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Calcutta, June 23: The CBI today told Calcutta High Court that Nickole Tamang, the prime accused in the murder of ABGL leader Madan Tamang, was hiding in Nepal and sought six weeks’ time to arrest him.

The court, however, told Himangshu Dey, the advocate representing the CBI, that Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Nickole be produced in court within four weeks.

Nickole escaped while he was in CID custody at Pintail near Siliguri on August 22. The CBI is probing both the murder of Madan, who was hacked on May 21 last year, and Nickole’s disappearance.

In its report submitted to the court today, the CBI said Nickole was in Nepal’s Pashupatinagar, just across the border from Darjeeling. According to the report, Nickole had entered Nepal on March 15 this year with two of his aides. After his escape, the Morcha leader had stayed in several places in south India, including Kochi and Coimbatore. He had also hidden in a tea garden in Darjeeling.

Dey told the court that the CBI was trying to get Interpol to issue a red-corner notice so that it could send a team to Nepal to arrest Nickole. The CBI had earlier announced a reward of Rs 2 lakh for information that could lead to his arrest. The CBI has been tracking the cellphones of Nickole’s mother and brother.

Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said it was up to the CBI to trace Nickole. “Ever since Nickole’s disappearance, we have only one demand: produce Nickole alive in court,” he said.
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IBN Live News
PTI
07:06 PM,Jun 21,2011

Darjeeling (WB), Jun 21 (PTI) Steps would be taken against owners of multistoried buildings in the avalanche-prone Darjeeling Hills, North Bengal Development Minister Gautam Deb said today. Buildings upto three floors were allowed in the hills but many as much as seven storied one had come up in the tourist town flouting laws, he told newsmen at Kurseong. The matter would be brought to the notice of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the steps would be taken, he said.Deb, who was at Kurseong along with state Higher Education Minister Bratya Basu to inquire into the death of four members of a family in a landslide at St Mary’s Hills last week, assured economic assiatnce to their families. He later met the district magistrate and other high government officials and discussed actions to be taken in case of natural calamities.
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The Times of India
Deep Gazmereep Gazmer,
TNN | Jun 22, 2011, 02.04am IST

DARJEELING: Living up to the “do it now” policy propagated by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, state higher education minister Bratya Basu on Tuesday announced that a recruitment drive, including appointment of permanent principals in colleges across the state, would start from next month.

“Most colleges in the state, including those in the Hills, are in a pathetic state. Some colleges in the Hills do not even have permanent principals and adequate lecturers. We will start recruiting lecturers and appointing principals by Durga Puja,” Basu said on Tuesday while interacting with the media at the Darjeeling Circuit House.

Several colleges in the Hills – the Kurseong, Bijenbari, Mirik and the Ghoom-Jorebungalow College – had been functioning without permanent principals despite several requests to the previous state government. Demanding the appointment of teachers and permanent principals, some of these colleges were closed in protest for days on end over the years.”There is a need for complete overhaul of these colleges,” said the minister. He suggested the implementation of subjects relevant to the Hills. “We need to look at education afresh and approach it differently. This includes having subjects relevant to the region and need of the students,” he said.

The education minister also emphasized the fact that the Hills should look for economic freedom by exploring sectors like education and not only hanging on to tourism. “Economic freedom has to be explored and for that, education is imperative,” he said.

He added that starting a university in the Hills would not be a problem. “We have a vision to go beyond the existing colleges and universities in the state. And, Darjeeling is included in this vision. It is important that people benefit from what we sow now even though we may or may not be in power 10 to 15 years on,” he said, adding: “We may not be able to solve all the problems, but we can try.” He promised to sit for a meeting with the three Hills MLAs and educationists to figure out what was needed for the Hills.

Dwelling on the allegations of education being politicized by the CPM, the education minister said: “There will always be political leanings. But the problem is the hegemonic attitude.”

