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The Hindu
Mangan (Sikkim), October 30, 2011
PTI

Low-intensity tremors, which continued to rock north Sikkim one and a half months after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake devastated the region, have killed two people at Dzongu which had borne the brunt of the September 18 calamity.

The tremor measuring 3.2 on the Richter Scale killed an 85-year-old resident of Nung village and a 27-year-old man hailing from Lingdem Basti in the region on Saturday morning, delayed reports said.

Police sources said the 85-year-old was trying to escape from his house which was violently shaking when the temblor struck at around 8:30 a.m.

Medical reports said his death was triggered by a heart attack after he slipped down the stairs.

Another casualty was a 27-year-old man, Sonam Wangyal Lepcha, from Lingdem Basti who died after he fell down from the Lingdim Bridge at Dzongu.

Chief Minister Pawan Chamling visited the affected area today and met the affected families. He distributed Rs. one lakh each to the families as ex-gratia.
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Mongpong/Darjeeling, Oct. 30: One key issue relating to the Darjeeling accord appeared headed for a breakthrough today when local leaders of a tribal outfit influential in the Dooars-Terai region agreed to these plains areas being included within the proposed hill set-up.

The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad leaders, who addressed a joint news conference with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha here, said the Morcha had accepted their condition of including “Adivasi” in the name of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). It will be known as the Gorkhaland Adivasi Territorial Administration.

Parishad state president Birsa Tirkey, however, said from Ranchi that he had been “kept in the dark” about the deal and would seek an explanation for the “unauthorised” move.

The Morcha had sought the inclusion of Gorkha-dominated Dooars and Terai areas within the GTA’s territory but the Parishad had opposed the claim, leading to frequent clashes between the two sides. The state government had set up a committee, headed by Justice (retd) Shyamal Sen, to look into the matter.

Observers said today’s development could ease the tension in the plains. The Parishad would now be part of the GTA, a senior Morcha leader said.

Morcha chief Bimal Gurung told the news conference: “We want the inclusion of the entire Dooars and the Terai in the new set-up, not just the 199 mouzas that we had earlier been demanding. Unless this happens, elections to the GTA will not be held.”

John Barla, the Parishad’s Dooars unit chief, said a joint Morcha-Parishad team would meet Sen and “tell him we want all 315 mouzas of the Dooars and 199 mouzas of the Terai to be included in the GTA”.

Trinamul leader and state minister Partha Chatterjee refused comment, saying it was up to chief minister Mamata Banerjee to react. During a trip to the Dooars earlier this month, Mamata had urged the Parishad to take its case to the Sen committee and maintain peace in the region.

The chiefs of the Parishad’s Dooars and Terai units, Barla and Nicotine Minz, and state committee secretary Tezkumar Toppo were present at the joint news conference at Mongpong, 25km from Siliguri.

“We have struck a historic deal with the Morcha, which has not given up its demand for a separate state,” Barla said. “We too will stick to our demand for Sixth Schedule status for the Dooars and the Terai. Who knows, a Gorkha Adivasi Pradesh could be formed later.”

Gurung said: “The GTA agreement allows a change in nomenclature. Once the set-up is formed, the new administration will pass a resolution changing the name.”

He parried the question whether an agreement had been struck with the Parishad. “We will not say anything now. We will give the details at public meetings that we will jointly organise in the Dooars and the Terai,” Gurung said.

More than 1,000 Morcha and Parishad supporters were present at the venue of the news conference. The Adivasis make up 65 per cent of the population in the Dooars and the Terai, while the Gorkhas account for 25 per cent.

Sources said Morcha and Parishad leaders had met in the Dooars last night for three hours and worked out a deal.

Barla did not explain the change of stance but a Morcha leader attributed it to the Parishad’s “compulsions of staying afloat”.

“The Parishad had tried to side with the Congress in the run-up to the Assembly elections. Neither the Centre nor the state government has accepted the Sixth Schedule demand,” the Morcha leader said.

“Mamata’s decision to set up a committee to look into our territory demand has proved that she is firmly beside us. All this has persuaded the Parishad to rethink its strategy.”

