www.kalimpong.info

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, Feb. 26: A poster signed by “Gorkhaland loving people” appeared in town this morning, announcing that loyalists of the separate state movement would not attend the funeral of the Kurseong MLA’s husband who died last night.

Deo Chandra Karki, 53, had been ailing for sometime and breathed his last at the Kurseong subdivisional hospital.

The poster that appears to have been put up at 6am reads: “Yesterday, Deo Chandra Karki, husband of anti-Gorkhaland MLA from Kurseong, Shanta Chhetri, died. We, the Gorkhaland loving people, will not attend the funeral.” It was signed by “Gorkhaland loving people”.

After fingers were pointed at the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha which had chased away most of the GNLF leaders from the hills, including Chhetri, Gurung’s party put up a counter-poster at 9am, “protesting” the one plastered by people “trying to derail our Gandhian movement”.

“We protest the poster plastered by Gorkhaland loving people. These are people who are merely trying to derail the Gandhian movement,” the poster put up by the Morcha’s Kurseong sub-divisional committee read.

Chhetri’s house had been torched and the Kurseong police station attacked on February 18. Chhetri had blamed the Morcha without naming Bimal Gurung’s party. The Morcha had denied the allegations.

After the arson, Chhetri had spent the night at the hospital along with her son and daughter-in-law, before moving in to a relative’s house. “The last rites could not even take place at my house. They torched my house. I have lost everything now,” a sobbing Chhetri said over the phone. The body was taken to Gauri Shankar tea garden below Giddepahar, about 8km from Kurseong, which is Karki’s native place. By 2pm, when the funeral took place, about a thousand people had visited Chhetri family to express their condolence.

Karki, an employee with the Public Health Engineering department, was also an All India Radio-approved singer and a tabla player.

On August 18, 2008, GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh could not bring his wife’s body to the hills for cremation after she died at a private nursing home in Siliguri. Even then fingers had been pointed at the Morcha. The party had denied the allegations and had said it was the “public” who did not allow Ghisingh to come to the hills.

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The Telegraph

The Gorkha Janmukti Vidyarthi Morcha has decided to lift its “ban” on movement of police and government vehicles from tomorrow, reports our Darjeeling correspondent. “We have decided to lift the ban taking into account the Sukna episode. The police and administration have to move around. Moreover, the parent party (Gorkha Janmukti Morcha) has already called for a jail bharo agitation,” said Amrit Yonzone, the vice-president of the Vidyarthi Morcha.

The students had imposed the “ban” on February 5 after a gathering of Youth Morcha supporters was lathicharged. The Morcha members were demanding permission to hold a public meeting in Siliguri. On February 21, a mob demanding the immediate arrest of an alleged murderer, had set on fire the Sukna police outpost.

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The Telegraph

Gangtok, Feb. 26: Bengal chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti today assured the Sikkim government that no stones would be left unturned to keep NH31A open at all times under instruction from the Supreme Court.

The national highway is the only arterial route linking the Himalayan state to the rest of the country.

“We assure you that we will try our level best so that the directive issued by the Supreme Court to keep NH31A open is followed. Any group that flouts the order will face legal action and everybody has to cooperate with the order of the apex court,” Chakrabarti told The Telegraph during the tea break in the three-hour session with Sikkim chief secretary T.T. Dorji and senior officials at Chintan Bhavan today. (more…)

Details from earthquake.usgs.gov

2010 February 26 04:42:29 UTC
Magnitude 5.4 – WESTERN XIZANG

Location: 28.432°N, 86.769°E
Depth: 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region: WESTERN XIZANG

Distances:
70 km (40 miles) N of Namche Bazar, Nepal
165 km (100 miles) ENE of KATHMANDU, Nepal
220 km (135 miles) NW of Gangtok, Sikkim, India
670 km (415 miles) NNW of Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India

Click here for map of epicenter and surrounding areas.

The Telegraph
RAJEEV RAVIDAS

CRPF personnel at the Kalimpong library on Thursday.
Picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha

Kalimpong, Feb. 25: A citizens’ forum here has demanded the immediate withdrawal of CRPF personnel from Kalimpong and sought their redeployment on NH31A as the presence of the central force is likely to be exploited by anti-Gorkhaland elements.

In a letter faxed to President Pratibha Patil today, the Citizens’ Rights Forum said the situation in the hills was not “potentially explosive” to justify the deployment of the CRPF.

The letter signed by forum president N.P. Dixit said the only purpose of deploying the CRPF in the region was to ensure free movement of vehicles on NH31A even during strikes in the hills in keeping with a Supreme Court order.

Of the two companies of the CRPF deployed in the subdivision, one has set up base at Reang, off NH31A near Rambi, about 30km from here, while the other is billeted at two places in town.

