www.kalimpong.info

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, March 30: Upper Phagu tea estate near Gorubathan, 70km from here, is set to become the latest Buddhist pilgrimage site with the inauguration of a stupa on Saturday.

Dedicated to Atish Dipankar Srigyan, a 10th century Buddhist prince of a kingdom in north Bengal, the 74.2ft tall stupa has been erected by Hoishwar Rimpoche along with the Upper Phagu Tamang Gumba Committee (UPTGC) on a plot gifted by the estate. (more…)

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, March 26: The heads of ICSE and CBSE schools in Kalimpong have denied the allegation that the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha had demanded money from them.

Bengal urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya while accusing the Morcha of extorting money from the schools in the hills had claimed the party had demanded Rs 2 crore from the heads of the institutions at a meeting held in Gorubathan on March 1. (more…)

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, March 25: The Janamukti Secondary Teachers’ Organisation has threatened to file a defamation suit against urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya, reports our correspondent.

The minister had accused the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha of demanding Rs 2 crore from hill schools in a meeting on March 1. The Morcha-affiliate challenged Bhattacharya to prove his allegation.

The meeting at Gorubathan between the Morcha and the school heads had been called to work out the admission modalities of the students from the Dooars in the hill institutions, the JSTO said.

The Telegraph
RAJEEV RAVIDAS

Kalimpong, March 23: The Janamukti Secondary Teachers’ Organisation (JSTO) has called for framing a new recruitment policy for absorbing all contractual teachers against existing vacancies in the hill schools.

In a letter to acting DGHC administrator B.L. Meena, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-affiliated JSTO said: “According to our estimate, about 600 posts are vacant in the 129 government-recognised schools in the hills.” Given the huge backlog of vacancies, there was even room for absorbing School Service Commission-empanelled candidates, said Bisan Roka, the JSTO’s Kalimpong unit spokesperson. (more…)

www.telegraphindia.com

Kalimpong, March 19: One person died and another suffered injuries when the vehicle they were travelling in plunged about 300ft below the road at 27 Mile, 25km from here, on NH31A on Thursday. Ramesh Agarwal, a 55-year-old businessman from Sikkim’s Jorethang who was driving his Santro, failed to negotiate a bend and the car rolled down the slopes. He died on the spot. The injured was taken to a Siliguri hospital.

The Telegraph

March 19: The Janmukti Chalak Mahasangh brought traffic to a standstill in Kalimpong for nearly two hours from 11am today to protest against the arrest of one of its members Aita Singh Tamang on charges of extortion.

Aita was arrested in Siliguri yesterday for allegedly extorting Rs 50,000 from the owner of a tea garden. Members of the Mahasangh, an affiliate of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, however, said he was booked on a trumped up charge and demanded his immediate release.

Today, Aita was remanded in jail custody till April 2 by additional chief judicial magistrate of Siliguri Amit Chakraborty. He has been booked under Sections 384 (extortion) and 419 (cheating by personation) of the IPC. (more…)

Colorful slideshow of Holi celebrations in Kalimpong. March 2009.
- All photos by Praful Rao.

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, March 16: A fault in a pipeline has hit the water supply to Kalimpong, which is already reeling from acute water scarcity this summer.

In the past few days, the people had been provided with water only once in three days as the reservoirs are not getting enough water from the Neora Water Supply Scheme (NWSS).

In normal times, the PHE (water works department) pumps water from its reservoirs for 30 to 45 minutes on alternate days. “The Neora authorities have sought a week’s time to rectify a fault in a pipeline. Once we start receiving water in the required volume, the normal supply to the households will be restored,” said Rajen Pradhan, the superintendent of water works. (more…)

Here are some more pictures and a follow up regarding last post, from the Save The Hills blog.

http://savethehills.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-post.html

The Telegraph
RAJEEV RAVIDAS

Kalimpong, March 13: Seventeen families in Sindebong have been displaced by landslides in the past three years and are yet to be rehabilitated. Fifteen more families fear they may suffer the same fate.

