www.kalimpong.info

Kalimpong photographs, Dec ’08

Statesman News Service

SILIGURI, Dec. 19: The Gorkha National Liberation Front (C) has demanded the immediate arrest of the six persons recently charge-sheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the 2002 sensational murder of CK Pradhan at Kalimpong in the Darjeeling Hills.

The CBI filed the charge sheet before the Kalimpong ACJM court on 26 November. The six persons charge-sheeted include two former GNLF councillors of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) ~ Tshering Sherpa and Roshan Rai.

They were councillors from Kafer and Monsong in Kalimpong sub-division respectively and are now reportedly living somewhere in Siliguri following their ouster from the Hills by the GJMM a few months back.

The rest ~ Min Bahadur Gurung, Sebastian Lepcha and Nire Gurung are from Nimbong locality and Daya Gurung is from Barbote, also in Kalimpong. Of them the two prime accused ~ Nire and Daya are missing for over two years now, while Min Bahadur switched over his allegiance from GNLF to GJMM early this year.

The GJMM publicity secretary Mr Binoy Tamang however, denied that Min Bahadur was attached with their party, even as the GNLF(C) president Mr DK Pradhan suggested that the charge-sheeted man was indeed an activist of the GJMM Nimbong unit but was not holding any portfolio.

GNLF(C) is the party that was formed by a breakaway faction of Mr Subash Ghising’s GNLF after the assassination of the ‘promising’ DGHC councillor CK Pradhan on 3 October 2002 at Kalimpong.

Welcoming the CBI charge sheet in the case, the GNLF(C) president today said that the six accused should be arrested immediately without giving them any scope to secure anticipatory bail from the court.

“I have sent a memorandum to the CBI SP (special crime), Kolkata on 13 December stating the demand and also urging them to facilitate a speedy trial in the murder of our revered leader,” Mr Pradhan said.

www.telegraphindia.com

Kalimpong, Dec 19

Hoteliers in Lava, Loleygaon, Rishap and Kalimpong said their business in the year’s last fortnight had shrunk by almost 90 per cent because of the Gorkhaland agitation.

Hit severely during spring and autumn, the industry was hoping to cover some ground this season until the threat of another round of strikes. “We had almost cent per cent bookings, but almost all have been cancelled,” said Rajeeb Sahee, president of the Janmukti Hotel Association, Rishap.

The Morcha had initially threatened a 72-hour bandh from December 23. Then it put off the strike till December 26, adding to the hotels’ woes. “We had started receiving bookings from December 26. Those, too, are being scrapped now,” said Sahee.

The Telegraph

Dec. 19: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha will arm its volunteers with batons so they can “break legs” if needed.

“You should not harm anyone but if someone attacks you, break their legs,” Morcha president Bimal Gurung said in Darjeeling today.

The party will organise a physical training camp for the army of volunteers christened Gorkhaland Personnel. The camp, from January 7, will be held at Goke village, 35km from Darjeeling.

Taking a cue from their leader, around 4,000 members of the Morcha youth wing today brought out a rally carrying batons with small Morcha flags on top.

Former soldiers in the Morcha ranks will train the youths at Goke. “We will train a batch of 400 for two months. This will be an ongoing process for there are 10,000 of them,” said Ramesh Allay, president of the Bhutpurba Sainik Morcha.

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, Dec. 18: The Indigenous Lepcha Forum has refused to join other minority communities from the hills in supporting the Gorkhaland movement.

Forum president Paul Simmick said the decision not to be part of a team that went to Delhi for a pro-Gorkhaland dharna recently was taken as the community did not want to be clubbed with minority groups, who are not indigenous to the place.

“This is not to say we oppose the demand for a separate state. We will be supporting the movement as a community and not merely as individuals as was being done till today,” Simmick said.

Lepchas in the Darjeeling hills will articulate their views on the recently revived Gorkhaland movement at a programme to observe the 277th birth anniversary of King Gaeboo Achyuk on Saturday.

The Lepchas have reasons to feel insecure, Simmick said. “The DGHC experience has taught us that our interest is never taken care of. We did not even have a reserved seat in the council. We want constitutional guarantee to protect our interest in future dispensations.”

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, Dec. 18: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha will refrain from calling a general strike from December 23 as announced earlier because of the Christmas celebration even though the Christians in the hills have decided to make the annual festival a low-key affair.

The Morcha had announced that the 72-hour strike would be enforced in the areas it wanted as Gorkhaland unless all the people named in FIRs for attacking its supporters in Kalchini were arrested by December 22. The outfit had also demanded the transfer of K.L. Tamta, the inspector-general of police (north Bengal), from the region. (more…)

Some images from around Kalimpong during the 12 hour strike on Dec 11th.

The Telegraph

Siliguri, Dec. 16: The ongoing Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-sponsored strike at the Teesta Low Dam Project (TLDP) sites will continue till the tripartite talks scheduled for December 29 in Delhi, the party’s central leaders have told the Kalijhora unit.

Morcha leaders of the Highway Block Committee that looks after the entire stretch of NH31A from 10th Mile to Rangpo had been to Darjeeling yesterday to request the central leaders to withdraw the eight-day long strike from Rambhi and Kalijhora. The agitation has taken away the income of people in Kalijhora and other villages which largely depend on the TLDP Stage III and IV being executed by the NHPC. (more…)

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, Dec. 14: An unusually high number of dogs have died here and in adjoining villages in the past one month because of canine distemper — a contagious viral disease common during this time of the year.

Local veterinarians, both attached to government hospitals and those practicing privately, put the number of deaths over 50. Deoprasad Pandey, a vet, said: “Vaccination is the best cure. But, it costs Rs 275. This may have deterred some owners from administering it on the animals,” he added. (more…)

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, Dec. 14: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has demanded that the report filed by the one-man inquiry commission on the lathicharge on an ex-servicemen rally eight months ago be made public within a week. The hill party has threatened to help the former jawans organise an agitation if the government fails to meet the deadline.

This is the third ultimatum served by the hill party on the government in the past three days. The first was on Friday. The party gave the government time till the 22nd of this month to arrest those accused in the Kalchini clashes, failing which it would skip the tripartite talks. Another ultimatum was served today in the Dooars, where the Morcha has threatened to start a movement if a panchayat pradhan, alleged to have masterminded an attack on Dhanraj Thapa, is not arrested. (more…)

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, Dec. 12: Having just won over Calcutta, Kalimpong boy Prayash Biswakarma is all set to do an en core with audiences in venues overseas.

Following a string of mesmerising performances in the City of Joy over the past week, the 10-year-old violin prodigy was rewarded with a two-month training session at the Calcutta Chamber Orchestra. Next could be a chance to perform in Japan and England.

Prayash’s mother Laxmi Ghimeray said on her return from Calcutta that his main benefactor had told them that once her son was through with the special lessons, a trip to Japan and England could follow. She had accompanied Prayash and members of Dr Graham’s Homes choir during their tour to Calcutta. (more…)

The Telegraph

Dec. 12: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has threatened to skip the second round of tripartite talks scheduled for the 29th of this month, unless action is taken against those who attacked its supporters in the plains in the past two days.

Morcha president Bimal Gurung also announced that a 72-hour general strike would be called in “Gorkhaland”— the area that it wants as part of the new state — if the 54 persons mentioned in FIRs filed in the past 48 hours were not arrested. (more…)