www.kalimpong.info

http://savethehills.blogspot.com/2008/03/now-that-rains-are-here.html

(Mr. Praful Rao has been spotlighting the landslides issue in the Darjeeling Hills in the site, savethehills.blogspot.com since Sept 07. The site contains detailed records of the work done by ‘Save The Hills’, along with photographs of the landslide affected areas, and correspondences with various agencies and experts. This latest post contains expert advice on recognizing landslide prone areas, warning signs and the emergency responses in the event of a landslide. )

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Yesterday we had the first big premonsoon shower in Kalimpong… since nothing much has been done by way of landslide prevention, I thought might as well post the do’s and don’ts from the Geological Survey of India website (kindly help by giving as much publicity as possible) :-

Areas that are generally prone to landslides

• Old and/or recent existing landslides,
• Base or top of slopes
• Base of minor drainage hollows
• Base or top of an old fill slope
• Base or top of a steep cut slope

Areas generally safe from landslides

• Hard, non-jointed bedrock that has not moved in the past
• Flat-lying areas away from slopes and steep river banks
• The nose of ridges, set back from the tops of slopes

Landslide warning signs

• Sticking or jamming of doors or windows.
• Appearance of cracks in plaster, tile, brick, or foundations.
• Pulling away from the building of outside walls or stairs.
• Slow development of widening cracks on the ground or on paved areas such as streets..
• Breakage of underground utility lines.
• Appearance of bulging ground at the base of a slope
• Emergence of flowing ground water in new sites.
• Sudden decrease in creek water levels though rain is still falling or just recently stopped.
• Tilting or moving of fences, retaining walls, utility poles, or trees.
• Faint rumbling sound that increases in volume as the landslide nears.The ground slopes downward in one specific direction and may begin shifting in that direction under your feet.

Immediate steps for imminent Landslide

• Contact your local fire, police or public works department
• Inform affected neighbors
• Leave the area quickly

Actions to be taken before Intense Rainfall

• Become familiar with the land around you. Slopes where landslides or debris flows have occurred in the past are likely to experience them in the future.
• Buildings should be located away from known landslides, debris flows, steep slopes, streams and rivers, intermittent-stream channels, and the mouths of mountain channels.
• Observe the patterns of storm-water drainage on slopes near your home, and watch especially the places were runoff water converges, increasing flow over soil-covered slopes. Observe the hillsides around your home for any signs of land movement, such as small landslides or debris flows or progressively tilting trees.
• Contact your local authorities to learn about the disaster management response, and develop your own emergency plans for your family and business.

During Intense Rainfall

• Be observant. Many landslide and debris flow fatalities occur when people are sleeping. Listen to radio for warnings of intense rainfall. Intense short bursts of rain may be particularly dangerous, especially after longer periods of heavy rainfall and damp weather.
• Unusual sounds might indicate moving debris, such as trees cracking or boulders knocking together. A trickle of flowing or falling mud or debris may precede larger landslides. Be alert for any sudden increase or decrease in water flow in streams or channels. Such changes may indicate landslide activity upstream, so be prepared to move quickly.
• If you live in areas susceptible to landslides and debris flows, consider leaving if it is safe to do so. If you remain at home, move to a part of the house farthest away from the source of the landslide or debris flows, such as an upper floor, but keep an escape route open should it become necessary to leave the house.
• Be alert when on the roads. Embankments along roadsides are particularly susceptible to landslides. Watch the road for collapsed pavement, mud, fallen rocks, and other indications of possible landslides or debris flows.

After Intense Rainfall

• Be alert for signs indicating land movement. Landslides can occur weeks or months after intense storms.

Things to Remember

• Mudflows tend to flow in channels, but will often spread out over a floodplain. They generally occur in places where they have occurred before.
• Landslide and mudflows usually strike without warning. The force of rocks, soil, or other debris moving down a slope can devastate anything in its path. Take the following steps to be ready.
• Plant ground cover on slopes and build retaining walls.
• In mudflow areas, build channels or deflection walls to direct the flow around buildings.
• Remember: If you build walls to divert debris flow and the flow lands on a neighbor’s property, you may be liable for damages.

Precautions to be taken during landslides

If inside a building:

• Stay inside.
• Take cover under a desk, table, or other piece of sturdy furniture.

