Statehood meet venue in DM court...GNLF to Delhi... Fresh Talk

Pokhral: New move TT, Darjeeling, Feb. 1: The Gorkha Janmukti Vidyarthi Morcha has decided to organise a public meeting in Siliguri on February 6 and has proposed three venues to the administration for the event. The district administration will communicate its decision to the student wing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha after receiving a “report” from Siliguri, a senior official has said. In 2008, the Morcha had been refused permission by the administration to hold a meeting in support of its statehood demand in Siliguri’s Baghajatin Park. However, after an agitation for a month, the hill party was allowed to organise a rally on the Indira Gandhi grounds on the outskirts of the town. The Vidyarthi Morcha’s move is likely to provide a fresh impetus to the statehood demand in the plains. If allowed, the proposed meeting will be the second on the demand in the Siliguri civic area after 2008. Public meeting in support of Gorkhaland in the plains has always been a cause of concern for the administration as the majority of the people living in the Siliguri subdivision are opposed to the division of Bengal. Kismat Chhetri, president, Vidyarthi Morcha, said: “We will organise the meeting largely with the students of the Terai. We appeal to all hill students to attend the meeting. We are expecting a crowd of about 40,000 to 50,000.” Although senior Morcha leaders are unlikely to attend the meeting, its student wing is trying to get leaders from across the country to address the gathering. “We will finalise the list of speakers on Wednesday. We are hopeful that we will have representatives from the All Jharkhand Students’ Union, All Assam Students’ Union, the student wings of the Kamtapur Progressive Party and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (BJP student wing),” said Keshav Raj Pokhral, general secretary, Vidyarthi Morcha. The Morcha student wing has proposed to the administration the three venues — Baghajatin Park, Kanchenjungha Stadium and Dagapur Sports Ground. “The administration is not averse to giving us permission on Dagapur but they will officially communicate us their decision tomorrow,” said Pokhral. Darjeeling district magistrate Surendra Gupta, however, said he had asked his officials in Siliguri to submit a report on law and order of the area. “The decision will be taken after receiving the report,” he added. Observers also believe that Dagapur is the most likely venue where the administration can give its nod largely because the spot is close to the areas dominated by those in favour of the statehood demand. The venue is about 500 metres from the spot where in 2007 police had lathicharged a group of ex-servicemen, who had taken out a procession supporting the statehood demand, and burst tear-gas shells to prevent them from entering Siliguri town. Carjackers held

TT, Jaigaon, Feb. 1: A gang of five car hijackers, including a woman, was arrested from the Alipurduar Chowpatti yesterday evening in a joint operation by Alipurduar and Jaigaon police.

The arrested were Kishor Nishra, 35, of Madarihat, Radheshyam Mittal, 42, and Sunil Kumar Sah, 28, both from Jaigaon, Alif Hussain, 24, from Sitalkuchi, and Dolly Barman, 18, from Cooch Behar.

Led by the subdivisional police officer of Alipurduar, David Lepcha, the joint team acted on prior information that the gang had left the Assam border at Nishiganj for Cooch Behar after hijacking a car. The gang told the driver that they wanted to take a patient to the Alipurduar subdivisional hospital.

The police team apprehended the gang at Alipurduar Chowpatti, about 20km from Nishiganj, around 7pm.

Jalpaiguri superintendent of police Anand Kumar said the gang had hijacked seven vehicles in the past 20 days. “They usually get into the cars after saying that they wanted to take patients to hospitals and would later drug or beat up the driver and decamp with the vehicles.”