The forum feared that anti-Gorkhaland elements could exploit the presence of the CRPF in the urban areas by provoking them into “unpleasant and retaliatory actions”. This, the letter said, could only result in “chaos, disturbance and violence” all around. “We (therefore) urge you to recall them (the CRPF) from the towns of the hills and re-deploy them on the highway at the earliest.”

K. L. Tamta, the inspector-general, north Bengal, said the CRPF company camping in Kalimpong was meant to be stationed on the highway at Rangpo on the Sikkim border. “Because of lack of adequate accommodation there, they are being kept in Kalimpong. Once the accommodation is arranged, they will be shifted to Rangpo,” he said.

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The Telegraph

Kalimpong, Feb. 25: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung today said he would lead a 10-member team to Salua, the headquarters of the Eastern Frontier Rifles, to “take a look at the situation there”.

“We have not yet finalised a date for the visit and that will be decided within a day or two as will be the members of the delegation. But I can tell you that I will be going,” Gurung said at Deolo this evening.

A day after the attack on the Shilda EFR camp by Maoists, Morcha spokesperson Harka Bahadur Chhetri had announced that a party delegation would visit West Midnapore. However, he did not specify whether Gurung would be part of the team. (more…)

The Telegraph

Siliguri, Feb. 25: Bengal chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti today said there was no question of dialogue with either the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in north Bengal or the Maoists in the south at a time when policemen were being targeted in both regions.

The fifth round of tripartite talks on the statehood demand is, however, on schedule, said Chakrabarti, adding that he was not aware of the date.

The chief secretary was reacting to a question on whether the government would talk to the Morcha over the recent incidents of arson in the Darjeeling hills: the setting afire of the Sukna police outpost on February 21 and the attack on the Kurseong police station on February 18. (more…)

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, Feb. 24: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today threatened to launch a jail bharo agitation in the hills and the Dooars if all the 18 people arrested in connection with the Sukna arson were not released within 72 hours.

Eighteen people were rounded up and sent to jail after a mob, demanding the arrest of a murder accused, had burnt down a police outpost at Sukna, 10km from Siliguri, on Sunday night. (more…)

The Telegraph

Calcutta, Feb. 24: The construction of a new railway link connecting north Bengal to Sikkim has begun with Ircon International Limited, a public sector undertaking incorporated with the Indian Railways, starting work on the 44km stretch between Sevoke and Rangpo two years after the plan was mooted.

The general manager of the Northeast Frontier Railway, Shiv Kumar, and senior officials of the railways and Ircon, attended the ground-breaking ceremony at Rangpo on the Bengal-Sikkim border on Saturday.

Ircon sources said the estimated project cost is around Rs 3,300 crore. (more…)

The Telegraph

Feb. 23: Less than 24 hours after two companies of the CRPF arrived in Siliguri, they were deployed along NH31A to keep the lifeline to Sikkim free of blockades. The third company of the central force also arrived in Siliguri today.

In Sukna, on the outskirts of Siliguri, where one company is billeted at Pintail Village, the CRPF personnel patrolled the area which was deserted for the second day running after a mob set on fire the police outpost there on Sunday night. This led to police raids and 18 people were arrested.

Shops and establishments in Sukna were shut but traffic remained normal, much like yesterday.

The inspector-general of police, north Bengal. K.L. Tamta, said all three companies had been deployed at strategic points along NH31A. “Two of the companies have moved out to the Kalimpong subdivision and will be patrolling NH31A from the Coronation Bridge to Rangpo, the gateway to Sikkim. Their sole task would be to ensure that the highway remains open to traffic round-the-clock and will intervene if there are any blockades,” Tamta said.

He said the CRPF personnel marched through Sukna and the neighbouring area in the morning to ensure peace in the area.

According to senior police officers in Kalimpong, one of the companies had moved into a fisheries office complex at Reang village, 40km from Siliguri, around 4am today.

Another company went up to Kalimpong, as there was no suitable accommodation at Rangpo. The officer said the company posted at Reang will patrol NH31A from Coronation Bridge to 29 Mile, while the one in Kalimpong will look after the stretch between Teesta and Rangpo, a distance of 35km, the officer said.

The company in Kalimpong has put up at the state library hall near Thanadara and at the empty Birla House in Upper Cart Road.

The CRPF has been deployed on the basis of an order of the Supreme Court to the central and state governments to ensure that NH31A is not blocked to traffic during strikes called in the region. The court was acting on a petition filed by O.P. Bhandari, a Sikkim resident, who had complained that frequent blockades on the highway by pro and anti-Gorkhaland forces cut off the Himalayan state that had neither a rail or air link, save a helicopter service.
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