If outdoors:

• Try and get out of the path of the landslide or mudflow.
• Run to the nearest high ground in a direction away from the path.
• If rocks and other debris are approaching, run for the nearest shelter such as a group of trees or a building.
• If escape is not possible, curl into a tight ball and protect your head.

After Landslide

• Stay away from the slide area. There may be danger of additional slides.
• Check for injured and trapped persons near the slide area. Give first aid if trained.
• Remember to help your neighbors who may require special assistance–infants, elderly people, and people with disabilities.
• Listen to a battery-operated radio or television for the latest emergency information.
• Remember that flooding may occur after a mudflow or a landslide.
• Check for damaged utility lines. Report any damage to the utility company.
• Check the building foundation, chimney, and surrounding land for damage.
• Replant damaged ground as soon as possible since erosion caused by loss of ground cover can lead to flash flooding.
• Seek the advice of geotechnical expert for evaluating landslide hazards or designing corrective techniques to reduce landslide risk.

-praful rao

www.nepalnews.com

Darjeeling district legislators have demanded that India’s West Bengal state government give proper clarification regarding the killing of 1,200 people by its police two decades ago when the ‘Gorkhaland’ agitation was at its peak.

According to Kantipur daily, legislators Gaulan Lepcha and Pranaya Rai had put forth this demand before WB chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya at the Kolkata legislative assembly Thursday.

After chief minister Bhattcharya gave clarification for the shoot-out that took place at Dinhata of West Bengal during the Thursday’s session of the parliament, the Nepali speaking legislators had demanded that the government also give similar clarification regarding the people who were martyred during the Gorkhaland agitation that broke out in the year 1986. Similarly, they have also sought an explanation regarding the killing of Krishna Subba and Dev Raj Sharma by the state police on August 7, 1981.

They said that the police took the lives of more than 1,200 people during the Gorkhaland agitation by indiscriminately firing at the protestors demanding a separate Gorkhaland state. Thousands of people were also injured and rendered homeless during the agitation.

“The government should own up the responsibility for all the killing that took place during the agitation,” Lepcha said, “or else we would engage in further protest.”

nepalnews.com ag Mar 15 08

www.telegraphindia.com

Darjeeling, March 14: Drinking water, rural electrification and repair of roads top the priority list of the new caretaker administrator of the DGHC.

B.L. Meena, the divisional commissioner of Jalpaiguri, who is now at the helm of hill council affairs, said more meetings would have to be held to streamline the projects. He had called the council officers at Indira Gandhi Conference Hall in Lal Kothi here today to review the status of the schemes and prioritise them on a need basis.

The three-hour meeting was attended by heads of various departments, who apprised the administrator of the pending work at hand.

Sources said the council has already received around Rs 20 crore for rural electrification under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojna and the total funding could touch the Rs 75-crore mark. (more…)

www.telegraphindia.com

Kalimpong, March 14: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s meeting to select a new set of office-bearers in different wings of the Kalimpong branch witnessed a lot of drama today with party members shouting slogans for their favourite candidates.

The drama unfolded at the Town Hall where hundreds of activists had assembled from early in the morning. At the very start of a rather chaotic meeting it became apparent that the selection of office-bearers would be anything but a smooth affair with activists openly hankering over posts.

Some sections of the jam-packed auditorium resorted to sloganeering in support of their respective candidates.

When it became obvious that tussle for positions in the party was being enacted in the open, Morcha secretary Roshan Giri took the microphone and requested journalists to leave, forgetting for the moment that they had been invited by the party.

This is not the first time that reporters have been prevented from covering events. During the no-confidence vote in the Kalimpong Municipality on January 24, Morcha activists had stopped journalists from entering the office of the civic body to report the incident.

Harka Bahadur Chettri, a central committee member of the party, however, tried to soothe ruffled feathers. “Although I was not present when the incident occurred, I feel it could have been handled in a more diplomatic manner. I apologise to the media for what was an unfortunate incident,” he said.

Chettri was also at the receiving end of sloganeering by the section of party activists who favoured Kalyan Dewan as the branch present. As it turned out, Dewan was selected to the post, while Samuel Gurung was nominated secretary. The remaining office-bearers will be selected on a later date.

