We have been quietly watching the GJM stir all these days because it was restricted to the Hills subdivisions and did not affect our lives. Now, if GJM tries to enforce the bandh in the Dooars, we will resist it with all our might," said ABAVP leader of Dooars and Terai region Rajesh Lakra. ABAVP state secretary Birsa Tirkey endorsed Lakra's stand. "We will now allow GJM to enforce the shutdown in the Dooars," he said. This area witnessed bloody clashes some months ago when GJM activists came down to the Dooars to enforce their bandh. 

Jalpaiguri district magistrate Vandana Yadav admitted that the situation in North Bengal is getting worse by the day. "The situation is deteriorating. But I do not have the means to bring it under control," Yadav said.

Kamtapur' statehood stir to intensify from Jan 1

K Anurag, Rediffmail News: An intensive phase of agitation for statehood demand looms large over parts of Assam and adjoining areas in West Bengal vital for surface communication links between the North East and the rest of the country, from the first day of the new year.

The Koch-Rajbongshi community 'living in parts of Assam and West Bengal' has announced an 'intense and indefinite phase of agitation' from January 1, 2010 to press for their demand for a separate 'Kamatapur' state carving out of Assam and West Bengal areas.

The president of All Koch Rajbongshi Students Union and leader of the statehood movement, Bishwajit Rai, informed that the protestors would launch indefinite railway and national highway blockade in protest against the failure of the Central government to address their long-standing demand for a separate state.

Such a rail-rod blockade will cut off the North East from the rest of the country through surface links.

"A massive protest rally of Koch-Rajbongshi held at Bongaigaon in Assam on Tuesday decided to intensify the agitation in view of the Centre's indifferent attitude to our demand for statehood," Rai said

The Koch-Rajbongshi community demands a separate Kamatapur state comprising a huge area in Brahmaputra Valley in Assam and six adjoining districts of West Bengal. The AKRASU leader claims that there are 40 lakh Koch-Rajbongshi people living in Assam, while another 35 lakhs are in West Bengal. 

He said besides the blockade, district level committees of AKRASU would organise various agitation programmes within their respective jurisdictions.