The Students’ Union Council (SUC) of Darjeeling Government College welcomed the minister’s assurance to establish a university in the Hills. “We are happy that the minister has taken the initiative. We have also submitted our other demands to the minister, who has assured to look into them,” said SUC general secretary Satyam Lama.
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RAJEEV RAVIDAS

Kalimpong, June 21: The monsoon has just started and experts are worried that landslides have already struck the hills even though the earth is not yet saturated with water.

Subir Sarkar, the head of the geography department in North Bengal University, offered two plausible reasons for the early landslides.

“A triggering mechanism, like the raion, is needed for a landslide to occur. But this time, the rainfall was neither heavy nor of greater intensity, which suggests the threshold level (for the landslides to occur) has been disturbed. The other reason could be that the (landslide) preventive measures were not put in place before the onset of monsoon,” Sarkar said over the phone from Siliguri.

The preventive measures Sarkar refers to include jhora-training to reduce the velocity of water, cleaning of drains to ensure smooth flow of water downstream and construction of channels to guide torrents away from vulnerable areas. Experts agree that the man-made causes for landslides include grading, terrain cutting and excessive development.

About the new locations of landslides like Birick, which did not have any past history till last week, experts were not willing to comment without visiting the spots.

Praful Rao, the president of Save The Hills, said the concern was that the mudslips have occurred after a long dry spell, and not at the end of the monsoon when the earth is saturated with water and the hills are vulnerable. “This is why most major landslides in the past had occurred in September which is the fag end of the monsoon,” Rao, whose NGO works on landslides, said.

It is an accepted fact among most experts that landslides occur in areas where the terrain has been altered for the construction of roads, houses and other utilities. “The frequent landslides at 27th Mile is because of the construction of the hydel project on the river Teesta in the area,” alleged a member of an NGO which had opposed the project since its planning stage.

Admittedly, the scale of the recent landslides in most of the places is not big barring the one at Birik, 45km from Siliguri, on NH31A on Friday. The Birik landslides (there was one on Sunday night as well), most agree, may have occurred because of a combination of human and natural factors: cutting of the hillside and the rains.

The BRO, which is widening the road at Birik as part of its project to double-lane NH31A that connects Sikkim to the rest of the country, said once the work is completed, retention walls would be constructed along the hillside as a protective measure against landslides.

“The area is among the 28 identified troubled spots between Sevoke and Teesta. However, we are confident that once we complete our work, landslides will not pose much of a problem in the area,” said a BRO source.

Even this evening, traffic was moving in a single file at Birick with the debris yet to be cleared.
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Siliguri, June 21: North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb today said he would request the chief minister to sanction funds to buy equipment to carry out relief and rescue operations in the Darjeeling hills in a better way after natural disasters.

Deb also talked of a plan to launch a survey in the hills to identify landslide-prone zones and the buildings which had come up in such areas. The landslides had killed four persons of a family in Kurseong and damaged houses and school buildings across the hills in the past four days.

“In the course of our visit, we have found that the hills lack sophisticated equipment like electric cutters and generators necessary during natural disasters like landslides. I am preparing a note and will place it before the chief minister to seek funds to buy these tools. If equipped with these tools, the administration can handle rescue and relief operations in a better way in the hills,” said Deb.

He held a meeting with Darjeeling district magistrate P.M.K. Gandhi at the circuit house here this afternoon to discuss the progress in repair and relief operations being carried out in the hills after the landslides.

The minister said the government had already handed over a sum to the family, which had lost a man and his three children in the landslide in Kurseong.

“Soon, Rs 8 lakh — Rs 2 lakh per each deceased — will be paid to the family as central and state assistance. The government will also rebuild three houses which had been washed away at St Mary’s in Kurseong.” The government is planing to adopt measures to minimise the risk of landslides and mitigate the impact of the natural disasters.

“As a long term measure, we plan to carry out a survey to identify landslide-prone zones, the areas where deforestation has occurred on a massive scale, leading to loosening of rock and soil, and the buildings which have come up in these spots. On the basis of the findings, appropriate steps will be taken to minimise the risk of landslides in the hills,” said the minister.