The women and youth wings of the party in Kalimpong will be headed by Nanita Gautam and Pravin Rahapal respectively.

Shift in loyalty

Bimal Gurung, the vice-chairman of Darjeeling Municipality, has announced that he along with two other commissioners — Jigme Sherpa and Lhamu Sherpa — has resigned from the GNLF. The leaders have not yet joined any other party.

Statesman News Service

DARJEELING, March 14: The Jalpaiguri divisional commissioner Mr BL Meena, held his first meeting with the heads of the various departments of the DGHC at the DGHC secretariat, Lal Kothi today. The meeting focused on the various projects initiated by the DGHC, the pending sch-emes and the future plan of action to be undertaken. The important issues dealt with were safe drinking water, health, sanitation, repair of roads, power, tourism and education.

Emphasis would be given on the development of the entire Hills but the rural areas would be of paramount importance. The prime focus was on rural electrification scheme and the accelerated rural water supply scheme.

Mr Meena assured that he would personally meet the heads of individual departments to discuss matters in detail and chalk out the future plans. Regarding the nine vacant positions at the DGHC, the divisional commissioner, said that he had forwarded a memorandum to the government to appoint new officials immediately.

As of now he has requested the government to depute at least five officials from the district collectorate’s office to handle the vacant posts.

www.telegraphindia.com

Kalimpong, March 13: Till a year ago, the GNLF had used the Maghe Mela at Tribeni to establish the tribal roots of the Gorkhas and build up its case to demand Sixth Schedule status for the hills.

A little more than 12 months later, about 20,000 people from the Darjeeling hills and the Dooars descended on the picturesque venue of Tribeni, the confluence of the Teesta and Rangit, to celebrate the success of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in stalling the special status bill and in ousting Subash Ghisingh as caretaker administrator of the DGHC.

As in Singla, Morcha president Bimal Gurung was present at Tribeni, 50km from Darjeeling, today to join in the revelry. However, unlike yesterday when he only did the listening, Gurung did speak, albeit briefly. Conscious of the presence of a large number of people from the Dooars, Gurung reassured them saying: “We will not part with even an inch of the Dooars during our struggle for Gorkhaland.”

Predictably, this was greeted with a deafening roar of approval, which all but drowned the mighty currents of the Teesta. (more…)

/www.telegraphindia.com

Siliguri, March 13: The Darjeeling district police chief has showcaused the inspector-in-charge of Darjeeling Sadar police station, N.T. Sherpa, for raiding the houses of retired DGHC officers without search warrants to retrieve official files in their possession.

Police had already made an inventory of the files seized on Tuesday. On that day, the supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters were demonstrating outside the houses of Tshering Bhutia, Tika Khati, Tshering Wangchuk and M.N. Pradhan, accusing them of removing the files on the sly. The law enforcers initially arrived to control the law and order situation.

“Suddenly, Morcha supporters started demanding that the houses be searched. Without any warrant, the police conducted raids and seized 200 files,” a source said. The Morcha later lodged a complaint with the Sadar police station, alleging that files had been removed from DGHC offices.

It is mandatory to have a court order to conduct a search or seize articles, a senior police official said. “As for taking home official files, it depends upon the administrative capacity of the person concerned.” (more…)

Hindustan Times
March 12, 2008

Mahendra P. Lama

At best, Subhash Ghisingh had become redundant to the aspirations of the people of Darjeeling and its adjoining Dooar areas of northern West Bengal. At worst, he was an obstacle and was perceived to be ‘sleeping with the enemy’, the Left Front government. So very few will be disappointed as the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) chief, literally hounded out of Darjeeling by the Gorkha Mukti Morcha (GMM), resigned as administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) on Monday.

Over the last few months, the violence of the Gorkhaland agitation that affected Darjeeling in the mid-1980s seemed to be re-emerging. Ironically, this time the GNLF and the state government, which were at loggerheads then, were pitted against the people of Darjeeling. The GNLF that spearheaded the movement for separate statehood has been in tatters for some time now — the baton being taken by the DGHC. The immediate cause for this has been the way the DGHC, set up in 1988, was being brought under the purview of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The real resentment was against the Sixth Schedule Amendment Bill, 2007, that is based on the ‘in principle’ tripartite Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) signed on December 6, 2005, by Ghisingh, the Union Home Secretary and the Chief Secretary of West Bengal Government. The GNLF chief, after losing his political clout, negotiated the MoS and signed it as an DGHC ‘administrator’, not as an elected representative or even as president of his party.

