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The Telegraph

Darjeeling, Aug. 30: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has decided to postpone its indefinite strike once again, keeping in mind the official-level tripartite meeting scheduled for September 7.

However, the party has decided to organise relay hunger strike from September 1 to demand that their party leader Nickole Tamang be produced in court alive.

The Morcha had earlier threatened to start an indefinite general strike across the hills if Nickole was not produced alive in court today. Nickole’s 14-day police remand ended today.

In fact, soon after Nickole escaped from the CID custody, the Morcha had called a strike from August 22 to 24. The party had given a two-day breather to the indefinite strike before postponing it on Friday till August 30.

Roshan Giri, general secretary of the Morcha, today said: “We have decided to postpone the general strike keeping in mind the scheduled tripartite talks. We will however start a 24-hour relay hunger strike from September 1 which we will carry on unless Nickole is produced alive in court. Seven Morcha supporters will sit for the hunger strike in shifts.”

The relay hunger strike will take place in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong. Giri said preparations were on to stretch the fast till September 17. “We are ready till September 17 and if Nickole is not produced alive even by then we will stretch the hunger strike.”

The fast will be held in front of the district magistrate’s office in Darjeeling and on the subdivisional office premises in Kurseong and Kalimpong.

Binay Tamang, assistant secretary of the Morcha, said the party would form its own “investigating team” to find out the whereabouts of Nickole. The Morcha has not yet ruled out “foul play” by the CID.

The party had earlier alleged that the CID was staging the escape drama to cover up Nickole’s death in custody.

“We will not disclose the name of our investigating team and we are ready to go anywhere including Bhutan and Nepal to trace Nickole. We will inform the police about our movement but if we find that Nickole has been killed by the CID, the state government and the police must be held responsible,” said Binay Tamang.

The Morcha said it would not close down the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council offices this time.

“We will keep them open but the DGHC authorities must start the regularisation process against the 3,472 sanctioned posts in the council,” said Binay Tamang.

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The Telegraph

Kalimpong, Aug. 30: Senior CPM leader from the hills Tara Sundas has demanded that the appointments of para-teachers and midwives in the hills should not be stalled, but completed at the earliest in a fair and transparent manner.

Taking on the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Sundas, a member of the CPM’s Darjeeling district secretariat, said the appointments should not be kept on hold till an interim administrative arrangement was put in place in the hills, as demanded by the hill party. The Morcha has called for a freeze on appointments, alleging malpractice in the recruitment process.

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The Telegraph
VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, Aug. 30: The CID today submitted a chargesheet before a Darjeeling court alleging that 30 Gorkha Janmukti Morcha activists were involved in the murder of Madan Tamang.

Senior Morcha leaders, who had earlier been named in an FIR after the murder of the ABGL chief, do not figure in the chargesheet.

Assistant public prosecutor Govind Chhetri said: “The CID has filed a 519-page chargesheet and has further maintained that they can file a supplementary chargesheet if other names figure in their investigations.”

This technically means that the senior Morcha leaders could figure in the supplementary chargesheet if further investigations point to their involvement. (more…)

The Telegraph
VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, Aug. 27: If you live in Darjeeling, you can never afford to miss the Wall.

In the age of instant communications, the 15ft X 30ft wall at Chowk Bazar, bang opposite Sumeroo Manch that is the podium for all public meetings in Darjeeling, stands as the most trusted source of information for the people of the hill town.

Whether it is an announcement of a meeting, congratulatory messages, information on the venues of board exams or simply an observation that is to be shared, the Poster Wall has obliged the residents of Darjeeling for long.

“It used to be a place where cinema posters of Rink and Capital Hall used to be plastered. I think it was the ABGL that started putting up political posters on the wall in the early 1950s. And since then, the cinema posters have been forced to make way for other the posters,” said Nayan Prakash Subba, a retired police officer. (more…)

The Telegraph

Siliguri, Aug. 27: Bengal urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya today accused the Centre of adopting double standards in hill matters.

“We have come to know that Prime Minister, while addressing a gathering of DGPs in New Delhi yesterday, expressed concern over the ongoing agitation in the hills and sought action against law breakers,” said the minister here this afternoon.

