www.kalimpong.info

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, July 31: GNLF leader and the chairman of the Kalimpong Municipality, C.K. Kumai, and his deputy, Karna Hang Subba, have resigned from their respective posts and as councillors, ending a six-month impasse at the civic body.

Another GNLF councillor, Aditya Rai, has also resigned from his seat. The trio submitted their resignations in separate letters addressed to the board of councillors.

“We received the letters last night where they have also mentioned that they are resigning from the GNLF,” said Norden Lama, a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader and councillor of Ward 7. (more…)

The Telegraph

RAJEEV RAVIDAS

Kalimpong, July 30: The DGHC is is yet to open the Rs 2 crore Kalimpong Science Centre, although quite a few months have passed since it was completed.

While the outgoing chief principal secretary of the DGHC, Rajesh Pandey, claimed that the delay was on account of the unfinished electrical work at the centre, others associated with the project said there were other reasons that were holding its inauguration.

The only electrical work that remains to be done is to fix lights in the small parking area in front of the main building and, maybe, decorative lights along the footpath to the outdoor park.

Given that the centre will be open to visitors only during the day, the reason given by the DGHC authorities for the delay in its opening does not hold much water. In fact, the little electrical work that needs to be done could be completed within days.

According to sources, there was definite talk about the centre being opened some time in June by Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, but it was not to be.

Pandey, however, said although inviting the governor was pondered over, he was not approached formally.

He hinted that prevailing strife in the hills was causing the delay. But taking into account the fact that all major appointments for the centre were also done in September last year, the centre should have become operational not long after that, although the entire civil work still remained to be completed.

“We completed all civil construction work at a cost of Rs 1.27 crore by November last year and handed back the complex to the education department (of the DGHC),” said Yogesh Pradhan, the assistant engineer of the council’s Kalimpong engineering division, which executed the work.

Spread over five acres of land close to the Deolo tourist spot, the Kalimpong centre though designated as a sub-regional science centre, is understood to have exhibits which are on a par with those at regional centres.

The National Council of Science Museum, which has installed the paraphernalia at the centre, contributed Rs 1.70 crore for the project, while the DGHC’s share was Rs 30 lakh.

The centre will actually be a boon to students here as apart from the exhibits on display, such facilities are known to conduct regular educational activities like science seminars, dramas, nature study camps, quizzes etc, said Manoj Tamang, a science teacher at the local St Philomina’s School.

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, July 30: The Janmukti Secondary Teachers’ Organisation has suggested putting an end to certain traditions that have come to be associated with the Independence Day celebration here, including unnecessary holidays for schools — often extending to more than two days — after the event.

In a letter to the Independence Day Celebration Committee secretary Pranay Mani Shilal, the Kalimpong unit of the organisation said this was necessary in the interest of education and society at large.

“The Independence Day celebration should be a one-day affair as opposed to the past practice of extended holidays,” said Bhisan Roka, the publicity secretary of the teachers’ body.

Kalimpong celebrates August 15 on a grand scale with programmes at times spilling over to the next few days.

The festivity even draws people from outside the subdivision. Many believe that often these programmes hamper the studies of the schoolchildren.

“Declaration of unnecessary holidays should also be done away with and schools be allowed to resume normal classes (after August 15),” said Roka.

The organisation said the marching contingents from the different institutions should be asked to take part in their respective school uniforms since it becomes a burden for parents to buy one set of dress just for a single day.

According to another organisation suggestion, marchers should be allowed to sit and not forced to listen through the long-winding speeches of political leaders while standing under the sun.

“It will also help if the dignitaries restrict themselves to short speeches,” added Roka.

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, July 30: Hotel owners here are lining up Puja bonanzas to woo vacationers to the Queen of the Hills after getting an assurance from the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha that there will be no strikes during the festivities.

The next tourist season starts from September 15, but the main rush is during the fortnight-long Puja vacation. Hotel owners in Darjeeling can expect to rake in around Rs 3 crore in that period, an industry source said.

Sangay Tshering Bhutia, the president of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hotel Owners’ Association, said: “The association representatives met Morcha president Bimal Gurung last evening and he assured us that there would be no strikes during Puja.” (more…)

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, July 29: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has taken over Subash Ghisingh’s “palatial” two-storeyed house at his native village in Manju Tea Estate, around 15km from Mirik, and converted it into a unit office.

In the past three-four days, Morcha supporters have damaged and burnt down properties of GNLF leaders across the hills. The retaliatory attacks followed the incident on Friday in which a shot fired allegedly from Darjeeling GNLF president Deepak Gurung’s house killed a woman Morcha supporter, Pramila Sharma.