The fragile situation in Darjeeling today is largely due to the cascading effects of the Left Front’s step-motherly treatment of the hill people. The signing of the 1988 accord and the poor running of the DGHC by the GNLF only consolidated what civil society in the hills called ‘internal colonialism’ practised by the state government. People were worried that the agitation this time was going to be more violent and protracted as the levels of frustration have been deeper and wider.

In the last two decades of DGHC’s existence, many of the tea gardens and all cinchona plantations have closed down. Most traditional means of livelihood have been destroyed. There are incidences of hunger deaths, suicides and human trafficking. The environmental deterioration has reached its peak with the people in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong towns not getting drinking water for months on end. The DGHC has never made any development plans except the one in 1989. It had been drawing and utilising the funds on a purely ad hoc basis. No one knows what its annual budget is. Added to these are serious issues of political violence where civil society members and councillors have been murdered, while the media have been intimidated. With great difficulty, a village-level panchayat system was introduced in the last few years. It remains non-operational today. This is the ninth year that the DGHC elections have not been held.

The West Bengal government remained quite content with this arrangement as Ghisingh surrendered the demand for separate statehood and compromised on all the major aspirations of the hill people. It was a win-win situation for the government as it did not need to share any development resources and authority, as it functioned with a weak DGHC. It only required to oil the latter’s creaky and corrupt machinery as Ghisingh was allowed to run the DGHC like his personal fiefdom. For years together, the Left Front maintained that there are no opposition parties in Darjeeling. In the process, it lost support in its traditional bases and among its hill cadres.

In order to escape this deteriorating situation, Ghisingh had come up with the Sixth Schedule idea. He never consulted the people, political parties, social organisations or any civil society organisation. He assured that the entire hill people, including the scheduled castes, will get the Scheduled Tribes status under the Sixth Schedule. Remember, he’s the same man who had misled the people by announcing that the fate of Darjeeling was in the International Court of Justice in the Hague, by stating that Darjeeling was a ‘No Man’s Land’, by inciting people to burn the India-Nepal Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1950, and by taking the case of Darjeeling’s ‘sovereign status’ to the Supreme Court. As recently as in 2005, Ghisingh had declared that the entire district was in the grip of Pakistan’s ISI. It was the fear that the Sixth Schedule status in its present form will not bring anything substantive to the people that cooked Ghisingh’s goose.

Till the Darjeeling hills and the adjoining areas of Dooars are given the status of a full statehood, people want a new and amended tripartite MoS among the West Bengal government, the Union government and elected representatives of the hills. This amended MoS must be the basis of including the Darjeeling hill region in the Sixth Schedule. The alternative is to hold the hill council election in the next few months and renegotiate the Sixth Schedule status with a new leadership.

Dr. Mahendra P. Lama prepared the First Development Plan of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council in 1989

indiatimes.com

13 Mar 2008, 0424 hrs IST,Anand Soondas,TNN

If one looked at Subash Ghisingh closely, gaunt, bare-boned, unsmiling and perpetually wrapped in the sartorially killing feather-jacket and tie combination, nobody could remotely imagine he was capable of such atrocious lies or flabbergasting flights of fancy.

A sample: Gautam Buddha was 18 feet tall and each of his ears weighed 10 kg.

Another sparkling gem: Earthquakes occur when gods angrily stomp in the heavens and so it’s essential to periodically get Ganesha drunk on tongba, the local beer.

Ghisingh, who’s just stepped down as the strongest, often meanest, power centre in the Darjeeling hills, lording over 20 lakh people for 20 miserable years, could well have been India’s own version of Papa ‘Doc’ Duvalier, the Haitian dictator of the 1950s who believed more in voodoo than vox pop and once got all black dogs killed in his country because someone told him Clement Barbot, his rival, had turned into one to avoid prosecution.