The district magistrate said the administration was keeping a close watch over construction activities in the hills. He warned of action if any building had come up in the hills violating the rules.

“We need to review the plans sanctioned by the municipalities to construct buildings before making any comment. We will stop the work if any building is coming up without adhering to rules. The deputy magistrate has already stopped the construction of at least three buildings in Darjeeling,” said Gandhi.

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VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, June 21: The last batch of the Barfee production team today left the Darjeeling hills — advancing their departure by almost a week but with a promise to return with the full cast including Priyanka Chopra and even shoot in Kalimpong.

Ranbir Kapoor, the protagonist of the film, had left yesterday. Hours before leaving the hills today, director Anurag Basu said: “Priyanka’s schedule had been cancelled this time but we will bring her for the shoot in September-end. The entire cast will be present.”

Barfee is the story of a deaf and mute man played by Ranbir and the two women in his life played by Priyanka and southern star Ileana D’ Cruz.

The shooting at Mirik, however, seems to stand cancelled. “I did not go to Mirik as I was told that it was also a tourist destination and the crowd could be as huge as in Darjeeling. Next time when I come up, I will shoot in Kalimpong, too, apart from Darjeeling,” said Basu.

The director today tried to send a message that the bitterness has mellowed down to a large extent even though “he had felt humiliated” after a spat with the local people during the shoot at Chowrasta on June 16.

“I took the decision to leave the hills in a rage but during the next two days we were wondering whether it had been taken in haste. However, it was too late (to go back on the decision) as we had already done the bookings,” he said. “Despite everything, we would want to tell the people of Darjeeling that we did enjoy our stay here.”

The team had originally planned to leave the hills on June 26 with talks of Priyanka joining the shooting after June 19.

“I am happy with the shoot that I got. Though it was a little less than what we had planned, we got to capture the charms of the monsoon in the hills with the mists and fog. In the other films, till now, only the bright sunny days of Darjeeling with the Kanchenjungha had been captured,” said Basu.

But sunny hills are also expected to feature in Barfee. Those scenes will be shot in September-end. “I think we should be able to release the film early next year. Shooting should be over by October,” said Basu.

Sixty per cent of the film will feature the Darjeeling hills and the rest of the shooting will take place in Calcutta. “The film will be shot mostly in Bengal,” said Basu.

The next time Basu is in Darjeeling he has decided to announce the locations of the shoot well in advance.

“I didn’t know Ranbir was so famous in these parts — I will announce the locations well in advance. We will then take a little help from the locals for better crowd management,” said Basu.
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VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, June 20: A landslide allegedly triggered by poor drainage system in a hotel dumped debris and muck in the compound of Nepali Girls’ Higher Secondary School in Darjeeling, about an hour before students were to gather on the campus for assembly.

The landslide at 6.45am completely destroyed the school’s assembly shed, where students were to gather an hour later, and the muck from the hotel Camino’s septic tank entered the institution’s premises.

“On rainy days we conduct our assembly at the shed and it is by God’s grace that students escaped the disaster today,” said Aditi Biswas, the headmistress of the girls’ school.

The school, which was founded in 1890, has more than 1,700 students on its roll. “Mud and slush has also entered the school building. The entire septic tank of the hotel has crashed into the school building and the hostel,” said Biswas.

The government-aided school managed by the Church of North India has around 80 boarders. But all the boarders escaped as the rubbles fell on a different portion of the hostel.

“Our repeated complaints to the hotel authorities about the poor drainage system have been in vain. Some years ago, pine trees, too, had crashed on the school building. but luckily no one was injured even then,” said the headmistress.

Following the landslide, the school was closed today for the summer vacation and it will reopen on July 3.

“The school was to close for summer holiday after a few days. We have, however, decided to close it from today itself as it would be dangerous to open the school as more landslides could occur anytime because of the rain. Unless proper protection work is done and the slush cleared, there is no question of keeping the school open,” said Biswas.

C.B. Pradhan, owner of hotel Camino along Gandhi road, said the landslide had occurred as the school authorities had recently fell pine trees just below the hotel.

