www.kalimpong.info

www.telegraphindia.com
ANURADHA SHARMA LAKHOTIA & PEMA LEYDA SHANGDERPA

Chuikhim, Sept. 27: Dashain is all set to be different in Chuikhim this time.

Much to the pleasure of the women here, Dussehra in this nondescript hilly village in Kalimpong subdivision, more than 55 km from Siliguri, will be held sans jaand and raksi (forms of country liquor that are must-haves at any festival).

“We will try to make it up with liberal doses of meat and fish,” said Krishna Bahadur Rai, one of the women. Ever since the residents decided to develop this place as a model self-sustaining village and introduce community-based tourism more than a year ago, all hooch dens have shut shop. “We now want the village to develop as a liquor-free tourist destination,” Rai added. (more…)

VIVEK CHHETRI
www.telegraphindia.com

Darjeeling, Sept. 24: Rain over the past three days triggered a landslide about a kilometre and a half from the heart of the hill station this afternoon, killing eight people and highlighting once again Darjeeling’s vulnerability to man-made disasters because of ill-planned constructions.

At Kazi Gaon, many people were caught in their houses when a huge mass of loose earth, trees, boulders and mud — originating about 150 feet above — came crashing down this afternoon. Many did not manage to scamper to safety. (more…)

Press Trust of India
SILIGURI, Sept. 24: A new group, with suspected links with Maoists in Nepal, has emerged in the hills of Darjeeling which gave birth to the Gorkhaland movement by GNLF chief Mr Subash Ghisingh, with a call to take up arms for creation of a separate state.
The new outfit, United Gorkha Revolutionary Front led by a former former Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) man Mr Ajay Dahal, was launched two years ago, but its existence came to be known in the hills recently, police said.
The police came to know about it from posters put up in Kalimpong on 6 September. (more…)

www.telegraphindia.com

Kalimpong, Sept. 24: Darjeeling district police today sought to play down the United Gorkha Revolutionary Front (UGRF)’s claims that its armed wing — United Gorkha Revolutionary Army (UGRA) — has been running nine training camps in the subdivision.

“As of now, I have no credible information about the existence of any camps. Let me verify the claims and only then will I make a comment,” said district superintendent of police Rajesh Subarna.

Yesterday, the UGRF had made the “disclosure” in a release issued to a vernacular daily here. In it, the nascent organisation also maintained that once the training gets over, its armed struggle for the creation of the separate state of Gorkhaland would begin. (more…)

www.tekegraphindia.com

Kalimpong: Binod Bhujel and Rodrique Lepcha, the duo picked up from Suruk on Thursday for harbouring rebels belonging to the United Gorkha Revolutionary Army (UGRA), were arrested on Friday. The two, along with suspected UGRA member Ram Rai, were produced in court, which remanded them to 10 days of police custody.

www.telegraphindia.com
Kalimpong, Sept. 21: Darjeeling police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) today launched a joint operation in some of the villages of the hill subdivision in search of the members of the United Gorkha Revolutionary Army (UGRA).

The organisation — supposedly the armed wing of the United Gorkha Revolutionary Front formed by former CISF jawan Ajay Dahal — had announced the launch of an armed struggle for the separate state of Gorkhaland about a fortnight ago. (more…)

Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, Sept. 21: The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Darjeeling Police today launched a joint operation against the newly formed Gorkha National Liberation Army (GNLA), a wing of the United Gorkha Revolutionary Front (UGRF), in the jungles and remote villages of Kalimpong.
Confirming the development, Darjeeling SP Mr Rajesh Subarno said: “A joint operation has been launched against the GNLA and the UGRF activists by police and CRPF jawans today.”
The move comes in the wake of reports that the UGRF had formed its own army in the name of GNLA under the leadership of Ajay Dahal. The GNLA, formed as a part of the UGRF’s proposed armed struggle for the creation of Gorkhaland, had recently splashed some posters in Kalimpong town, exhorting the people of the Hills to join them. (more…)

www.telegraphindia.com

Kalimpong, Sept. 18: The Opposition in the Kalimpong municipality today accused its chairman C.K. Kumai of mis-utilising civic funds, including the Rs 2 lakh donated by him to a local puja committee last year.

The chief of the GNLF-led civic body, however, has lost no time in rebutting the allegations levelled against him by Norden Lama, Bijay Sundas and Pravin Rahapal at a press meet here today.

Besides the donation to Shakti Puja Committee, Kumai had also sanctioned Rs 60,000 for a staff picnic last December. He had leased out a stall in Hat Bazar to a functionary of a trade body affiliated to the GNLF for Rs 71,000 when the person in question had himself put in a bid of Rs 1.71 lakh. Not only that, though Rs 75 lakh has been sanctioned for a bus terminus near Novelty Cinema, the municipality has already run out of funds and it is yet to be completed. (more…)

www.telegraphindia.com

Lava, Sept. 17: You (education) gave light to darkness/ Found the way to the moon/ Happy are the educated lot /Sad, who are not

The above words taken from a Nepali poem describing the imaginary lamentations of a school dropout on the follies of not continuing his education.

Mature as they sound, these words have been penned by 11-year-old Prem Kumar Rai, the son of a farmer living in the remote Dalimgari village of Kalimpong subdivision. A student of Class VI at Juddhabir Higher Secondary School in Gorubathan, Rai recited his poem — Shiksha! Pheri Timro Yad Ayo (O Education! Your Reminiscence Haunts) — before an enthralled crowd at an elocution and extempore speech competition organised by the Rotary Club of Kalimpong.

In fact, people were so stunned by the performance of the diminutive poet, that many were not ready to believe that the poem was truly Rai’s creation. The headmaster of his school, Pradip Gurung, however, put all such doubts to rest. “He writes his own stuff. I, of course, have helped by correcting the spellings here and there,” he said.

“I have written many more poems, including one on my village. I chose to recite this particular poem in the competition because it is the only one I know by heart,” Prem told The Telegraph.

www.telegraphindia.com

Darjeeling, Sept. 17: The message was clear. Religion and traditions are more deep-rooted than politicians and their diktats.

The hill town wore a festive look today, as residents came forward to celebrate Viswakarma Puja like the rest of the country. Pandals were erected and paeans sung to the god.

The enthusiasm came as a surprise as there were indications from the GNLF — the ruling party in the hills which calls all the shots — that the god of engineering and architecture would be worshipped in a new way this time. It is not that Subash Ghisingh, the GNLF chief, had banned the traditional form of worship. For that matter, in the past too, Ghisingh had never issued any directive on religious practices, but then his subtle hints have always been followed to the hilt. (more…)