In the years since Ghisingh marched for Gorkhaland and got Bengal to submit to a settlement that was half way between independent state and autonomy, the Gorkha Hill Council, no dogs were killed in Darjeeling. Darjeeling went to the dogs instead.

“There was nothing to look forward to except Ghisingh’s bizarre take on life, history and religion,” says Deepak Pradhan, a businessman in Darjeeling. “People initially didn’t complain because they were too busy putting together pieces of their shattered lives after the violence of the 1980s. Later, when they did, GNLF (Gorkha National Liberation Front) goons physically throttled protest voices.”

By the time Ghisingh finally relinquished power, all that the former soldier of the elite 8th Gorkha Regiment was left with was a legacy of eccentricities, a long list of corruption charges, horrifying tales of excesses and, as his cohorts say, a severe bout of diarrhoea.

The man who once unified the more than one crore Nepalese in India and had grand, if suspicious, visions of Greater Gorkhaland, a warriors’ swathe that would straddle Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Darjeeling, had by the end of his eventful but abject rule become a caricature of himself. He was his own mascot. The Ghisingh mystique had morphed into burlesque.

“Who said Durga has 10 hands,” he would thunder during Darjeeling’s famous Dussehra festivities. “She has 18.” The goddess metamorphosed, too, as artisans implanted extra limbs, the new ones clutching frightful weapons.

At other times he harangued about evolution as hapless audiences feigned interest.

“The earth was formed on June 20,” he said, without either care or concern for Darwin. “And in 15 years there won’t be any mosquitoes in the world.”

Not that he spared anthropology, theology, medicine and quantum physics. “Some of us,” he announced earnestly, “have come from Ukraine.” In more adventurous moods he would insist global warming happened because Shani had made the sun its home. The solution: Rubber plantation.

When he got tired with flying rocks that became nations, he would take on medicine and ask people to clap their hands if they wanted to beat tuberculosis. But one of his most bizarre and fantastic notions revolved around a folk singer from Nepal called Ani Tshering Doma. “Three lakh restless spirits have found peace after hearing her spiritual songs,” he told a gathering once.

“That’s what it became finally,” says Roshan Giri, general secretary of the rival Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. “Our hills became a fool’s paradise. There was no talk of poverty alleviation, unemployment, corruption and the dying economy.” Another GJM leader, H B Chettri, sees this as the beginning of the end of Ghisingh and his GNLF.

“There’s finally light in the dark mountains,” he says. A GNLF man, who changed sides timing it with the changing mood, said it was Ghisingh’s pride that did him in. “Just like the foolish emperor and his new clothes, our leader was blinded by power. And he had no one with courage to advise him better.”

It’s almost certain Ghisingh’s maddening run of the hills is over. The 72-year-old, who’s still not dared to return to his land, may have given the Nepalese identity, unity and dreams of Gorkhaland, but there’s little hope for himself. He could get back to writing—he’s written 21 novels, many distinctly titillating and, pen an autobiography that could be called Nothing Hill.

Unless, of course, Durga with her 18 hands comes to his rescue or a flying stone miraculously turns into a kingdom he can rule, naming it ‘Ghisinghland’.

www.telegraphindia.com

Kalimpong/Calcutta, March 12: A family of three chose to travel more than 600km from their home in Hooghly district to Lava near Kalimpong to commit suicide. While the 65-year-old widowed mother succeeded, two of her children are fighting for life at Kalimpong Subdivisional Hospital.

Kalpana Moitra and her children — Jyotirmoy (30) and Anusuya (29) — had checked into a hotel in Lava on March 8. Last evening, the employees of the hotel, found them lying unconscious in their room. The trio were driven down from Lava to the Kalimpong hospital, 35km away. Police said the three had consumed sleeping pills and Kalpana died two hours after she was hospitalised.

The two siblings are not yet out of danger and will be kept under observation for the next couple of days. (more…)

- Dr. Sonam B. Wangyal

The Nepali word for hand or, more correctly, the forearm is ‘haat‘ and the term was once used, formerly frequently and now occasionally, to denote a measure of length representing the distance between the finger tips to the elbow. But let us not leave it at that but rather ‘haat lagau’ (commence/begin) to give it the real flatter it deserves instead of just a cursory mention. ‘Haat misamis‘ (lit. exchange of hands) means fighting and conversely should the flaying hands come together we get, ‘haat jornu‘, and one would then be asking for supplication: now isn’t that appropriate!