GNLF to meet Sonia on state

TT, Siliguri, Feb. 1: The GNLF will join hands with the Bharatiya Federation for New States to demand Gorkhaland. A delegation of both the organisations will meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi either on February 4 or 5 to place their demand. Dawa Pakhrin, a GNLF leader from Kalimpong, today said: “We have decided to highlight the demand of the separate state at the national level rather than confining it to district or state levels. Keeping that in view, we have joined hands with the federation.” Pakhrin said the GNLF was the first organisation to raise the demand for Gorkhaland in the mid-80s and its 1,200 supporters had died during the movement. “We have lost thousands of our supporters during the movement for the separate state. We have respect for the present state government. But we want the separate state for our identity,” he said at a news conference here. Baba Ram Kishan Dev, the founder chairman of the federation, who was also present, expressed his full support for Gorkhaland. He said the federation had been formed on February 27, 1996, in New Delhi and had played an active part in the formation of new states like Uttarakhand. “We have always supported the demand for smaller states and have fixed an appointment with the Congress president in the first week of February. An 8-10 member delegation will meet her,” said Dev. “During the formation of Uttarakhand, the federation was the co-ordinator for 52 organisations which were spearheading the movement for the separate state. Here we have come to extend our support to GNLF leaders for Gorkhaland. We will also talk to the leaders, who are organising a movement for a separate Kamtapur state,” he said. Dev, however, doesn’t have any plan to include the Darjeeling MP in the delegation. He also ruled out a dialogue with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which is also on the warpath for the separate state. “The Darjeeling MP is busy with ‘Jinnah’ and writing new books. After being elected from Darjeeling, he has done nothing for his constituency. Morcha leaders are not willing to get involved with us,” Dev said when asked why the federation was not including the MP and Morcha in the delegation. Fresh Gorkha Talks IE, Kolkata:As the February 5 deadline for the fifth round of tripartite talks among the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), the Centre and the state governments on the Gorkhaland issue nears, the Centre today said the date and venue will be announced once the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) — of which Mamata Banerjee is also a member — meets this week. After the fourth round of talks that took place in Darjeeling on December 21 last year, the Centre had said it would announce the next date within 45 days and the GJM would be informed accordingly. “The matter will be placed before the CCPA meeting that will take place this week and a decision taken. All concerned parties will be informed accordingly,” Union Home Secretary G K Pillai told The Indian Express over phone from Delhi. Banerjee, who is likely to attend the meeting, is said to be opposed to any division of West Bengal. On the GJM’s claim that the Centre had agreed to talks at a political level as demanded by it during the December 21 talks, Pillai said the whole issue would be decided at the CCPA meet. The state government too said the whole matter would be decided by the Centre. “On earlier occasions too, it was the Central government which took the decision, which is binding on us,” Subesh Das, Principal Secretary to the chief minister, said. On the climbdown by the GJM leadership on the areas it wants for Gorkhaland, Das said the state government had not yet received any proposal from any quarter. The Morcha reportedly sent a proposal to the Central government saying it wanted only those areas which were dominated by Gorkhas. Earlier, the Morcha said it wanted the entire Darjeeling district, the Dooars and Siliguri sub-division in the proposed state of Gorkhaland. “We are not giving any allowance as such. We want only the areas dominated by Gorkhas and Adivasis,” Morcha spokesman Roshan Giri said. At the CPM state committee meet yesterday, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee reiterated that his government was ready to give more autonomy to the Gorkha Hill Council but said he was opposed to any further division of West Bengal. In the last round of tripartite talks, Morcha had rejected the offer for more autonomy saying it would not settle for anything less than Gorkhaland. Pillai who led the Central government team had told them that a political consensus would have to be built in this regard and that respective governments would be consulted and the Morcha would be informed about the decision in 45 days. Hill forest college without faculty, recruits The college near Kurseong MRINALINI SHARMA, TT, Siliguri, Feb. 1: The Eastern Forest Ranger College in Kurseong has not been able to conduct induction courses for rangers for almost three years now because of lack of faculty and low recruitment of range officers. The institution was set up to provide an orientation course for the newly recruited rangers before they were posted at different places. But after the last batch passed out in 2007, the only ranger college in the country under the control of the Directorate of Forest Education (DFE) is holding only two-week refresher courses and one-week workshops for in-service officers. Currently there are two faculty members in the college, instead of five, including principal W.I. Yatbon, who joined a year back, and Thiru Selvan, an assistant instructor who joined in September. “We don’t have regular faculty here and the instructors who come are usually on deputation. They apply for the posts and the government deputes them to the college. However, not many people are interested since they are reluctant to leave their home states and come here. The main reason is that the accommodation facilities here are not up to the mark. Right now there are just two quarters for the instructors. If housing arrangements are made for faculty members then more officials would apply for posts here,” Selvan said. He added that the government had advertised twice for the posts but there was little response. Located at St Mary’s Hill, 4km from Kurseong town, the place was called St Mary’s Seminary and it was under the Catholic Mission of West Bengal until the government purchased it and established the EFRC in 1974. “It was difficult to conduct induction courses after 2007 so we have been organising refresher courses and workshops,” Selvan said. The other two ranger