He added: “The Parishad now wants to get some administrative powers for itself and develop the Terai and the Dooars by being part of the proposed administrative set-up for the hills.”

Parishad president Tirkey, however, questioned the move. “Some of our leaders in the Dooars and the Terai participated in a dialogue with the Morcha without taking the consent of our state committee,” he said over the phone from Ranchi.

“Although the leaders are free to attend meetings, they do not have the authority to take decisions without the ratification of the state committee. I will call an emergency meeting and seek an explanation from these leaders.”

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Siliguri, Oct. 30: The move by a section of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad in the Terai and the Dooars to support the inclusion of the Adivasi-dominated areas of the plains in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration has come as a surprise to the state president of the tribal outfit.

The Parishad president, Birsa Tirkey, said the local leadership had decided to hold talks with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha without the consent of the state committee.

The Parishad had been demanding Sixth Schedule status for the Terai and the Dooars while vehemently opposing the inclusion of the region in the proposed GTA.

Tirkey said he would seek an explanation from the leaders who addressed a joint press conference with Morcha heavyweights at Mongpong today.

The Parishad president, who was in Ranchi, said he had heard that the Dooars leaders had agreed to a new dispensation called the Gorkha Adivasi Territorial Administration and to work with the Morcha leadership.

“The Parishad men from the Dooars and the Terai participated in today’s dialogue with the Morcha leaders without taking any consent from our state committee. They are free to attend any meetings with anybody without the authorisation of state leaders. But they do not have the power to take any decision on any issue, unless they are authorised by the state committee. I am now out of the state and once I return to Calcutta tomorrow, I will call an emergency meeting and ask the leaders who participated in today’s meeting for an explanation,” Tirkey told The Telegraph over phone.

Tirkey had visited the Writers’ Buildings on October 20 to submit a memorandum to Justice (retd) Shyamal Kumar Sen, who heads the high-power committee set up by the state government to address the territory issue raised by the Morcha for the inclusion of the Terai and the Dooars in the GTA.

“We could not meet the Justice or the state home secretary, G.D. Gautama. We submitted the memorandum to the officials in the home department. We clearly mentioned in the memorandum that under no circumstances could any place in the Terai and the Dooars be brought under the GTA. We also demanded autonomy for the areas under Sixth Schedule, as we are the indigenous tribal people of the areas and our issues related to development are completely different from those in the hills,” he said.

The tribal leader also pointed out that the Terai and the Dooars were Adivasi-dominated areas and Assembly seats were reserved for candidates from the community. “We have six Assembly seats reserved for candidates from the scheduled tribes and these areas cannot be part of any other set-up,” Tirkey said.

When asked if he would take any disciplinary action against the leaders who took part in today’s meeting, Tir-key said: “Once I reach Calcutta, I will get a detailed report of today’s meeting and also ask our members in what capacity they attended the meeting. Any decision on disciplinary action can be taken after that.”

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Kolkata, Oct 30 (IANS) The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) Sunday forged a pact with the Adivasi Vikas Parishad (AVP), and demanded that the name of the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) in West Bengal’s Darjeeling hills be changed to Gorkhaland and Adivasi Territorial Administration (GATA) after bringing the tribal areas of Terai and Dooars under it.

On July 18, a tripartite agreement was signed between the GJM and the state and central governments for setting up a new autonomous, elected GTA, a hill council armed with more powers than its predecessor Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) formed in the late 1980s. The AVP had opposed the agreement.

An expert committee was set up under the agreement to survey the Gorkha-dominated parts of Siliguri, Terai (plains of Darjeeling) and Dooars (foothills of the eastern Himalayas) and examine if areas from these places could be brought under the GTA. The committee is expected to give its report in six months.

GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said: ‘After holding a series of meeting with the AVP leadership it has been decided that the name of the GTA be changed to GATA so that the moujas of Terai and Dooars can be included and there is a representation of adivasis.’

‘We just want changing of the name from GTA to GATA and other things of the agreement will remain the same,’ Giri told IANS by phone.

The AVP, since the signing of the tripartite agreement and formation of the area demarcation committee, had declared that it won’t allow any area of Terai and Dooars to be included under the jurisdiction of the GTA.

During Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s visit to North Bengal the AVP leadership demanded the formation of an adivasi territorial administration (ATA) on the lines of the GTA for the welfare of the tribals. The demand was rejected by Banerjee.

‘We had placed the demand of formation of ATA but the demand was rejected. We discussed the matter with GJM leadership and they agreed to change the name of GTA to GATA. We are happy about it,’ said John Barla, president, AVP.

‘We have decided to give the nod regarding the inclusion of areas of Terai and Dooars under the proposed GATA. The AVP will also have representation in the GATA. We will place this demand before Mamata Banerjee very soon,’ Barla told IANS.

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Save The Hills just posted information about yet another earthquake that hit the Darj/Sikkim hills on Oct 29th at around 6am IST. This was a ‘slight’ intensity quake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale.

The epicenter was about 36 km north of Kalimpong as the crow flies.

More details & screen grab of map here: http://savethehills.blogspot.com/2011/10/quake-report-29oct2011.html

www.telegraphindia.com

Kalimpong, Oct. 28: Ex-students of Dow Hill and Victoria Schools will organise a two-day event to seek heritage status for the institutions and ensure that the schools are not brought under the purview of the Right to Education Act.

More than 200 ex-students of the two hill schools from across the country will gather in Kurseong on November 5 and 6 to take part in the programme.

“We will hold a seminar on the rich heritage of the institutions at Victoria School on November 5 and follow it up with a book release and a musical evening in Dow Hill the next day. The book Dow Hill to thee that is written by an ex-Dowhillian Jaya Roy Choudhary,” said Manoj Chandra Rana, the secretary of the north Bengal chapter of the Victoria and Dow Hill Alumni Association.

“We are seeking a heritage status for the schools at the state, national and, if possible, even at the international level to acknowledge their contribution in spreading the light of education in the region,” Rana said.

The 132-year-old institutions are managed by the directorate of schools (Anglo-Indian schools) of the state school education department and they are among the oldest institutions in the hills.

Both the schools feature the list of the 225 sites compiled by the North Bengal University that would be placed before the state heritage commission in November to grant them heritage status.

“However, we do not want only the physical infrastructure of the schools as heritage sites. We are also campaigning to ensure that the present character of the schools is not changed. We have already moved the state education department in this regard. If the need arises, we will also approach the chief minister with our demands,” said Rana.

According to the ex-students, two clauses in the RTE Act do not blend with the values of the schools. First is the provision to do away with the merit-based selection system and introduction of a lottery system for admitting students to standard I.

“Students should be admitted after interviews on a merit basis and not by lotteries,” said Rana.

The second clause of the Act that the ex-students have opposed is the admission of children from the economically backward families in the vicinity of the schools.

“As things are now, students from Bihar, Calcutta and many other places study in these two hill schools and they get a chance to interact with the local children. If the schools admit students only from the locality, the children would not get that exposure and they will not be able to interact with different kinds of people,” Rana added.

Victoria School has Classes from IV to X and 30 per cent of the seats are reserved for students from the three hill subdivisions.

Hill students are allocated 50 per cent seats in Dow Hill School that teaches students from kindergarten to Class X.

Although the RTE Act came into force in all government schools on April 1, 2010, the two hill schools were exempted.

“However, the directorate has recently issued an order stating that the two schools will be brought under the purview of RTE Act from the next academic session,” said a source.

The academic session for both the schools is from March to November.

Jaya Roy Choudhary, of the 1974 batch, said: “The Darjeeling hills that is acknowledged as the centre of education will lose two branded schools (if the Act is implemented).”

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VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, Oct. 27: Nearly 40 suspension walkways in the Darjeeling hills will stay in the present form as the administration has ruled out their conversion into concrete bridges because of huge financial costs and technical problems.

The state of the suspension bridges was under the scanner after a walkway collapse killed 32 people and injured over 100 at Bijanbari on Saturday.

Anil Verma, the administrator of the DGHC, said even though some suspension bridges had been replaced by concrete structures in the past, it would be difficult to undertake similar task again.