“They had felled the trees only recently and the landslide was triggered because of heavy rains. Nevertheless, we will start clearing the mud and constructing a retention wall on a war footing from tomorrow morning,” said Pradhan.

Gautam Deb, north Bengal development minister, visited the school in the evening and promised to take up the matter with the higher authorities and submit a report on the Darjeeling landslides to chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

Gyanoday Niketan has also declared a two-day holiday starting from today after a pathway leading to the school was blocked by a mudslide.

“We have declared a holiday as it would be difficult for the students to cross the rubbles brought down by the mudslide. Moreover, our mid-exams are scheduled to start on Wednesday and we will combine the holidays with the study leave. By afternoon, the rubbles were cleared,” said Dhiraj Thapa, director of Gyanoday Niketan.

The hills experienced torrential rain till 8 this morning, but the sky cleared up later in the day.

Even though small mudslips have dotted the hills, no casualties have been reported so far.

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VIVEK CHHETRI

Sukhiapokhri, June 20: Four Bengal ministers came calling on Darjeeling on a single day with a host of promises, unheard of during the Left Front regime when even the chief minister cancelled a trip to the hills fearing hostility.

All three hill MLAs from the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha shared the dais with the ministers in the Mamata Banerjee-led government as they reeled off their new projects for the hills.

Forest minister Hiten Barman and minister for consumer affairs Sunil Chandra Tirkey were the first to reach Sukhiapokhri today to attend the closing ceremony of Aranya Saptha or the forest week. Soon after planting saplings at Balason near Sukhia bazar, Barman said: “The Darjeeling ropeway will be made functional by October end. We have already asked McKinsey (a consultancy firm) to provide the required fitness certificate. “We will also upgrade the Darjeeling zoo and the forest, tourism and environment departments will have to work together for the betterment of the hills.”

The popular 2-km long Darjeeling-Rangit Valley ropeway services was suspended on October 19, 2003, after three gondolas slipped off the conveyer wheel and plunged 50 feet down into the tea bushes of Patabung garden in Tukvar.

Four tourists were killed and 11 injured in the accident.

The ropeway belongs to the West Bengal Forest Development Corporation of which Barman is the chairman. Since then, the ropeway has been repaired but a final clearance for renewing operation has not yet come through.

Later during the day, Gautam Deb, the minister in charge of the development for north Bengal, arrived at Sukhiapokhri along with higher education minister Bratya Basu. More promises were made.

Trinamul Congress sources in Calcutta denied that Mamata had given any “special instruction” to the ministers to visit the small town 20km from Darjeeling. Rather, Barman had announced earlier this month that the forest week celebration would be a “special affair” in Darjeeling. “The others who were free went on his request to make the occasion special,” the source said.

The three hill MLAs, Trilok Dewan from Darjeeling, Rohit Sharma from Kurseong and Kalimpong’s Harka Bahadur Chhetri shared the dais with the Bengal ministers. “Dr Chhetri wants two colleges to be set up at Pedong and Gorubathan. The government has started mapping the details of the higher education in Bengal in terms of infrastructure and the staff and student strength and the report will be completed within six months. We will definitely focus on the hills,” said Basu, referring to the Kalimpong MLA. He added that his department would be looking at introducing hill specific subjects in the region’s curriculum.

Asked about a separate university for the hills, Basu said: “Provided we get the finance department’s clearance we will set up 300 colleges and 11 universities within the next five years. The hill demand could also be considered. We have already submitted a proposal for setting up either an IIT or an IIM in Darjeeling and the Centre is looking at including these proposals in the 12th Five Year Plan.” Educational institutes in the hills, which often lose out on classes because of the long winter vacation, had been demanding a separate university with a different academic calendar.

Deb said Mamata Banerjee would visit the hills later this month and more development announcements would follow.