The Morcha leadership in Manju acted otherwise.

“Instead of vandalising Ghisingh’s house, Lepcha Villa, we decided to take it over. After all, the palatial building has been constructed with public money and now it rightfully belongs to the people. We took control of it on July 27,” said Roshan Thapa, the president of the Morcha’s Manju village unit. (more…)

The Telegraph

VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, July 29: Preliminary investigations suggest that three different guns were used to fire at Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters on Friday, police sources have said.

The volley of bullets that had come raining down, allegedly from the house of GNLF branch committee president Deepak Gurung, had killed Pramila Sharma, a 38-year-old Morcha activist.

“We recovered three types of empty cartridges from Gurung’s residence which clearly suggest that three different weapons were used in the firing,” a police source said. The cartridges are of 9mm, 0.22mm and 0.32mm calibre bullets. So far, 10 empty cartridges have been recovered. (more…)

Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, July 29: The state urban development minister Mr Asok Bhattacharya has asked the Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha to exercise restraint in the Darjeeling Hills and reiterated the state government’s resolve to go ahead with the proposed tripartite negotiation to amicably settle the protracted Darjeeling imbroglio. He was addressing a DYFI convention in Naxalbari near Siliguri today. The state DYFI secretary Mr Abhas Roy Chowdhury also addressed the gathering.
Calling upon the youth of the Darjeeling district to work hard for peace and development of the region, the minister said that real development was possible only in a peaceful atmosphere. “There is no problem which cannot be solved within the democratic framework of mutual give and take,” Mr Bhattacharya affirmed. (more…)

www.thestatesman.net

DARJEELING, July 29: In the ongoing series of events that followed the violence on 25 July in Darjeeling, GJMM supporters today occupied fallen GNLF leader Mr Subash Ghisingh’s luxurious residence at Manju Tea Estate located around 15 km from Mirik. “Mr Ghisingh’s residence will now be a public property. It will be used as a GJMM office from now on. The residence will also accommodate guests when programmes are held in Mirik,” declared Mr Roshan Thapa, GJMM branch committee president in Manju Tea Estate. (more…)

www.thestatesman.net

DARJEELING, July 29: The police have recovered eight empty cartridges from the third floor of GNLF leader Mr Deepak Gurung’s residence following investigations after the firing that killed GJMM supporter Ms Pramila Sharma on 25 July.
According to the police, the cartridges found indicate that 9mm, .22 and .32 type of firearms had been used. Although the bullet that had struck the victim body and the firearm used in the offence have not been recovered, investigations are on. Mr Gurung, who was arrested from his residence along with 14 others from the GNLF party office at Dr Zakir Hussain Road, are lodged in the Darjeeling correctional home on murder charges.

The Telegraph

G.S. MUDUR

New Delhi, July 28: Darjeeling, known as the queen of the hills, has emerged as a new HIV hotspot with two persons infected in every 100, according to the latest snapshot of India’s HIV epidemic from the National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco).

The northern Bengal district is among nine across India newly identified by Naco as emerging hotspots with HIV prevalence rates of more than 1 per cent — a cut-off public health experts say indicates that the infection is spreading from high-risk groups into the general population.

“Nine new districts (with a prevalence of over 1 per cent) have popped up,” Naco director-general Kanuru Sujatha Rao said today. Patna, Banka and Sitamarhi in Bihar, Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Deogarh (Orissa), Kasargod (Kerala), Amreli (Gujarat), and Jangir-Champa in Chhattisgarh are the other additions to the club of 87 such high-burden districts. (more…)

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, July 27: The families of those killed in the Darjeeling hills during the Gorkhaland agitation in the eighties have decided to form an association to collectively air their grievances and support the movement for a separate state.

More-than-100 families — or “sahid parivar”, as they are collectively called in the hills — from the Kalimpong subdivision will meet here on August 2 to formalise the association. The decision was taken at a meeting of the families soon after they joined thousands of others to observe Sahid Diwas today.

The “martyrs’ day” is observed to commemorate the incident of July 27, 1986 in which 14 Gorkhaland supporters were killed in police firing in Kalimpong.

Sharda Mukhia, whose husband had fallen to CRPF bullet two years after that incident, on February 25, 1988, said the association as a body would have no links with any political party and would focus on articulating the concerns of the parivar members.

“However, as a group whose near and dear ones sacrificed their lives for the cause of Gorkhaland, we will support and contribute to (current) the movement for a separate state,” Mukhia added.