“We cannot build 85 to 100 feet long concrete bridges overnight. Each bridge will entail a cost of around Rs 8 to 10 crore and moreover, given the terrain of the hills, it is very difficult to build concrete bridges. The fast moving streams and the deep ravines make construction difficult,” said Verma.

The DGHC looks after most of the 39 suspension bridges across the hills.

Verma noted that the footbridges was meant only for pedestrians as the name suggested

“The Bijanbari-Chungthung Tar footbridge over the Little Rangit river was meant only for pedestrians. Just one and a kilometre downstream at Pulbazar, there is a concrete bridge for vehicles. But I have heard that local people used to ride motorcycles on the footbridge,” said the administrator.

The ill-fated bridge at Bijanbari, 40km from Darjeeling, was fit to hold 15-20 pedestrians, but was packed with 150 people when it gave in.

The huge traffic was because of a cultural festival organised by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha at Bijanbari which had been teeming with revellers on Saturday.

“Most of these bridges have a static load of 50 persons. Not more than 50 persons can stand on these bridges at a any given point of time. Twenty-five is the maximum number of people allowed to cross the bridge at a time as the movement causes the structure to swing from its cables. More weight can spell disaster as was seen on Saturday,” said an official in the DGHC’s engineering cell.

Another reason behind the authorities’ reluctance to convert all the suspension bridges into concrete structures is the fact that most of them are meant to be for short-cuts between various hillocks.

“We have to see how many people use a footbridge. It does not make sense to convert the footbridge into a concrete structure if it is used by a limited number of people,” said Verma.

Also, many of the suspension bridges do not have asphalted roads at either end of the bridges. “If we were to invest around Rs 8-10 crore in a single bridge, there has to be a guarantee that it benefits vehicles. For this, a new road has to be constructed over a long distance to connect villages. This aspect has to be looked into before concretising the suspension bridges,” said another DGHC official.

Most of these suspension bridges are made of wooden plank. Local people complained that the wooden planks, too, were not repaired by the authorities concerned on a regular basis.

The DGHC engineer, however, denied the charge. “We have been repairing the footbridge on a need basis. Over the past few years, we had repaired seven to 10 bridges.”

The authorities have, however, started a survey on all the 39 suspension bridges.

“The survey will be completed in a few days. We will find the state of the bridges and then put up a notice board in front of them, stating the maximum number of people who can cross the bridge at a one given time and whether it can be used by vehicles or not,” said Verma.

The engineer said the survey would reveal how many of the 39 bridges were used by light vehicles. “Even if vehicles pass through any of the bridges, their number should not be more than one,” he said.

The board of administrators of the DGHC, which includes the MLAs from Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong, is expected to sit for a meeting on October 29 to discuss various issues in the aftermath of the September 18 earthquake and the collapse of the Bijanbari bridge.

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RAJEEV RAVIDAS

A cyclist at Kurseong during the expedition in 2010. File picture

Kalimpong, Oct. 26: A cycling expedition to promote adventure tourism in the region will be flagged off from Kurseong tomorrow.

According to the organisers of the 10-day event, the cyclists would travel through Darjeeling and Sikkim before reaching Kalimpong and the Dooars.

“The first edition held last year was restricted to the Darjeeling and Kurseong subdivisions and Sikkim. This year, we have routed the expedition through Kalimpong to promote tourism in the subdivision and also because the Kalimpong-Algarah-Lava-Gorubathan stretch is an excellent mountain biking route,” said Neel Kamal Chhetri, a partner of Help Desk Tourism, the main organiser of the rally.

Ten cyclists from America, Australia and Canada will cover 1000km during the expedition that will end at Chalsa in the Dooars.

“The team will be halting in Darjeeling, Pelling, Yuksom, Ravangla, Gangtok, Kalimpong and Chalsa during the tour,” said Chhetri.

Bob Thompson, a co-organiser of the expedition, said the roads in the region were very challenging and that was the main reason for them to choose it for the rally.

“The area is very challenging. It has lots of ups and downs and the people are very friendly,” said Thompson.

For 66-year-old Graeme Watkins from Australia, it is about difficult roads, friendly people and good beer.

