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RAJEEV RAVIDAS

Kalimpong, Jan. 31: Karma Sherpa, a contestant of Zee Bangla’s music reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, has come up with his first solo Nepali album, stealing a march over Indian Idol Prashant Tamang in terms of originality.

People in the hills, who had shown incredible zeal in voting for Prashant in Indian Idol 3, were a little disappointed with his first album, produced by Sony Music, which featured more remixes — of popular Hindi and Nepali songs — than originals.

Karma’s Destiny, on the other hand, comprises seven original tracks, including one song, “Timro Manta (Oh! Your Heart)”, which he has written and composed along with his friend Wangdi Sherpa.

“My first album is dedicated to all those who voted for me during the Sa Re Ge Ma Pa contest and I believe they will love it,” said Karma, who was in town today to promote his music album.

The singer from Sonada near Darjeeling told The Telegraph that despite not being very comfortable in Bengali, he did manage to make an impression during the long drawn contest telecast by the Bengali entertainment channel.

“I am in talks with Nepali film director Tikam Sharma to sing in one of his forthcoming films. Besides, another Hindi movie director has shown an interest in giving me a break,” Karma said.

Karma has been keeping himself busy by performing in various parts of the hills. Last week he was in Jaigoan, bordering Bhutan, where he sang alongside Prashant.

“It is good to see singers from the hills doing well. After Prashant (who is from Toongsoong in Darjeeling) and me, it is now Prakriti Giri (in Amul Star Voice of India — Chhote Ustaad) who is giving a good account of herself on the national stage,” said Karma.

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Jan. 30: The municipalities of Darjeeling and Kalimpong have banned the sale of poultry products in the two towns from today, but the civic body in Kurseong is still mulling over the decision.

R Thatal, the executive officer of the Darjeeling Municipality, said: “We decided to take this precautionary step because bird flu has rapidly spread in other districts.”

Though Darjeeling district is still untouched by the flu, most chicken vendors in the hills source their products from the plains through Siliguri. Bird flu has been confirmed in the nearby district of Cooch Behar.

Civic authorities in Darjeeling met the 40-odd major vendors of the town on January 25 before imposing the ban. Today, all shops selling poultry products were shut.

In Kalimpong, sanitary inspector Sanjay Pradhan said: “We request both sellers and buyers not to trade in broiler chickens and eggs till they hear from us.”

The vice-chairman of the Kurseong Municipality, Sanjay Chhetri, said the civic body “is yet to decide on the ban”.

In Takdah, 35km from Darjeeling, 38 chickens died in a poultry farm yesterday. “We have sent the samples to Calcutta. The chickens may have died of cold,” said district magistrate Rajesh Pandey. Yesterday, the temperature was sub-zero in Darjeeling.

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Kalimpong, Jan. 30: The president of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Bimal Gurung, today said civil society’s concern about disruption of normal life in the hills in the present political climate would be kept in mind while chalking out the party’s future programmes.

Gurung, however, said at times options become limited, especially when there are particular situations that demand immediate protest. The Morcha chief, who interacted with a seven-member team of Citizens’ Rights Forum, an NGO here, was responding to a suggestion that the civil society should be consulted before political parties go for strikes or any other form of protests that can disrupt normal life.

The forum, comprising various organisations, came into being late last year following a crippling five-day bandh in the hills imposed by both the Morcha and the GNLF. Later, it had organised a massive rally protesting against the politics of strike.

On January 24, normal life across the hills was paralysed because of a dawn-to-dusk bandh called by the Morcha to demand the arrest of I.N. Pradhan, a GNLF leader in Darjeeling.

During the interaction, forum member A.P. Rai asked Gurung to exempt essential services, including some government departments, from the purview of bandhs. It was the poor people who were affected the most at times of political strife, he said.

“We as a civil society have the right to point out the mistakes as and when your party does something undemocratic,” said forum president N.P. Dixit.

The Morcha president was initially scheduled to address a public meeting at Gorubathan, 70km from here, but was forced to cancel the rally after police raised concerns about his security.

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Kalimpong, Jan. 29: A few concerned residents, under the banner of Save the Hills, are trying to find ways to fight landslides in Kalimpong, a problem skirted by the powers-that-be.

Over the past two days, the residents hosted a team of students from the North Bengal University’s one-year post-graduate diploma programme in disaster management and gave them a detailed account of the havoc caused by landslides in Kalimpong in September last year.

