www.kalimpong.info

www.telegraphindia.com

The open reservoir (in picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha) under the Neora Khola Water Supply Scheme that was inaugurated at Algarah, 16km from Kalimpong, on Sunday.

Constructed at a cost of Rs 4.63 crore, the reservoir, the third under the project, can store 13.34 million gallons of water.

The construction of the reservoir was started in 1989-90, but was stalled for a technical problem for 7-8 years. Water from the scheme caters to the civic area and the army station in Kalimpong.

www.telegraphindia.com

Darjeeling/Siliguri, May 20: English appears to have emerged as the most scoring subject for ICSE and ISC students from the Darjeeling hills this year, while marks in mathematics and the science subjects have gone down compared to 2007.

“Every year, students in ICSE (Class X) and ISC (Class XII) fare well in a particular subject and this year they have definitely done well in English,” said Fr Kinley Tshering, the rector of St Joseph’s School (North Point). “The marks in mathematics and science have not been as good as last year.” (more…)

www.thestatesman.net

Mrinalini Sharma

ALGARAH (Kalimpong), May 18: The Union external affairs minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee today inaugurated the Algarah Open Ground Water Reservoir at Algarah, 16 km from Kalimpong today. “Water supply is one six main agendas taken up by the government. I appreciate the work that has been done as it will solve the water crisis in the region,” the minister said.
The reservoir comes under the Neorakhola Water Supply Scheme and was initiated in 1989-90 before work was stalled due to technical reasons. However, with the help of an expert committee its construction commenced in 2005 and was finally completed in December 2007. Neorakhola and the Dhaulakhola are the two sources of the reservoir which has a capacity of 13.44 million gallons.

The project, which is a joint venture of the state government and the Army, is designed to supply water to the Kalimpong municipal town, Army establishments and the en-route village. Initially an amount of Rs 22 crore had been sanctioned for the project which was revised to 31 crore in 1990.

While complimenting the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department for completing a complicated project because of the difficult terrain, the Union minister emphasised the need to sustain such projects. “It is one thing to complete the project but sustaining for the future is more important,” he said.

Mr Mukherjee further added that priority is given to water, food and energy security by international bodies. “Emphasis should be given to obtaining pure portable water more than the ground water resources,” he said. (more…)

-Dr. Sonam B. Wangyal

In a temple the man who has the job of burning incense to the deities is known as a ‘dhupauray‘ i.e. the man who carries a censer. But outside the temple a ‘dhupauray‘ would be a sycophant, a flatterer living off the hand-outs of the more endowed. He would be a combination of a ‘dui-mukhay‘ and a ‘dui-jibray‘ or a liar and a hypocrite and his sponsor generally a ‘dhan phukuwā‘ or a spendthrift. Ah! You must have noticed the parallel with the English, ‘a person who blows up his money’ (dhan = wealth, phuk = blow, uwa = a suffix denoting a person). A shade better than a ‘dhupauray‘ would be a ‘taparay‘, a person who lives on the charity of others, and he gets the label from ‘tapari‘ which is a small plate made of leaves. So in a circuitous way a ‘taparay‘ is a person so indigent that he cannot even afford a regular plate and therefore has to live on handouts. (more…)

www.telegraphindia.com

RAJEEV RAVIDAS

Kalimpong, May 15: The directorate of technical education in Bengal has taken necessary steps to ensure the sustainability of Chitrabhanu, the art and craft centre, where no student has enrolled for quite some time now.

Housed in a cottage, once a summer home of Rabindranath Tagore, at Atisha Road here, the centre currently has no trainees. It does not have adequate teaching staff either. As The Telegraph had reported last December, the total staff strength of the centre consists of one instructor, two office clerks, a peon and a night guard.

In an effort to reverse its decline, the directorate now plans to fill up all vacancies and introduce a two-year post-graduate diploma in computer application at the centre.