“It seems the Centre has realised that the hill issue cannot be resolved merely by negotiating with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said: “The situation in Darjeeling hill area also needs a careful watch. The writ of the state should be firmly established in all these areas. The state police and the central paramilitary forces should take firm action against those who take the law into their own hands.” (more…)

The Telegraph

Siliguri, Aug. 27: The district hill Congress committee today said it would propose to the Centre to confer Union Territory status to the Darjeeling hills to end the ongoing agitation.

K.B Chhetri, president of the Darjeeling district Congress (hills), said he would meet the Union home minister P. Chidambaram and place the proposal before him.

“So far, the AICC had not sought any suggestion or opinion from the Darjeeling district Congress, be it the plains or the hills, on statehood. However, as the Congress-led central government is carrying out negotiations with the Morcha on the interim set-up, we will visit Delhi next month and propose conferring Union Territory status to the three hill sub-divisions of the district. This is the only way to meet the aspirations of the people and the final solution to the Darjeeling problem,” Chhetri said.

“Once formed, the Union Territory would be under the control of the Centre and will help in serving the purpose, as far as the lack of development and other grievances of the hill residents are concerned.”

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The Telegraph

Gangtok, Aug. 27: Seven landslides struck a 15km stretch of NH31A and crippled traffic on Sikkim’s only road link with the rest of the country after heavy rain lashed the Himalayan state last night. A 31-year-old woman was washed away in one of the flash floods that followed.

The landslides, four of them major ones, occurred between 32 Mile and Singtam on NH31A, the stretch littered with slush and debris that came tumbling down from the hillside late last night and early this morning.

The landslides left at least 100 vehicles coming from Siliguri stranded on the Bengal-Sikkim border at Rangpo for sometime. While some passengers tried to walk and cross the slides, others returned to Siliguri. “The vehicles — there were lots of them — were told to stay put at Singtam for the night,” said A.K. Singh, the executive engineer of Project Swastik of the Border Roads Organisation that is in charge of the highway. (more…)

The Telegraph

Aug. 26: The hills are wary of another indefinite shutdown with the CID drawing a blank on the Nickole Tamang escape probe, and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha setting August 30 as deadline to produce him in court.

The Morcha said it expected the accused, a central committee member of the party, to be produced in court before noon of August 30, when Nickole’s term in police remand ends.

“The police and the CID are expected to produce Nickole Tamang in court on August 30, when the police remand ends. If he is not produced before the court by noon, an indefinite strike will start,” said Binay Tamang, the assistant secretary of the Morcha at a media conference here today.

The Morcha had called the indefinite strike last Sunday after Nickole, who had been arrested by Darjeeling police on August 16, fled from a CID camp at Pintail Village near Siliguri. (more…)

The Telegraph

Siliguri, Aug. 26: Around one lakh plants of cymbidium, known as the queen of orchids, are set to bloom in Mirik in two years, thanks to an export-oriented project by a private company.

The biggest venture of orchid cultivation in the northeastern part of India was initiated by Darjeeling Gardens Private Limited on a two-acre plot at Rato Mate busty in Mirik with the help of 10 small farmers.

“Cymbidiums require low temperature and high humidity, a rare combination that is difficult to be found in other hill towns. Mirik valley provides the optimum requirement of temperature and humidity and is the best place to cultivate cymbidium. Floriculturists in Mirik were growing orchids on a smaller scale. But we have been growing one lakh cymbidiums at our nursery since May last year with the latest technical knowhow,” said Rajesh Chowdhury, the director of Darjeeling Garden. (more…)

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, Aug. 26: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today alleged malpractices in the ongoing recruitment of para teachers and midwives in the hills and demanded an immediate freeze on the processes till an interim set-up was put in place for the region.

Binay Tamang, assistant secretary of the Morcha, said: “It has come to our notice that there have been several anomalies in the recruitment of para-teachers and selection of ANM (Auxiliary Nursing Mid-wifery) candidates in the Darjeeling hills. Moreover, we had told the government that our party should also be consulted on all affairs, but this did not take place. We demand that the entire procedure be kept on hold until the interim set-up is put in place.”

He said applicants with only a couple of years’ teaching experience had been given preference over those with more than 10 years’ experience. (more…)