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Kalimpong, July 26: The floor of a North Bengal State Transport Corporation bus parked at the motor stand in the heart of town was damaged in a minor blast caused by a kerosene stove apparently kept beneath the rear portion of the vehicle early this morning.

The ventilators of the corporation’s ticket counter right behind the bus were also shattered in the explosion.

It is not clear yet if the stove was lit by somebody or burst because of any other reason. A police officer said the blast was a minor one and was unlikely to cause injuries even if it had occurred during the day.

A night guard, Padam Subba, engaged by the NBSTC from a private agency was woken up by the blast around 2.45am.

“I was inside the ticket counter when I heard a loud explosion outside. I rushed out and saw flames at the bottom of the only bus parked there. I immediately used the floor mats in the ticket counter and flung them over the flames. Water was also used to douse the flames. The blast caused a dent in the rear floor of the bus. The stove was lying all twisted and mangled,” said Subba.

The guard soon informed the police station that is just about three minutes’ walk from the motor stand. “I did not see anyone in the vicinity when I came out of the ticket counter,” he said.

The superintendent of police of Darjeeling, D. P. Singh, visited the spot around 10.30am.

“It is a stove that exploded and we have asked the Central Forensic Laboratory in Calcutta to send experts to find out more about the nature of the explosion. The forensic team will be here either tomorrow or the day after to inspect the remains of the stove that are kept at the Kalimpong police station,” said Singh.

The district police chief said an investigation had started to find out who had kept the stove under the bus. He also said the police would patrol the area from tonight.

A senior Kalimpong police officer said the stove that had exploded at the bus stand was one with a wick.

“I have heard of kerosene stoves that can be started off with pumps bursting, but never a wick one exploding. It is still a mystery as to how and by whom the blast was caused,” said the officer.

The officer said had the explosion taken place even during the day, the damage it would have caused to humans would have been very minor. “It looks like that a metal part of the stove perforated the floor of the bus. But that could not have caused any serious injuries as the intensity of the blast was not big enough,” he said.

The explosion, however, has caused some concern among people.

Neel Kamal Chhteri, an education consultant who uses public transport, said he felt scared when he heard about the incident.

“It is scary that the blast took place at a spot that is used by the public. Such spots are always chosen by trouble-makers all over the world. Railway stations, bus termini, trains — all are targeted by these people,” said Chhetri. He said the police should be more vigilant as far as public places were concerned.

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Kalimpong/Darjeeling, July 26: The signing of the tripartite agreement to set up the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration has opened up the possibility of resuming trade through Jelep-la, a pass close to Kalimpong on the India-China border that was last used nearly 50 years ago.

The hope brews all the more as the agreement states that the GTA will take up the issue with the Centre and the state, once it is in place.

“Jelep-la (easy pass in Tibetan) was the preferred pass since, unlike Nathu-la, its gradient is not so steep making it easier to negotiate even during the winter months. I am certain once it is opened, it will be a thriving trade route and help rejuvenate the long dormant economic activity in Kalimpong,” said Karma T. Pempahishey, a member of the Public Grievances Redressal and Welfare Society, Kalimpong. The society has long been lobbying for the reopening of border trade.

At 14,500ft, Jelep-la is 100 feet higher than Nathu-la and 160km from Kalimpong. But the distance from Siliguri to Jelep-la is 235km. From Siliguri, the Sikkim pass is 15km further away, a significant difference in the hilly terrain.

Trade through the all-weather route, unlike the Nathu-la that remains closed during winters, had once turned Kalimpong into a major trade hub. Jelep-la was an important pass for export and import from India till the Chinese aggression in 1962. Kalimpong was the main station for dumping commodities brought from Tibet and also for packaging and re-shipment of export commodities from India to Tibet.

“While mostly raw wool and silver coins came from Tibet, just about everything was exported from here,” said Satyanaryan Agarwal, a veteran of the Indo-Tibetan trade through Jelep-la who still owns a shop at 10th Mile, which used to be the main trading centre then.

The Kalimpong Chamber of Commerce (KCC) said it would welcome any move to reopen the Jelep-la trade route.