Over the past few months, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has revived the Gorkhaland demand in the hills.

Bimal Bhattarai, another member of the parivar, said many martyrs’ families have not got their dues.

“All these years, we didn’t have a platform to espouse our cause. Through the association, we hope to address our grievances,” Bhattarai added. (more…)

The Telegraph

Siliguri, July 27: GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh today said he was not worried about the recent spate of resignations by his one-time lieutenants, reiterating that his party had substantial presence in the hills.

“This happens in politics. The GNLF is still there and will remain,” Ghisingh said. Yesterday, too, after his arrival in Siliguri, he had said his party was still a force to reckon with in the hills.

However, Shanta Chhetri, the MLA from Kurseong who resigned from the party yesterday, had a different version.

“We have no organisation in the hills. Our (Kurseong) branch committee has been dissolved and all senior leaders have resigned. After considering the state of affairs, there was nothing left for me to do, except resign,” Chhetri said over the phone from Calcutta. (more…)

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, July 27: The Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League today appealed to residents here not to spend their energy in targeting GNLF leaders but to unite to make the “people’s movement” a success.

“During the Gorkhaland agitation in the mid-eighties, the GNLF channelled its energy only to fight the CPM and the police in the hills. I have no sympathy for GNLF leaders who led a corrupt regime but the people should be careful that the focus is not diverted (from the movement for Gorkhaland),” said Madan Tamang, the president of the ABGL. (more…)

The Hindu

Kolkata: Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) chief Subhash Ghising has been shifted from his residence in Darjeeling to Siliguri on security grounds, after a spurt in violence in the ongoing struggle for ‘Gorkhaland’ mounted by the Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha (GJMM).

West Bengal Home Secretary Ashoke Mohan Chakraborty told reporters on Saturday at the State Secretariat that the situation in Darjeeling was tense and Mr. Ghising had been brought to Siliguri. “He has been brought to Siliguri for security reasons.” (more…)

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, July 25: Hours after a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporter was killed by bullets fired from a multi-storey owned by GNLF leader Deepak Gurung, no one knows for sure how many people were inside the building when the incident took place.

All that is known is that after the Morcha supporters surrounded the house, a volley of shots in three bursts, possibly from an automatic weapon, rained on them and a woman lay sprawled on the road, bleeding profusely.

The Morcha supporters appeared confused about the chain of events that was over in a matter of minutes.

“We were calling for Gurung when a boy came outside and told us that the GNLF leader was not at home and had gone to Siliguri,” said a woman Morcha supporter who did not want to be named. “We were engaged in the conversation and I doubt if anyone was keeping a watch on the building as we were not expecting any firing to take place. But suddenly the bullets rang out.”

Police, when they arrived at the spot, found Gurung crouching in a small room on the ground floor of the building, although he and his family live on the second and third floors. By then, the second floor was already up in flames.

The GNLF leader has reportedly claimed that there was no one else at home at that time other than an old woman. She was brought out minutes before the house was stormed by the Morcha supporters and set on fire.

Gurung’s family members — wife and two daughters — were not found in the house either.

As a result, there is no answer as to who fired the bullets that claimed the life of Pramila Sharma.

The police are tight-lipped and have whisked Gurung off to an undisclosed location after his arrest. What has emerged from his interrogation is yet to be revealed.

The law enforcers claim they are as much in the dark as the public.

“It is reported that there were some people in the house, but that is yet to be verified,” said IG, special, north Bengal, D. Lepcha. “If there were (some people), they must have fled. No firearms have been recovered either.”

Police sources revealed that if there were indeed one or more persons in the building, they could have easily escaped from the back of the house in the ten minutes it took the Morcha supporters to storm the building after the firing.

The house is on the slope of a hill. Anyone inside the building — and not necessarily in Gurung’s house on the second and third floors — could have got out of the back and escaped down the slope and disappeared in the lanes and bylanes below without being spotted or arousing suspicion.

Neighbours have told the police that whenever the GNLF leader was in Darjeeling and at home, there would usually be around three-four party supporters with him.

“He was an important man before the Morcha usurped all powers in the hills,” a neighbour said. “Even now, there are always people around Gurung whenever he is at home.”

The police are not discounting the possibility that one of Gurung’s supporters might have opened fire. However, at the moment, they do not have any proof.

“There are far too many unanswered questions,” said a police official.

“We can come to some kind of conclusion only after a thorough interrogation of Gurung and the other occupants of the building,” he added.