The team had eight students, accompanied by the department head Sanjay Rana.

The team was taken to a few landslide-hit areas like Elainchikhop, Bhalukhop, Dalapchand and 14th Mile. Save the Hills also conducted a workshop where its president Praful Rao made a power-point presentation for the benefit of the students.

“Some of the students will incorporate what they have learnt during this field trip in their project reports, which they have to prepare in the second semester of their course,” said Rana.

The objective behind the visit, said Rana, was to enable the students to get a first-hand experience of landslides and gather technical inputs.

The students, on their part, said the visit was of immense benefit to them.

“Lack of drainage, haphazard construction and poor soil character seemed to be the main causes of the landslides. What was also noticeable was that the people were not sufficiently aware of the problem,” said Preeti Gurung, a student.

In fact, the students were so moved by Save the Hill’s work on landslides that some of them have made a commitment to support the NGO in whatever way they can.

“We will be writing to authorities concerned and, maybe, even hold a seminar on the issue in our university,” said Gurung.

Rana confirmed that he was toying with the seminar idea.

The NGO has expressed unhappiness over the complete lack of initiative from government agencies to tackle the problem.

“Despite writing to so many agencies, we have found no evidence of any preventive work being done on the ground. The situation remains exactly the same as it was in September. This is scary because the monsoon is only about four-five months away,” said Rao.

The NGO has been tirelessly campaigning about the threat since the September landslides. It has already conducted three workshops.

“Despite receiving little response from agencies concerned, we will keep espousing the cause because, quite simply, our future is at stake here,” said the president of the NGO.

On September 7, 2007, five persons had died in the Kalimpong subdivision after incessant rain triggered a series of landslides in the area.

-Dr. Sonam B. Wangyal

At the time of the British take over of Kalimpong (1865) the population of the present day Sub-Division was estimated to be around 3536 souls only. Following the annexation immigration was actively encouraged and the industrious Nepalis happily crossed the Tista to populate and terrace the virgin soil. By 1881 the population had risen to 12,683 and the annual revenue from poll tax had also increased from a paltry Rs 640 to a respectable Rs 11,800. In the next decade the population more than doubled to 26,631 and the bazaar had, beside the Nepalis, Lepchas and Bhutias, several Marwaris, Mohameddans, and other plainsmen. When Britain extracted a trade convention in 1893 allowing for a trade mart at Yatung it was expected to boost trade through Kalimpong. However, nothing worthy of statistical records materialized and people, by then well over 45,000, went about their normal chores waiting for a bonanza called Tibet Trade. Then towards the turn of the century a man arrived who was to change the face of Kalimpong. This man, Rev. Dr. Grahams, in the opening year of the twentieth century contributed considerably to Kalimpong’s population, prestige and pecuniary development by commencing the St. Andrew’s Colonial Homes. The empty hillside below the Daelo then became the sight of sustained construction. Expecting many more Europeans to follow Dr. Graham, Daelo was made the preserve of the Europeans with the government earmarking ten residential sites of two acres each for European settlement. Far away on the opposite side the ‘Development Area’ was reserved for the hillmen with the ruling that no one else could occupy it. Later matters would end the other way around with Europeans and Bengalis living at the Development Area and the hillmen on the Daelo slopes.

The next spurt of development came when many of the soldiers in Younghusband’s Mission to Tibet passed through Kalimpong in 1904. The Mela Ground was increased to accommodate the soldiers, numerous coolies and suppliers arrived (many of whom never went back) and the crude road to Jelep La was improved upon. Incidentally, the temporary armoury of Younghusband containing some canons (Nepali: tope pronounced as in ‘rope’) became our present day ‘Top-khana’. This Mission profited the British with two more trade marts at Gyantse and Gartok and with that the chances of Kalimpong becoming a bustling trade centre increased. But hope was belied for the road communication was still primitive and most of all the Tista was yet to be bridged sufficiently strong for the expected commerce. It was during this difficult phase that a European wool trader, Mr Korb, finding that all suitable lands being either reserved forest or reserved for hillmen, applied to the government to purchase a plot. This became a sounding bell that there were people, besides the highlanders, who were interested in settling in Kalimpong. With Darjeeling becoming rapidly overpopulated the government now weighed Kalimpong as a possible alternative.