“The closure of Jelep-la has severely impacted the local economy. The trade route is far more feasible than Nathu-la. However, more items should be allowed from Tibet through the point (than it was earlier) to make it economically viable in today’s context,” said a member of the KCC.

Trade through Jelep-la had started way back in 1871, but inland business flourished after Colonel Young Husband’s visit to Tibet via Kalimpong in 1904, when the route started functioning as a full-fledged passage for exchange of goods.

Following improvement in the ties between colonial India and Tibet, a British agent was stationed at Shigatse in Tibet for the purpose of transit.

In fact, former Darjeeling MP Dawa Narbula had also raised the issue of Jelep-la in Parliament while the KCC had submitted a memorandum to Atal Behari Vajpayee, the then prime minister, during his visit to Gangtok in 2004. A memorandum had also been submitted to Pranab Mukherjee when he had come to Kalimpong as the finance minister in 2008.

Even current Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh has strongly advocated for the opening of the Silk Route.

Singh had earlier told The Telegraph that the quest for peace and amity with neighbouring countries could not be treated like “traffic lights”.

“It cannot be treated like traffic lights, stop, go, green, amber, red. It has to be a constant effort…We must permit free movement of goods and encourage as much trade as possible,” said Singh. “We would very seriously consider the opening of Jelep-la.”

The tripartite agreement states that the GTA will take up the matter of reopening the trade route through the Jelep-la with the state and the Centre soon after the body comes into existence.

“Easy access from the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) through Jelep-la will eventually make it more popular with Chinese traders wanting to reach the ports in Calcutta or Bangladesh. Besides trade, the opening of the Jelep-la route is likely to provide a boost to the tourism industry in the region,” said Pempahishey.

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VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, July 26: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has decided to observe “martyrs’ day” tomorrow at Sibchu, where three party supporters were killed in a police firing on February 8. But unlike earlier times, police have given permission to the Morcha to go ahead with a rally at the firing site.

The subdivisional police officer of Malbazar, Arindam Sarkar, said he had received an appeal from the Morcha for tomorrow’s programme in Sibchu.

“I have forwarded the appeal to the block development officer to allow the Morcha to observe the martyrs’ day at Sibchu,” the SDPO said.

Sibchu in the Malbazar subdivision of Jalpaiguri is one of the entry points to the Dooars. The firing took place when Morcha supporters forcibly tried to enter the region as part of party chief Bimal Gurung’s padayatra from Darjeeling to the Dooars. (more…)

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VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, July 25: The district administration accompanied by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leadership today started a survey across Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong subdivisions to prepare a blue print for projects primarily related to decongestion and beautification of the hills in the first phase.

The study comes days after the signing of the agreement between the Morcha, the state government and the Centre to set up the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration for the hills.

Under the hill agreement, the three sides have agreed to take up over 40 development projects including the setting up of four ropeways in Darjeeling and Kurseong.

The survey team included Darjeeling district magistrate Mohan Gandhi, Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri and Delhi-based architect P.R. Mehta, apart from officials of the land and land reforms department.

The team inspected sites at Batasia, Red Cross Complex, Kakjhora, Judge Bazaar, the motor stand area and Lebong.

Gandhi, however, said Mehta was not officially tied to the survey. “Since he was in town, we thought of calling him for the inspection. The survey was in the pipeline as the state government wanted to come up with plans to decongest the town about three years ago. This was basically a follow up to this proposal and an effort to identify possible sites to create parking spaces in town,” said Gandhi.

Gandhi added that the district administration was looking at creating more parking spaces apart from beautifying the town. Mamata Banerjee had repeatedly said she would turn the hills into Switzerland.

The Morcha, which has signed the hill deal on July 18, however, indicated that the survey was part of the party’s decision to immediately start development works.

“We are not sure whether Mr Mehta has been taken in officially or not but the district magistrate and the administrator of the DGHC have recognised his expertise,” said Giri. “To start with, we are trying to concentrate on creating parking space, strengthening the motor stand and beautifying the town immediately. Apart from this, we have already started drawing up plans not just for Darjeeling but also for other towns like Kalimpong, Kurseong and Mirik,” said Giri. He said Mehta had taken up beautification projects in Delhi and Jaipur in the past.