“This is a great place to cycle. I like the people here who are very friendly. You get good beer here as well,” chuckled the resident of Melbourne who has taken part in over 15 cycling tours all over the world.

“The cycling route we have selected this time allows the participants to explore the diverse topography of the region. The expedition has been routed through some of the scenic places of the region, from the lush green tea gardens to the thickly-forested areas,” said Chhetri.

According to him, certain changes had to be made in the route because of the September 18 earthquake.

“We had originally planned to go to Mangan and Yumthang in North Sikkim. But the roads there have been badly affected by the quake and that leg has been taken off the schedule,” Chhetri said.

North Sikkim was the worst hit region in the quake that killed 60 people in the Himalayan state.
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VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, Oct. 25: Bijanbari tried to limp back to normality with shops opening for the first time this afternoon after Saturday’s footbridge collapse that killed 32 people but the town and the surrounding areas will have a low-key Diwali tomorrow.

Yogendra Rai, a resident of Bijanbari, said: “Even this morning, most of the business establishments were shut. But later during the day, traders started opening shops for the first time since Sunday.”

The Bijanbari Merchant Association and the general public put up posters in town announcing that Diwali would be a very low-key affair tomorrow. The Nav Prabhat Sangh, an organisation in the Chayanpuri area in Bijanbari has also taken a similar decision. Five of those who lost their lives in the Bijanbari tragedy were from Chayanpuri.

Diwali is usually celebrated with much gusto by the Nepali community. Tihar celebrations started in the hills yesterday with the Kag (crow) Tihar. While the crows, considered to be messengers of Yamaraj (god of death), were remembered yesterday, today was the day for dogs. On Kukur (dog) Tihar, dogs are given a bath, garlanded and fed in many parts of the hills.

Dogs are well treated today as they are thought to have the power to feel the presence of Yama and are said to guard his empire.

However, in Bijanbari and the neighbouring areas like Chungthung and Goke, a pall of gloom was palpable. There will be no fanfare in these areas tomorrow when the hill families are expected to worship cows. People will perform Laxmi Puja and every house is ready to be decorated with marigold and diyas (earthen lamps). But girls might not move around singing the traditional bhailo in Bijanbari tomorrow as it used to be during Tihar days.

The girls’ visit to every house in the traditional attire of chowbandi cholo is a key feature of Laxmi Puja celebrations. They are offered sel roti (traditional dish made of flour) and money as gifts and in turn, wish the families wealth and prosperity.

Men visit every household in the locality singing deaushuras and Goru Puja is performed on the fourth day of the festival.

Legend has it that King Bali lost his kingdom to Lord Vishnu but got permission to visit his subjects once a year singing deaushuras.

The festivities will be minimal elsewhere in the hills also as the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has already appealed to the people to refrain from bursting crackers.

Bhaitika, the most important day of the Tihar celebrations, falls on Friday. A large number of families are expected to confine the celebration to a low-key affair. On this day, girls apply tilak on the forehead of brothers who visit their houses and extract a promise that they will be protected at all times.

Among the Gorkhas, the Newar community has the most elaborate programmes during the Tihar days. They make colourful mandaps on the floor with rice grains, rice flour, red paint and puffed rice. However, if there is death in the household in the year preceding the festival, there will no celebration at all for the family.

Asok visit

Former minister Asok Bhattacharya today visited the bereaved families in Bijanbari and demanded a thorough inquiry, either by the CBI or by a judicial officer, into the bridge collapse.

“Those who are guilty of negligence must be booked,” said Bhattacharya.

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Siliguri, Oct. 25: Bimal Gurung today said the concern shown by the Trinamul-led government after the Bijanbari tragedy made him feel at home, indicating the sea-change that the relationship between the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the state government has undergone in the past few months.

But the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief while appreciating the gestures did not mention either the word “state” or “Bengal”.

“The co-operation we received here at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) from different corners including the Trinamul Congress, Congress and the local people was an extremely humane gesture. I think this has happened for the first time in 34 years (the period of Left rule). Considering the help and solidarity that we received here, I felt like this was my home (yeh apna ghar hai),” Gurung told journalists after his tour of the NBMCH.