Mr. C. J. Stevenson-Moore, a Member of the Board of Revenue, along with the Commissioner of the Rajsahi Division and the deputy Commissioner of Darjeeling accordingly visited Kalimpong in the first week of June 1914. Kalimpong was found suitable for a hill station but Stevenson-Moore set three prerequisites: (1) the area east of Tista be declared a Sub-Division, (2) provision for potable water supply be made and (3) the road to Jelep La be improved. In 1915 the Tista Valley Extension Railway opened with Gaillekhola as a terminus and effort was made to improve the existing cart road between Tista and Kalimpong including the road to Jelep La. In 1916 Kalimpong was declared a Sub-Division and in November 1917 the Governor of Bengal visited Kalimpong and approved Rinkingpong as suitable site for a new Civil Station. The rules were revised to allow fresh settlers at Ringkingpong and the hillmen living there walked away with compensation for land, crop and building with an additional bonus in the form of cash for shifting. Kalimpong was now to become a hill station.

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January 29, 2008

The people of Kalimpong block I turned up in huge numbers at a Morcha rally in Kalimpong town today, suggesting that the three-month old party has breached the last bastion of the GNLF.

Around 7,000 people braved the winter chill for close to five hours to listen to speeches by a host of Morcha leaders, including party president Bimal Gurung.

“I’ve always said that people of Kalimpong take time to warm up, but once they are charged up it becomes very difficult to rein them in. The days of the GNLF are numbered,” said Gurung to wild cheers from his supporters.

“We are against the politics of violence. We will not take recourse to khukuris and guns to achieve our goal, but fight with the might of pen,” the Morcha president added.

The Morcha will organise rallies at Algarah tomorrow and at Gorubathan on Wednesday.

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Kalimpong, Jan. 27: The president of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Bimal Gurung, is scheduled to address party supporters at a rally at Mela Ground here tomorrow.

This will be Gurung’s second visit to the Kalimpong subdivision after forming the party three months ago. He had made the first trip to address a public rally at the adjoining Motor Stand on October 31 last year.

Unlike last time, when there was not much participation from local people, tomorrow’s meeting could see massive turnout because the Morcha has gained a lot of ground since then. In the last three months, the party has set up units practically in every nook and cranny of the subdivision.

“These days getting people to attend our meetings require very little effort. The mere presence of Bimal is enough to draw crowds,” said Harka Bahadur Chhetri, a member of the Morcha’s central committee.

Chhetri said the meeting has been called as part of the Morcha’s continuing effort to create public opinion against the granting of Sixth Schedule status to the hills.

“If the people take a stand against accepting the Sixth Schedule, no government can ignore their will,” said Chhetri.

Gurung and other top Morcha leaders addressed a public meeting in Mungpoo in the Kurseong subdivision today.

“We are educating the people on the submission we made before the parliamentary standing committee (which has been given the task of examining the Sixth Schedule bill) and the response we got from it,” said Chhetri.

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Kurseong/Darjeeling, Jan. 25: GNLF leader I.N. Pradhan was arrested from Sukna today after eluding police since Tuesday night when he allegedly fired at Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters in front of his house at Ghayabari.

Jayanta Pal, the additional superintendent of police of Darjeeling, confirmed that it was an arrest and not a surrender. “He was arrested from Sukna,” Pal said.

Following an FIR lodged by the Morcha on Tuesday night, the police had found two unlicensed guns from Pradhan’s house and arrested his wife, Deepa, but failed to track down the Kurseong branch committee president of the GNLF. (more…)

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Gangtok, Jan. 24: Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT) has appreciated the Sikkim government’s move to withdraw the letters of intent issued to four private hydro-electric power developers currently working on projects in the state.

The NGO now wants the government to take a similar decision on other hydel power projects in the state, including Teesta Stage IV and the 300mw Panan project.

The four projects sent to the backburner by the government include the 99mw Lingza project on the Tholung-chu in the Lepcha reserve of Dzongu in North Sikkim. (more…)

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The no-confidence motion against the GNLF-led civic board in Kalimpong was easily defeated at a specially convened meeting of the municipality today. All six commissioners in favour of the motion, including two GNLF rebels, chose to stay away from the meet, while 17 voted against it.

Later, municipality chairman C.K. Kumai said this was a victory for the GNLF and its president Subash Ghisingh.