The displacements have taken place mostly in Bhameygaon in the Sindebong gram panchayat: result of landslides that started in the nineties. “The disaster may happen every year as there is hardly any effort to check the calamity. Not only that, a major part of Kalimpong town is likely to be affected by the slides,” said Praful Rao, the president of Save The Hills, an NGO working on landslides.

Bhameygaon is only 5km from Kalimpong town.

Dilip Bhujel, who had once lived in Bhameygaon, claimed that a Geological Survey of India study in 2006 had said the landslides, if unchecked, would wreck havoc across 524 hectares hitting right up to Dr Graham’s Homes atop the hill. “Ten villages fall in the gram panchayat area. This means 788 families are at risk. Since then, we have been spending sleepless nights,” said Bhujel, who shifted to Gairigaon, 1.5km from the landslide-hit zone, out of fear.

Gopal Chhetri, who lost his house and 0.1 acre of land in the landslide of 2007, has been staying with his family under a shed on property owned by another villager. “We are yet to receive any help from the government. I somehow make ends meet by working as a day labourer. Now even my neighbour wants me to look for another place,” said the 57-year-old. His neighbour, Tek Bahadur Thapa, too, lost an equal area of land the same year.

Save The Hills is making a documentary to highlight the landslides in Sindebong. “Lack of drainage, coupled with a large number of jhoras (small streams) criss-crossing the area, is the cause of landslides. These jhoras have neither been widened nor strengthened,” said Rao.

Officials of the Kalimpong block I — Sindebong gram panchayat falls under it — said they were too tied up with election-related work to look up the records of the relief provided to the affected villagers. “We will let you know the statistics later,” one of them said.

Having failed to move the authorities, the villagers are now hoping for divine intervention. “Three years ago, we set up a devi (goddess) mandir near the landslide-hit zone in the hope that she will protect us from the danger,” said Bhujel.

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, March 10: Members of the Tibetan community here took out a procession and held a day-long prayer meeting to mark the 50th anniversary of an uprising in Tibet that sent the Dalai Lama into exile.

About 2,000 Tibetans marched through the main streets of the town before gathering at Damber Chowk to pray. The rallyists carried placards and banners condemning, what they called, the continued occupation of their motherland by China

Lobsang Dhendup Bhutia, the president of the Kalimpong chapter of the Tibetan Youth Congress, alleged that the Chinese government was continuing to “brutally suppress” the people’s movement to free their country. “In January this year, too, the Chinese picked up a large number of people from various parts of Tibet while they were taking part in peaceful protests,” he said. (more…)

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, March 9: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has got 13 students from the Dooars admitted to a school here. Eleven of them are Adivasis, while the rest are Gorkhas whose families had suffered losses in the recent violence in the plains.

The students are from classes V to IX and they had studied in English medium schools in the Dooars. All of them have been admitted to Scottish University’s Mission Institution (SUMI). While the Adivasi children will stay in the school hostel, the other two will put up with their relatives in Sindebung.

Puran Masi Munda, a Class IX student, said he was looking forward to studying in a premier school like SUMI in the hills.

“Thanks to the Morcha, we will be able to fulfil our educational aspiration. The standard of education in the Dooars is not good at all. We will make maximum use of the opportunity we have here,” he added. During their stay here, the children will be looked after by the Kalimpong unit of the Janmukti Secondary Teachers’ Organisation (JSTO), an affiliate of the Morcha.

Other organisations like the Kalimpong Chamber of Commerce have also come forward to lend help to the students.

The SUMI principal, Nava Ratna Pradhan, has agreed to bear the cost of school fee, books, copies and uniforms of the children. In addition, the school has also given a concession of Rs 200 on their boarding expenses. The JSTO will bear the monthly food fee of Rs 1,600.

“We will device plans to collect money to fund the project,” said Bisan Roka, the spokesperson for the JSTO’s Kalimpong unit. The Morcha plans to provide free education to 300 Adivasi children in various schools in the hills. Of the 300, about 50 children will be admitted to the schools in the Kalimpong subdivision.

“With the support of local schools and other organisations, we are confident of managing the show. Apart from the SUMI authorities, we would like to thank the local chamber of commerce, which has provided quilts and pillows to the students, said Hari Dahal, a JSTO member.