In the past, the Left Front ministers hardly visited Darjeeling. The lone representative of the cabinet in the region was former municipal affairs minister Asok Bhattacharya. The CPM cancelled its party meeting in Darjeeling in 2007 fearing a hostile reception for then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
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JAYANTA ROY CHOWDHURY AND J.P. YADAV

New Delhi, June 20: The Bengal government is formalising longer-term funding plans for special-needs programmes in select districts to avoid charges that New Delhi is being tapped for a one-off bailout.

Officials said chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who today held talks with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee for over two hours, preferred a long-term plan to be able to fulfil the schemes being drawn up for remote and under-privileged districts.

The targeted areas are expected to include Maoist-hit areas, some districts in north Bengal, including Darjeeling, and those near the borders with Bangladesh and Bhutan. (more…)

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Darjeeling, June 19: Large parts of the Darjeeling hills have been without power since Friday’s rain which has been followed by heavier spells in the next two days, hampering the repair of power lines snapped because of strong winds and uprooted trees.

Kurseong has been in darkness for the past three days except for a one-hour relief today, while most parts of Darjeeling were without electricity for more than 15 hours.

A landslide at Birik on NH31A around 8.30pm today cut off Sikkim’s only road link once more. The road had shut down on Friday night after boulders came tumbling down at the same spot, 40km from Rangpo in Kalimpong subdivision. It had reopened around noon yesterday.

Dipen Khawash, assistant engineer of the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Corporation Limited that supplies power to the Darjeeling hills, said: “There have been power breakdowns at more than 20 points across the Kurseong subdivision. The breakdowns have occurred mostly on the outskirts of Kurseong town.

“The electricity department has formed teams that are fanning across the hills to carry on repair. Huge trees have fallen on power lines in Sepoydhura and Makaibari,” said Khawash.

He said though the Kurseong teams had been working till 9pm, repair was being hampered because of incessant rain. “Restoration work would largely depend on the weather. There are problems on seven points in the main line (33KV),” said Khawash. Electricity

In Darjeeling, strong winds along with torrential rain yesterday evening disrupted life. Officials of the electricity department in Darjeeling said there had been disruptions in many areas of the Happy Valley tea estate and Patlabas. A huge tree also fell on an electricity line near the Darjeeling Motor Stand area in the heart of the town. Employees were trying to saw the tree throughout the day.

Electricity department sources said power was restored in the upper parts of Darjeeling town around 3pm. In the next three hours power came back in other parts of the town, including Chowrasta and Chowk Bajaar, in a phased manner.

In Kalimpong town, power was disrupted from around 10.30am this morning. Despite the rains no major landslides were reported from across the hills. “There have been a number of small landslips in various places but no casualties have been reported till now,” said a district official.

Traffic was less than normal and most people including the few tourists who are still here preferred to stay indoors. “We were supposed to go sightseeing but we decided to remain indoors because of the weather,” said Anup Ghosh, a tourist from Bankura.

Sources at the regional meteorological station in Jalpaiguri said Darjeeling had received 101.5mm of rainfall in the past 24 hours.

However, more rain has been predicted for the region in the next 24 hours. Indranil Sengupta, assistant meteorologist at the Jalpaiguri station, said they were expecting 26mm to 36mm of rain in the Teesta catchment area that includes the Darjeeling hills. “There is a depression over Dhanbad in Jharkhand which is causing the rainfall and the strong winds that have been blowing across the region,” Sengupta said.
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VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, June 19: The Barfee crew will start leaving the hills days ahead of schedule from tomorrow but the bitterness has ebbed and the possibility of a return has been kept alive following “humbling” signs of contrition and a gesture from a music band.

“I feel humbled as everyone in town is feeling sorry about the incident (Thursday’s spat at the Mall). Yesterday, I was at the Buzz (a resto-bar) and the band sang a song to say sorry. Even during the shoot, the crowd listened to us (and moved out of the frame) unlike earlier times,” director Anurag Basu said today.

Musicians from various bands playing at the Buzz inside Glenary’s had crooned a Bob Dylan for the visiting crew of Barfee after they saw Basu. “We just thought of singing Dylan’s I shall be released. We thought it would be just right for the moment,” said Lipok Jamir, the drummer of Baraka.