colleges in the country are at Balaghat in Maharashtra and Haldwani in Uttarakhand under the respective state governments. “The state governments have adopted low recruitment policy for range officers. This has resulted in no admissions for rangers at the college and this is another reason why we have not been able to conduct the induction courses. We have a capacity of training 40 range officers from all over the country at a time and the induction course is of 18 months’ duration,” said Yatbon. He said with no induction courses being held in the college the newly recruited rangers are sent to Central Academy for State Forest Services in Dehradun in Uttarakhand, Burnihat in Assam or at Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. The authorities have also complained that the college building is very ill-maintained. “It is a very old building and although it houses the required facilities, there is severe leakage problem during the monsoon. The maintenance is very poor,” Selvan said. Dont let state Govt cancel lease:Sukuna builders go to high court Subrata Nagchoudhury, Kolkata, IE: As the Army clears court-martial proceedings against top Generals in the Sukna land scandal, the four firms they allegedly favoured have gone to Calcutta High Court in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the state government from cancelling their leases And to get the Army to explain why it withdrew the no-objection certificate just three months after giving it in February 2009. That no-objection, an Army inquiry report found out, was given in alleged violation of norms and is at the heart of the allegations against Miltary Secretary Lt Gen Avadhesh Prakash, Lt Gen P K Rath of the 33 Corps and others. According to court records, in November 2006, for an estimated Rs 82 lakh, lease deeds were executed in favour of Akshara Vanijya Private Ltd, Mata Vaishnodevi Mercantile Pvt Ltd, Sheetla Vyapar Pvt Ltd and J F Low & Company. These four companies were floated by Sharad Bajoria, owner of New Chumta Tea garden in Sukna, whose unutilized 71.55 acres was taken on lease from the West Bengal government for this commercial venture (see box below). They got possession of the land in June 2007. These firms have now sought an injunction on proceedings by the West Bengal Land and Land Reforms (L&LR) department towards cancellation of the lease deeds. It was in April 2009 that the 33 Corps Headquarters informed the state government that it was canceling the MoU it had signed with the trust. The court has set the second week of February for the next hearing and asked all parties to maintain status quo. But the key man behind the project isn’t hopeful. “The Sukna project is dead. It’s been killed. With the Army raising objections about the educational project on the 71.55 acres, on grounds of national security, I am left with little choice now. I will have to move out of the project in Sukna,” said Bajoria. The venture mooted at Sukna at first related to a “tea tourism-cum-tourist resort” but after the Army objected to it on grounds of security, it was later modified “in accordance with and in tune with the Army’s proposal of setting up an educational institution,” Bajoria told The Indian Express. He declined to answer questions on the Army’s allegations. Asked why he floated the four companies, Bajoria said: “I could have done the educational institute project in the name of New Chumta Tea Garden. But it was for business convenience that these four separate companies had to be set up.” Bajoria, who deposed before the army court of inquiry, said: “My involvement in the project was almost like an outsider. The land belonged to me. The Geetanjali Trust was interested in setting up the educational institute project. So everything was being done by the Geetanjali Trust.” Its trustee was Dilip Agarwal, the Siliguri-based developer who, according to the Army, was a close friend of Lt Gen Prakash. When contacted by The Indian Express, L&LR Commissioner General P K Agarwal said: “Our final verdict on cancellation of the lease deed was due on December 23 but it had to be withheld after the lessees went to court.” Sources said the government has also cleared a proposal to refund the estimated Rs 82 lakh paid by the four lessees. The original Sukna plan Akshara Vanijya Pvt Ltd: 23.85 acres; retreat housing, spa, sports complex Mata Vaishnodevi Mercantile Pvt. Ltd: 23.65 acres; resort, hotel & retreat housing Sheetla Vyapar Pvt Ltd: 18.75 acres; retail and commercial plaza, arts and crafts centre, convention centre and retail housing. J F Low &Company Ltd: 5.10 acres; adventure tourism, guest village and retreat housing. Telangana Committee soon:Chidambaram TH, NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Monday said the terms of reference of the proposed committee on Telangana and its composition would be made known soon, and reiterated his appeal to students to refrain from taking “extreme steps.” “No major incidents of violence are taking place now, barring some local bandhs and agitation by students. I once again appeal to students not to take extreme steps like ending their lives, these are unnecessary and unwarranted. These sadden me deeply,” he told a news conference here. Mr. Chidambaram said the Centre would set up a mechanism, as agreed upon at the January 5 meeting of eight major political parties, to take into account every shade of opinion. “There will not be any delay. Last week I said the committee would be set up early this week. We are at it. Today is the earliest day of the week. The committee will be set up and its terms of reference cannot be kept secret,” he said. On the internal security situation, he said Left-wing extremism remained a cause of grave concern. In 2009, Jammu and Kashmir and the north-eastern States witnessed the lowest level of violence in many years. As for the increase in the attempts by militants to cross the International Border and the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Chidambaram said that in January this year alone, 10 infiltration attempts were neutralised. Left-wing extremism was on the rise, he said and expressed apprehension that the trend would continue this year too. “The number of deaths in 2009 among civilians (591), security forces (317) and militants (217) indicated a rising trend. The increase in the number of incidents and casualties is not surprising because, after a review of the policy, the State governments decided to deploy a larger number of security personnel and engage the naxalites in the districts dominated by them with a view to re-establishing the authority of the civilian government. I expect this trend to continue in 2010.