“The cabinet and finance department have already given nod to the filling up of five posts and we will soon set the recruitment process in motion,” said Parijat Dey, the director of technical education, over the phone from Calcutta.

The posts include that of superintendent, an instructor each for art and craft, music and computer, and a matron for the girls’ hostel. Dey said they would be appointed in two-three months.

The director said the PG diploma course would be open to both boys and girls. He added that the idea of starting the course is to train young people in the hills in computer application and enable them to find employment. The centre has run programmes only for women so far.

Dey said plans are also afoot to revamp the one-year diploma training for ensuring that students become employed or self-employed.

Chitrabhanu was set up 44 years ago to train women between the age of 18 and 30 in disciplines like painting, music and craft. However, there have been no takers for the centre from the side of either trainees or teachers recently.

www.thestatesman.net

GOPALI BANDOPADHYAY

I landed at Bagdogra’s tiny airport early this month, experiencing equal measures of enthusiasm and trepidation. The latter especially because West Bengal Urban Development Minister Ashok Bhattacharya had been discouraging tourists from travelling to Darjeeling to enjoy its cool climes. He had warned that the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) would create trouble for tourists.

According to media reports, the locals were very agitated about the state government’s actions and the hill station was seething with unrest - an indefinite strike was looming. I had been warned that a strike would mean trouble. I would be stranded in an inaccessible place; food and water would run out; and there could be violence against Bengalis.

Nonetheless, I was desperate for a break and, chin up, decided Darjeeling was the best bet considering the short distance and char-ming surroundings. So there I was, in a car, speeding towards my destination. If I had been expecting trouble, it turned out to be entirely unfounded. The local people seemed peace-loving and gentle.

Following the typical tourist agenda, I began by visiting the popular sightseeing venues. The first day I saw the Japanese temple and Buddhist pagoda and then the Rock Garden and Ganga Maya. Darjeeling has certainly woken up to its tourism potential. Most of its income is from this sector, with tea coming in at a distant second. In peak season, tourist traffic crosses 20,000 per day. (more…)

www.telegraphindia.com

RAJEEV RAVIDAS

Kalimpong, May 14: A detailed mapping of the hazardous slopes could form the basis of an engineering solution to the problem of landslides in the Darjeeling hills. If all go according to plan, such an exercise would be taken up in Kalimpong with the help of the University of Pittsburgh in the US.

An indication to this effect was given by Kent Harries, the leader of a visiting team from Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering. Besides Harries who is the assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, the team includes three students.

They were here on a study tour of the region at the invitation of Gayatri Kharel, a structural engineer and a member of the Planners Alliance for Himalayan and Allied Region (Pahar).

Harries, who spoke to The Telegraph over the phone from Darjeeling yesterday, said the slopes were a significant regional problem that they were not aware of till their arrival and there was a need to find a sustainable engineering solution to it. “Kalimpong could be taken up as a case study,” he added. (more…)

Source: Himalaya Darpan

Thanks to BMP for the article.

In honour of the original inhabitants of our hills.
-Admin

———
Lepcha Mad
Dr. Sonam B. Wangyal

Of the many people the Lepchas honour few can match the reverence that Lieutenant General George Byres Mainwaring (proper pronunciation Mannering) commands. This veneration becomes all the more significant since Mainwaring was not a Lepcha and belonged to an aristocratic family of Cavenagh-Mainwaring from Whitmore and Budduph in Staffordshire. He was born in India on 18 July 1825 while his father was serving in the Bengal Civil Service. From his father George Mainwaring he received his first name, George, and from his mother, Isabella Byres, his middle name Byres. As it was the convention with people possessing money and status the boy Mainwaring was packed off to ‘home’, in his case home being Aberdeen, Scotland, to complete his studies and from Aberdeen it was to Wimbledon for higher learning in classics and mathematics. In the confines of the British institutions little did the young lad know that one day he would be a champion amongst the Lepchas and that he would be reverentially recalled by this community even well beyond a hundred years of his death. (more…)