The speculation doing the round is that though Mehta is not officially tied to the project, the Morcha is looking at taking him on board for planning.

“We have to adopt a holistic approach to develop the area. I am just looking at the sites now and we will also seek a number of suggestions. Later, we can combine the ideas to come up with a holistic plan for the region,” said Mehta.

Morcha president Bimal Gurung told party workers at Chungthung, 26km from Darjeeling yesterday, that he was racing against time to change the face of the hills. “I cannot wait for long. We have already started planning for the region,” he had said yesterday.

Sources said the Darjeeling municipality has also prepared a plan to develop the Chowk Bazar area, which includes realigning the vendors in the area

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RAJEEV RAVIDAS

Kalimpong, July 25: Electricity is not a problem yet but the other two aam admi concerns of pani and sadak are beginning to tell on the people of Kalimpong as the rains have wreaked havoc on the water supply infrastructure and the roads midway through monsoon.

Residents of Kalimpong have not received water for two days from July 22 after landslides at Algarah (16km from here) damaged pipes supplying water to a reservoir at Deolo few days ago.

Water from the tank is distributed to around 7,000 households of the hill town on every alternate days.

It is expected that the public health engineering (PHE) department, which distributes water, would be able to restore the supply lines from tomorrow.

“We have enough water in the Deolo reservoir today and we should be able to supply water tomorrow,” said Rajen Pradhan, the PHE superintendent.

Pradhan said the daily requirement of the town is 7.3 lakh gallons.

Till yesterday afternoon, the Deolo reservoir had about 3 lakh gallons of water, which had been kept as a buffer to meet emergencies like fire.

“We were able to replenish water from Thukchuk and the Neora river. If there is no further damage to our pipelines, then we will be able to supply water to the residents on alternate days as usual,” he said.

Residents of the hill town get water from the department for half an hour every alternate days.

But the officials fear that if there is more rain, causing landslides on the 6-km stretch from Algarah to the 4th Mile, then it could again result in the pipelines getting damaged.

Praful Rao, the president of Save The Hills, an NGO working on landslide issues, said an alternative arrangement to supply water to the residents of the hill town is needed. “The rainy season will continue for another month and half. The usual non-stop rain lasting for two-three days has not yet occurred this year. You can well imagine what could happen if we were to get that kind of rain,” he said.

It was not possible to ascertain if the Kalimpong municipality had an alternative arrangement in place to meet a possible crisis of potable water. L. N. Sherpa, the subdivisional officer of Kalimpong and acting administrator of the municipality, did not take calls from The Telegraph.

In the absence of water supply for two days, most residents arranged for drinking water from the natural springs in the neighbourhood.

The others bought it from the market.

“I had tapped rainwater for washing purposes and, for drinking, I brought 1,000 litres of water from the market,” said Nilesh Khadka, a resident of B.L. Dixit Road in Kalimpong.

The price of 1,000 litre water delivered at home is anything between Rs 200 and Rs 300, depending on the distance of the house from the town.

The PHE superintendent said he was keeping the SDO updated on the water situation.

The mudslides have also affected the traffic movement on NH31A, the main road link to Siliguri. The highway has been blocked by slush and debris for hours several times in the past few months resulting in traffic jam and increased travel time.

“Landslides have turned the highway into a hell. Safety apart, the inordinate delay we have to encounter on the highway is not only inconveniencing but is also hurting us economically. If I have a day’s work in Siliguri today I will either have to go there a day in advance or I will have to stay back over night,” said Robin Lama, a businessman from Kalimpong.

Usually it takes about two hours to reach Siliguri from here, a distance of 65km, through the highway.

But because of regular traffic jams, especially on stretches affected by landslides, sometimes it takes double the time or even more to cover the distance.

Residents of the town submitted a letter to the Darjeeling district magistrate, Mohan Gandhi, last week drawing his attention to the bad condition of NH31A.

A source in the Border Roads Organisation, which maintains the highway, said they were doing their best to ensure an uninterrupted flow of traffic on the highway.

