www.kalimpong.info

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, Jan. 29: Seventeen members of the Gorkha Janmukti-Adivasi Morcha today started a fast-unto-death in front of the Gorubathan police station even as Bimal Gurung’s outfit asked the people in the hills not to pay any electricity bills.

Those on fast — six of them are Adivasis — are members of different frontal organisations of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, also known as the Janmukti-Adivasi Morcha in the Dooars. The outfit has drawn up a list of six demands that the government has to fulfill before the hunger strike is withdrawn. (more…)

Dear Readers,

I’ve set up a twitter account for kalimpong.info at: http://twitter.com/kalimponginfo

If you are a twitter user you can goto the page and start following us.

I’ll try and tweet all new blog posts here for a start… and let’s see where things go from there.

Enjoy..

-Admin

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, Jan. 28: The directorate of cinchona and medicinal plantation has decided to diversify into products like orange and rubber. The move is expected to make cinchona plantation, the largest public sector unit in the hills, profitable.

Spread over an area of 26,000 acres, the cinchona plantation covers Mungpoo, Latpanchar, Rongo and Munsong and has been running at an annual loss of about Rs 24 crore.

“There has always been a talk on the need to diversify into other products. The state government has now prepared a specific plan for diversification which would help the plantation make a turnover of about Rs 40-50 crore in the next five years,” said Gyan Chandra Subba, director, cinchona and other medicinal plantations.

In fact McKinsey, a US- based consultancy firm, had advised for diversification as early as 2001. “We have now got written instructions for diversification,” Subba said. (more…)

The Telegraph

Father Josef Hofstetter

Kalimpong, Jan. 27: Former principal of St Augustine’s School, Father Josef Hofstetter died at a hospital in Saint Maurice, Switzerland yesterday. He was 89 years old.

A Jesuit priest, Father Hofstetter had been in Kalimpong for 46 years after he came to India on November 13, 1948. Apart from serving St Augustine’s School in various capacities, he also worked as the headmaster of St George’s School in Pedong.

The current principal of St Augustine’s School Lawrence Monteiro, said Hofstetter had been suffering for the last three weeks.

“The funeral will take place on Wednesday in Switzerland,” he added. The school will also hold special prayer services in memory of the former principal once it reopens in mid-February after winter vacation.

Dear Readers,

Apologies for the long delay in posting Ms. Monila De’s articles. She was very gracious in giving us access to a bunch of her articles. However since these articles are all hard copies (typed) I have to re-type them out in order to post them here. Which means I can only put them up when I get the time to transcribe them. Which means there may be substantial time gaps between these postings.

Enjoy…

-Admin

The Enchantment of Kalimpong

One gets a perfect, clear view of Kalimpong from Peshok on the opposite mountain. it looks like a giant tortoise sitting in the middle of the high himalayas. in the distance is the Homes mountain with the outline of a reclining elephant’s head and back. The low lying trunk joins the tortoise. Two rivers run at the base of these mountains. The mighty Teesta in the west and a smaller gurgling Relli in the east.

Only 4500 feet high, Kalimpong is blessed with the pleasantest and most equitable climate compared to all the hill stations on this part of the HImalayan range. Mild winters and summers make it possible for me to live here throughout the year very comfortably.

Being low, wide and rather flat steep climbs are nor encountered. Houses built, long ago, were on acres of land with tennis courts, terraced gardens and large flat lawns. The old schools all have more than one enormous play fields. Kalimpong is not hemmed in. It is full of wide open spaces with a clear view of the mountain ranges all around, the 180 span of snow peaks and the domed sky above. (more…)

Statesman News Service

SILIGURI, Jan. 23: The communication revolution is now making its presence felt in north Bengal. Along with the agitations in the Darjeeling Hills and Dooars in support of Gorkhaland, a movement for the demand is silently taking place on the Internet.

Gorkhaland supporters based in different parts of India have created several community groups on social networking sites like Orkut, Ibibo, Myspace and Facebook to enlist support for Gorkhaland from non-resident Gorkhas all over the world and generate international opinion in favour of the demand.

The groups, with names like ‘Gorkhaland’, ‘Jai Gorkhaland’, ‘Free Gorkhaland’, ‘Gorkhaland ~ Our Birthright’, ‘Gorkhaland Awareness Campaign’, ‘Gorkhaland ~ QA New Beginning’, ‘We Support Gorkhaland’, ‘Gorkhaland On The Way’ and ‘Gorkhaland ~ Final Countdown’ have members in different parts of the world.

As is clear from the dates of their scraps and postings, the groups were created soon after the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha launched its agitation in August 2008.

Though the identities of the owners of these communities are unknown, the fact that some diehard supporters of Gorkhaland maintain them, for the most part, is evident from their group descriptions.