Similarly, another appropriate one is the common expression ‘malai rees uthyoki haat chilai halcha‘ or if provoked I itch for a fight. In the small gambling joints that punctuate our hills ‘haat‘ takes a new meaning in the common expression ‘tas barne kasko haat ho?‘ meaning whose ‘turn’ is it to deal the cards. In both the latter cases hands may be essential for the implied purpose but the intended meanings are entirely different: fight and turn.

But I know that most of us are not fighters or gamblers so let us continue with some other undertones of the word which ‘mero haat pareko cha‘ (or have come to my possession.) and I am inspired to ‘haat halnu‘ or meddle with them. In the English language we are familiar with the term ‘the long hand of the law’ but in Nepali it is just the opposite: only our thieves have long hands and so we are told, “Tyo sangha hosiyar garnu, haat lamo chha!” (Be wary of him, he is a thief!). The meddling hand appears to be everywhere and therefore it is not uncommon to hear comments like, “Tyasko safaltama mero haat chha!” or “Mero bephaltama tyasko thulo haat chha!“.

Now what is exceptional is that the fingers in the ‘haat‘ are given a very unique pecking order and using the word ‘auli‘ the thumb is ‘jethi auli‘, ‘maili auli‘ the first finger, ‘saili auli’ the second finger, ‘kaili auli‘ the third finger and ‘kanchi auli’ the little finger. The alternative is to use the word ‘aulo‘ (masculine) which will then give us ‘buro aulo‘ for the thumb, ‘chor aulo‘ or ‘kalmi aulo’ ( ‘kalam‘ holding) for the index finger, followed by ‘mailo (maila) aulo‘, ‘sailo aulo‘ and ‘kancho aulo‘ down the hierarchy. In which other lingo is this possible!

Before we round off this part of the essay let me tell you one more thing about ‘haat‘. John Keay, the famous historian on India, would like us to believe that the early Aryans migrating to Aryabarta, the land between Vindya and the Himalaya, had never seen an elephant and seeing the trunk do the job of a “hand” they simply called the beast ‘hat-ee’ (Sanskrit: hasti).

Talking about the early Aryans there is another contribution of theirs to our lexicon, so says another historian. The Aryans traveled from west to the east, towards the sun, looking for a better future. So ahead of them was their ‘purba‘ or ‘before/future’ and that became east, ‘purab‘. At the opposite was what they had left behind or ‘pachhim‘ (cf. Nepali ‘pachhi‘) and so we got our west. In the left direction were the Himalaya, the high mountains or ‘uttan‘ or ‘uttara‘ and that came to be known as ‘uttar‘ or north and the land on the right hand side became ‘dachhin‘ or south (Sanskrit: dakhsina = right or south). So if an Englishman blows his trumpet saying that NEWS means North, East, West and South you can tell him that where cardinal directions are concerned we have a much richer and more profound history.

Kalimpong, March 11: The youth organisation of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha claims to have set its mind on bringing about positive changes in the society, without losing focus on the greater struggle for Gorkhaland.

The Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha believes that corruption is one scourge that the society can do without, one of the reasons why the members of the organisation were at the forefront of the party’s anti-corruption drive carried out in some DGHC departments today.

“Corruption has been the bane of our society and it will be our endeavour to root out this scourge,” said A.M. Thulung, the president of the Yuva Morcha.

He said the youth organisation’s leadership was clear about the areas it wanted to work on. “Matters like education and employment are issues concerning us and we intend to take them up in an organised manner in future,” he added.

Harka Bahadur Chettri, a central committee member of the party, said there was a need to bring about radical changes in the education system both in terms of finalising the syllabus as well as appointment of teachers.

“The DGHC randomly recruited the ruling party’s cadres (read the GNLF) as teachers although they were not cut out for the job,” alleged Chettri, who is himself a teacher. The challenge is to ensure that the fruits of development trickled own to the lowest strata, he added.

Chettri said the party must send a clear message that the rule of law will prevail at all times.

“The common man should never fill deprived, which is why it is important to punish people found guilty of corruption, as they have siphoned money meant to benefit the poor,” Chettri added.