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VIVEK CHHETRI

Chungthung, July 24: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha is not sure how the three-tier panchayat system will be put in place in the hills despite its provisions in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.

Bimal Gurung’s outfit, the Morcha, is one of the three signatories to the memorandum of agreement that will set up the GTA for the Darjeeling hills.

Since the Constitution has no provision for setting up two zilla parishads in the same district, the Morcha is unsure about how the new system would be implemented in Darjeeling district where the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad is equivalent to the zilla parishad. The rest of Darjeeling district, according to the constitutional amendment of 1992, has a two-tier panchayat system.

The Morcha’s Darjeeling MLA Trilok Dewan today told party workers at Chungthung: “One of the biggest achievement for the hill people in the agreement is the revival of the three-tier panchayat system.” (more…)

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VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, July 21: Bimal Gurung broke into a jig today to celebrate the new hill agreement, which he described as a “semi-final” match. Hundreds of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters followed the leader with impromptu steps throughout the day.

The mood was all about the celebration of the signing of the agreement to set up the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. But when the power went off in the middle of Gurung’s speech that started after more than an hour’s dance at the Mall, the Morcha chief looked irritated.

“I don’t like others fooling with me. The power department might have switched off the electricity as a reminder of the outstanding bills. But we will not pay our dues even if they try to hang us. We will only start paying the bills for electricity used from the day of the agreement was signed (on July 18),” an upset Gurung told the gathering of around 10,000 people when power came back after three minutes. The hill people have not paid any taxes to the state government as part of their non-cooperation movement for Gorkhaland since April 2008 and outstanding electricity bill dues have crossed the Rs 72 crore mark.

The four-hour celebration from 10.30am started with a procession was taken out from Darjeeling station and culminated at the Mall.

Gurung today hinted that agitation for Gorkhaland would be kept on hold and it was time to concentrate on creation of jobs and development of the hills. “What do you say now?” he asked only to provide the answer himself. “Just as the Bodos say they come from Bodoland, we can now say we come from Gorkhaland. The word ‘Gorkhaland’ has been legitimised and this itself is a victory. We are now playing the semi-finals and we now only have to get a Gorkhaland state,” he told the gathering.

It was clear that this “semi-final” would be played for some years now. “I request the Opposition to refrain from criticising. Give me time for another two to two-and-a-half- years and I will change the face of the hills. We have already spent money and have got experts from Delhi to draw a road map on how to develop the Darjeeling hills, the Terai and the Dooars,” said Gurung. Taking a dig at GNLF leader Subash Ghisingh, who ruled the hills for 20 years before Gurung ousted him from power, the Morcha president said: “I am not an engineer, the job of an engineer has to be done by an engineer. One should not ape an engineer.” The indication was that Ghisingh never consulted experts.

The Morcha today talked about development and urged all the youths who had left the hills in search of better jobs to come back. “The new body has to be run by the educated youths, irrespective of their economic backgrounds. The body must function impartially from now onwards. There was a lot of corruption even during the rehabilitation work in the aftermath of cyclone Aila and such things must not be repeated,” said Gurung.

Gurung said all those people who had worked tirelessly during the 44-month agitation would be suitably rewarded, and reiterated that the hills should not be saddened by chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s speech that Bengal would not be divided. “You should not be saddened by her speech. It was her political compulsion which prompted her to make such a speech,” he said.

The Morcha would be holding celebrations in Kalimpong on July 28, Kurseong on August 1 and in Mirik on August 3. Today, apart from educational institutions and tea gardens, most of the business establishments were shut during the celebrations.
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MEGHDEEP BHATTACHARYYA

Calcutta, July 21: Three senior bureaucrats played a pivotal role in paving the way for the landmark agreement to form the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration that has ended the hill impasse for now and helped Mamata Banerjee fulfil her promise of solving the problem within three months of coming to power.

The chief minister, who on her first day at Writers’ had publicly rued the lack of “good” IAS officers in Bengal, would conceivably be thankful to chief secretary Samar Ghosh, home secretary G.D. Gautama and DGHC administrator Anil Verma for their contribution in resolving the hill crisis.