Like the contentious “GL” number plates, these communities have already created a lot of resentment among a large number of Internet users belonging to various ethnic and linguistic groups in the region. Said Mr Santosh Sarkar of Jalpaiguri: “The scraps, postings and introductory descriptions in these groups are replete with false claims and provocative propaganda, which are a veritable threat to communal harmony among Indians.”

Mr Ranjan Jha of Siliguri suggested that the administration should take immediate action against the moderators of these communities because their contents were misleading the members of social networking sites, most of whom were young people in the age group of 15 to 25.

Mr Kundan Lal Tamta, IG, North Bengal, admitted that the police were unaware of the development, but made it clear that unless someone lodged a formal complaint to the police against these communities, they would not enquire into the issue. The IG argued that until it was proved by an incident that these communities were stoking communal fire there was no point in blocking them.

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, Jan. 22: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has decided to put on hold its Dooars Chalo campaign, but said its supporters would stay put in Gorubathan till they were allowed to hold meetings in the region.

The decision was taken to honour chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s request during his meeting with a Morcha delegation in Calcutta yesterday, hill leaders said.

Binay Tamang, the publicity secretary of the Morcha, said his party would not hold any rally and would scale down the strength of its supporters camping in Gorubathan, the foothill village bordering the Dooars.

Last week, the Morcha supporters had made repeated attempts to enter the Dooars. But on each occasion, the administration blocked them to avert clashes between the Morcha and Adivasi activists.

it is not by any stretch of imagination among the grand roads that connect this vast sub-continent. however it is of strategic importance as it is the life line between sikkim and vast chunks of the kalimpong subdivision with the rest of the country. a bolero or any one of the swifter, swankier and smaller cars these days can do the entire 75kms stretch between siliguri to gangtok in 3 1/2 hrs. many of the younger drivers can do it in three hours flat i am told. but, that is asking for trouble. at best of times the road is quite motorable and the border roads organisation people do a fairly good job of keeping it that way. but the road is very narrow and and punctuated by endless series of sharp bends that will brook no carelessness or entertain the whims of speed freaks. the terrain is unforgiving and has zero tolerance for mistakes.. it could be very costly.

to drive home this point, the BRO has put up many sign boards along the route. dire warnings served with a touch of humour. here are some;

1. this is not a rally. enjoy the valley
2. be gentle on my curves
3. drinking and driving don’t mix
4. haste makes waste
5. if married..divorce drink
6. BRO can build roads to anywhere except the skies.
but we are working at it.

i have driven the teesta highway more times than i can remember, and i will do it as many more times as i can. it is by far one of the preetiest drives in the country. it does get very messy during the monsoons with any number of landslips that hold up traffic for hours and sometimes…days. otherwise as the legend says…”enjoy” the valley. carry a flask of coffee, sandwiches, and a cd player. pull up where the river flows gentle along a sandy bank. listen to ‘yesterday once more’. hang around for a while. if you’re lucky you just might catch the sun going down.

The Telegraph

Calcutta, Jan. 21: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today told a delegation of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha that they would have to place their demand for separate state at the tripartite meetings in Delhi.

“If the Morcha continued to agitate, it would only vitiate the atmosphere of tripartite discussion. The chief minister told the delegation that whether or not the Gorkhaland movement was legitimate should be taken up at the Delhi level,” chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said after the meeting at Writers’ Buildings. (more…)

The Statesman

JALPAIGURI, Jan. 21: The Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha publicity in-charge, Mr Binay Tamang, today said that his organisation started recruiting Gorkhland Personnel in Garubathan today. “We aim to recruit 10,000 GLP from the area,” he said.

According to Mr Tamang, the recruitment process would roll to next week. “Of the targeted figure, around 7,000 would be from the tribal community and 3,000 from among the Gorkhas. We would provide them a salary of Rs 2,000 at least per month,” he added. (more…)

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, Jan. 21: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today tried to use a meeting with Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to get a foothold in the Dooars at a time when the Adivasis have stonewalled all its efforts.

For the Morcha, organising public meetings in the Dooars and Terai is of utmost importance as the party believes that this is the only way to make the Adivasi community aware of the Gorkhaland demand.

So far the hill party’s support base has largely been on ethnic lines. (more…)

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, Jan. 20: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has decided to allow work at the NHPC sites to resume from tomorrow after senior officials met party president Bimal Gurung this morning.

Union minister of state for commerce and power Jairam Ramesh had played a major role in ending the impasse. The Morcha had shut down all NHPC projects as part of its agitation. On January 15, Ramesh announced during his visit to Darjeeling that he would ask the NHPC to consider setting up an engineering college in the hills. (more…)