www.kalimpong.info

 www.telegraphindia.com

 The new clock-tower at Damber Chowk set up by Lions Club of Kalimpong.

Picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha

RAJEEV RAVIDAS
www.telegraphindia.com

Kalimpong, June 22: Doctors of the Kalimpong subdivisional hospital are practising privately from their government quarters, even as the district health authorities feign ignorance.

While the service rules for non-teaching doctors do not bar them from practising privately, to do so from government-allotted quarters is against the regulations. As S. Bhowmik, chief medical officer of health, Darjeeling, said: “Government quarters cannot be used for any other purpose (apart from staying).”

However, the doctors at the subdivisional hospital here seemed unaware of the rules, or worse, are knowingly flouting them. Barring a few, the majority of the doctors who have been allotted flats at the hospital quarters on K.D. Pradhan Road attend to patients privately from there. Two buildings comprising six flats each are designated doctors’ quarters at the complex — next to the subdivisional hospital — that also houses quarters for nurses, para-medics and ward masters. (more…)

www.telegraphindia.com
RAJEEV RAVIDAS

Kalimpong, June 13: Stray animals in the hills will soon have a new home. An animal shelter spread over 33.6 decimals is set to come up at Lebong near Darjeeling by the end of this year.

To be built at an estimated cost of Rs 50 lakh, the shelter will be run by Help In Suffering (HIS) and funded by a France-based NGO — One Voice. The shelter will house all domesticated animals with special emphasis on dogs. The Jaipur-based HIS has been running a similar shelter — Kalimpong Animal Centre — here since 1994. (more…)

www.telegraphindia.com
RAJEEV RAVIDAS

Kalimpong, June 9: When it was alive and ticking, the chime of the 99-year-old clock atop Georgina McDermot Memorial Tower at Dr Graham’s Homes here used to be heard in distant Darjeeling.

If the timer and its neighbour — atop the Raja Dorjay tower at Kumudini Homes, about 5 km away — could only speak, they might have hoped that their muted cries for revival would be heard, if not in Darjeeling, at least nearer home.

Both the historic clocks have been silent for over 30 years now. While the one at Homes was damaged in the 1968 earthquake, the exact year in which the clock at Kumudini stopped chiming cannot be ascertained. (more…)

www.telegraphindia.com

Kalimpong, June 4: Come July 2007 patients from the hill town and neighbouring areas, can look forward to a little bit of help from Sweden.

A diverse group of professionals from the Scandinavian country has got together to donate two custom-built ambulances from the Mercedes stable to a local NGO, Himalayan Organisation for People’s Education (HOPE), for use by poor patients. (more…)