Days after her government was sworn in on May 20, Mamata had told Ghosh and Gautama, both Bengal-cadre IAS officers of the 1977 batch, that she wanted a solution to the Darjeeling issue as soon as possible.

Verma, an IAS officer of the 1989 batch with extensive experience in dealing with the hill impasse, was brought on board for counsel soon after.

Since early June, the three bureaucrats had been negotiating on Mamata’s behalf with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha the terms and conditions for the formation of the GTA. The Centre, state government and the Morcha signed the agreement at Pintail Village, near Siliguri, on Monday. (more…)

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Siliguri/Jaigaon, July 21: Trade unions affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha have threatened to impose an embargo on the despatch of tea from gardens in the Dooars and the Terai from July 26 to demand a revision in the workers’ wages.

The garden workers in the plains are currently paid Rs 67 a day according to an agreement reached between planters and trade unions three years ago. The duration of the deal ended on March 31 and all negotiations held so far to fix a new wage failed to reach a consensus.

“We had a meeting with leaders of the Parishad-backed Progressive Tea Workers’ Union at Banarhat yesterday. We decided to hold meetings in front of the gates of each tea garden in the Terai and the Dooars for two hours from tomorrow, demanding immediate fixing of wages,” said Govind Pradhan, the assistant general secretary of the Morcha-affiliated Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union.

“The meetings will continue till July 25 and if the tea companies do not revise the wage by then, we will stop the despatch of tea from the gardens.” (more…)

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BIJOY GURUNG

Gangtok, July 21: The Sikkim Bhutia Lepcha Apex Committee (Siblac) today wrote to Union environment and forest minister Jayanthi Natarajan, objecting to the clearance granted to a 99MW hydel power project on the Rathung Chu, a river considered holy by the Sikkimese.

The committee contends that the clearance was given despite the ministry of environment and forests stating earlier that it had not received any proposal on the project.

Three power projects — Lethang (96MW), Ting Ting (99MW) and Tashiding (97MW) — had been planned over the Rathung Chu, a tributary of the Rangeet river. The Lethang project had been rejected by the standing committee for the National Board for Wildlife in October last year following objections from Siblac, which had pointed out that the proposed project would hurt the “religious sentiments” of Bhutias and Lepchas.

According to documents collected by Siblac, the ministry of environment and forests on July 4 communicated its environmental clearance to a private company that is developing the 99MW Ting Ting project, 140km from Gangtok. (more…)

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Kalimpong, July 20: A 40-metre stretch of NH31A caved in completely along the Teesta near Kalimpong this morning, hampering traffic on the only road link between Sikkim and the rest of the country for eight hours.

A large number of people, including tourists, had to take a detour to reach their destinations as hundreds of vehicles were stuck on either side of the affected stretch at Likhubhir.

The highway opened for traffic again at 2pm after the Border Roads Organisation cut the hillside to bypass the breach at Likhubhir, 18km from here.

A source in the BRO, which maintains the road, said the cave-in had occurred between 5.30am and 6am. “A 40-metre stretch of the highway completely sank and the rubble fell into the Teesta flowing along the road. A protection wall we were constructing to stem the erosion of the roadside also sank. Bulldozers were pressed into service and the hillside was cut to skirt the breached portion and reconnect the road. The traffic resumed on NH31A around 2pm,” said a BRO official.

Likhubhir is 2km down the Teesta bridge and has always been prone to landslides and cave-ins. In fact, today’s cave-in occurred about 200 metres from the portion that had sank last year, resulting in traffic block for hours.
Commuters from the Siliguri side walk over boulders to reach the other side of the affected part of the road. Picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha

When The Telegraph visited Likhubhir around 10.30am today, heavy vehicles were lined bumper-to-bumper right from the Teesta bridge. The queue on the other side of the breach from the Siliguri side, however, was shorter. “The traffic jam would have been much larger had light vehicles not travelled through alternative routes to reach their destinations. I have been stuck here since 5.30am,” said Sailesh Rai, a truck driver.