The lyrics of the 1967 prison song has some parallels with the unfortunate incident at the Mall, where Basu said he was misunderstood when he chided his own security team for blocking a group of students.

A stanza in the song goes: “Standing next to me in this lonely crowd/ Is a man who swears he’s not to blame.

“All day long I hear him shout so loud/Crying out that he was framed.”

Later, the musicians told Basu over the microphone how sorry they were about the events and urged him to stay on.

Basu did not rule out a return. “I have found out that we cannot shoot in some places here. Accordingly, we will make our plans (the next time),” the director said. (more…)

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AVIJIT SINHA

Siliguri, June 17: A first-of-its-kind study to prepare an inventory of the Himalayan glaciers in the Indian sub-continent has revealed a loss in the glacial cover in the Teesta basin in the past fourteen years and the absence of snow in the sub-basins of the river like the Rangit.

The study named Snow and Glaciers of the Himalayas was conducted by the Union ministry of environment and forests in association with the Ahmedabad-based Space Application Centre of ISRO.

The aim of the project was to find out the trend of the glaciers in the Indian Himalayan region over a period of four years from 2004-05 to 2007-08.

“According to this inventory there are 32,392 glaciers in the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra basins that drain into India. It is for the first time that such a detailed inventory with the help of satellite data has been published that contains figures indicating the advance or retreat of glaciers,” sources at the ministry of environment and forests said.

In the course of the study, in which around 2,500 glaciers were monitored including 34 of the Teesta, it has been found that in 1990 the 34 glaciers used to cover an area of 305sqkm. But in 2004 the area of the glacial cover on the Teesta basin was reduced by 4sqkm and 23 of the glaciers showed trends of retreat.

While eight were found advancing, the coverage area of three glaciers remained unaltered.

The Teesta basin is part of the Brahmaputra basin.

According to experts, the basins of the eastern Himalayan region reflected less retreat than those in the western Himalayas.

Experts said the loss of glacial cover and their retreat may lead to dry rivers or floods in the area.

The findings of the study has also indicated the presence of several supra-glacial lakes on the Brahmaputra basin.

These lakes are formed because of the melting of glaciers during the summer months.

The study revealed that there are 474 supra-glacier lakes spread over an area of 70.02sqkm in the Brahmaputra basin. Of them, 61 are in the Teesta basin.

“Existence of supra-glacial lakes could be hazardous and might cause loss to human life and property. These lakes can create crevasse and the entire water would empty in a few hours causing sudden inundation in the downstream,” said Animesh Bose, an environmentalist from north Bengal, said.

While monitoring the Himalayan glaciers in selected sub-basins of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim, experts have found that in the Rangit sub-basin the extent of snow cover during certain months of the year, has shown trends of reduction in 2007-08.

“During the study, it was found that earlier the snow cover in the glacier that feeds the Rangit sub-basin existed till April. But in 2007-08, no snow cover was found after February,” a source said.

The Rangit sub-basin, which originates from Sikkim, is part of the Teesta basin.

The study shows the Teesta has supra-glacial lakes spread over an area of 10.37sqkm. It also has two moraine dam lakes fed by glaciers spread over an area of 2.79 sqkm.

Environmentalists and experts said the loss of the glacial cover, even though low when compared to other the basins of the country, has commenced in this region.

During the study 10,106 glaciers have been found on the Brahmaputra basin, 16,049 in Ganga basin and 6,237 in the Indus basin.

“Several glaciers feeding the Teesta are retreating and areas in the upper reaches of the Sikkim Himalayas are drying up with less snow cover,” Bose said.

According to him, to prevent the retreat of glaciers, trees should be planted. More trees will result in rainfall in the lower areas and snowfall in the higher altitudes.

“Unless massive afforestation is done in these areas it is tough to encourage the advancement of glaciers and there can be severe climatic conditions in future added to inundation as indicated by the presence of supra-glacial lakes,” he said.

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