Light vehicles going to Siliguri took the Teesta-Peshok-Jorebunglow road, while those bound for Sikkim and Kalimpong travelled through Mungpoo or plied the Damdim-Lava-Algarah route.

The vehicles that skirted the breached portion had to guzzle double the fuel usually needed to travel between Siliguri and Kalimpong. It takes about two hours to cover the 65-km distance between Kalimpong and Siliguri via NH31A and more than four hours via the Damdim-Lava-Algarah road.

Suraj Mani Pradhan, a quiz master from Kalimpong, was among those who took the Teesta-Peshok-Jorebunglow road to reach Siliguri. “I am right now in Siliguri with my family to visit an ailing relative,” he said. Pradhan could take a detour as he was travelling on a light vehicle. But bus passengers had to cross the breached portion on foot and get into other vehicles to continue their journey.

A family from Punjab was returning home after a visit to Sikkim. The group that consisted of children also reached Likhubhir on a Sikkim National Transport bus and walked across the caved-in stretch. “We have to catch a train to Jalandhar from New Jalpaiguri this evening. Although this was quite an ordeal, we consider ourselves lucky since we will not miss the train,” said Dalbir Singh, the head of the family.

A man who did not want to be named said he was on his way to Gangtok on an official assignment. “I arrived at the NJP railway station this morning and boarded a bus to Gangtok. This (cave-in) has forced me to get off at Likhubhir and board another bus to proceed to Gangtok. I had originally planned to return today, but that looks to be unlikely now,” he said.

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VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, July 20: The celebrations in the hills have started a day earlier than scheduled. From morning itself, women were out on the streets of Darjeeling rejoicing the signing of the agreement to set up the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has planned a celebration at Darjeeling’s famous promenade, the Mall, tomorrow. Sources in the Morcha said the memorandum of agreement signed by the party for the formation of the GTA would be read out before the 10,000 or so people expected at the meeting tomorrow.

The Morcha has called for the closure of all education institutions, government offices, tea gardens and the cinchona plantation to enable workers to take part in the revelry.

Morcha supporters from the Dooars will, however, not join the celebration, which will start with a rally from the Darjeeling railway station. A Morcha leader said celebrations in the Dooars would be held at a later date since it was only a little more than 10 days ago that party chief Bimal Gurung had addressed a public meeting in Jaigaon. The Morcha wants the Gorkha dominated pockets in the Dooars and the Terai to be made part of the GTA, a demand that would be looked into by a nine-member committee set up by the government.

“We had a meeting with the people of Terai at Pintail yesterday. A similar meeting will be held in the Dooars at a later date. In fact, Bimal Gurung had addressed a meeting at Jaigaon on July 7 and had addressed the issue of territory before the Dooars people,” said a party leader.
Women celebrate in Darjeeling’s Chowrastha on Wednesday. (Suman Tamang)

Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said: “We have asked even the tea gardens and the cinchona plantation to remain shut so that our supporters can attend the event.”

Managements of most gardens said they would keep their estates shut but refused to say whether it would be a paid holiday. In the past, similar holidays had been adjusted with the workers’ day-offs.

Traffic is expected to remain normal tomorrow though congestion cannot be ruled out with Morcha supporters from across the hills coming over to Darjeeling.

Announcements have been made in Darjeeling requesting people to come to the rally dressed in Gorkha attires with traditional musical instruments like the madal. The Morcha is determined to show the hills that everyone is happy with the agreement.

In fact members of the Morcha’s town committee from Darjeeling and Kurseong started their celebrations today itself. Morcha supporters, with yellow gulal on their foreheads, were seen dancing at Chowrastha or the Mall.

Sources in the Morcha said besides entertainment programmes like cultural dances, party general secretary Giri would also read out the entire contents of the memorandum of agreement before the public.

With peace having crept into the hills since the Morcha’s win in the Assembly elections, hotels in Darjeeling have been registering a steady enquiry from tourists, who had been bypassing the region for the past three and a half years because of the turmoil. “You may be surprised to know that many hotels have been booked full till October. Getting accommodations in Darjeeling will be extremely difficult after a few weeks,” said an official at the enquiry desk of a hotel.

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