The Morcha chief, accompanied by party general secretary Roshan Giri, and MLAs Harka Bahadur Chhetri and Rohit Sharma, met the 22 injured people admitted to the medical college and spoke to the doctors on duty on their condition. The visit lasted for around 45 minutes. The Congress MLA from Matigara-Naxalbari Shankar Malakar also accompanied the Morcha team.

This is the first time that Gurung visited a hospital after the walkway gave away and left 32 people dead and more than 100 injured.

“After the overwhelming response that we got from every level here, now I think we have to nurture this relationship,” the Morcha president said.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who rushed to the hills a day after the tragedy, visited all the injured people at the NBMCH and the Darjeeling district hospital.

She had also been in touch with the district administration and the Morcha leadership while personally monitoring the rescue operation.

Gurung’s remarks today were his way of mending fences. After the earthquake on September 18, when Mamata visited Sikkim where 60 people were killed after a brief stop at Kurseong, Gurung had said the chief minister had “committed a sin with her cursory hill visit”. Gurung had also said it was such actions that made him demand statehood.

But the Morcha-Mamata relationship began to thaw when the chief minister announced a slew of projects for the hills during her visit to Darjeeling on October 11.

In fact, when he was asked today if he would demand central assistance for the Bijanbari victims, Gurung said he would leave the matter to Mamata.

“That will be decided by our Madam Chief Minister and her government. At the moment, the members of our central committee will decide how best to help those affected in the Bijanbari incident,” Gurung said.

The Morcha chief also visited the Bagdogra army hospital, where 10 accident victims had been admitted, before returning to Darjeeling.

“The accident has brought together the people of the hills and the plains. After coming here, we felt that they (the injured people from the hills) were not away from their homes. We are grateful to the state government and locals for this gesture,” Kalimpong MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri said at the medical college.

The Trinamul MLA from Siliguri, R.N. Bhattacharya, who is also the chairman of the state standing committee on health, said 42 patients were being treated at the NBMCH and several nursing homes in Siliguri. He was also present at the medical college today.

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The Times of India
Deep Gazmer, TNN | Oct 25, 2011, 02.09PM IST

DARJEELING: The Hills will be bereft of the festivities that ‘Tihar’ or Diwali brings with it. To pay homage to the 32 victims, including children, who died in the bridge collapse at Bijanbari on Saturday, the people have decided to celebrate Diwali without the usual frill and frolic.

Bijanbari and the nearby villages of Liza Hill, Chungthung, Marybong has been cast in gloom since Saturday. However, people in the town would be celebrating the festival. But they have planned to keep it low key to show solidarity with the affected people of Bijanbari. “It is terrible that so many people including children died in the accident. I cannot consciously celebrate Tihar with the same enthusiasm like I had last year,” said Mukta Gazmer, a resident of Darjeeling town.

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leaderships have asked people to tone down on their Diwali celebrations to show solidarity with the family of the victims.

The GJM secretary Roshan Giri said on Monday, “First the earthquake hit the Hills and now this accident. So many lives have been lost. I appeal to people to keep the celebration to the minimum.” The traders had in the three towns of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong had already started stocking fire crackers and other Diwali items on their shelves. “We can understand the situation and are fully with the affected of the bridge accident.

We don’t expect people to celebrate Tihar with grandeur but nevertheless we have kept some items as we had already stocked our goods,” said a shop owner at Chowk Bazaar.

On Saturday the wooden suspension bridge across the Chota Rungeet River in Bijenbari collapsed due to overload, tossing people below on the boulders and killing several and injuring more then 130. The death toll has remained at 32 according to government officials. “There has not been any further deaths and the count remains at 32. The injured are being treated at the Darjeeling sadar and Siliguri hospitals.

Seventy-one injured are still being treated at the Darjeeling district hospital. Though, most injured are said to be out of danger but Ramesh Sharma 28 of Kolbong village near Bijenbari will have to have one of his hand amputated due to infection.

Families of some of the dead conducted the last rite rituals of their beloved today at the Chota Rungeet river, the very spot where the accident happened. They had to wait for other members of the family to arrive from other places.

State ministers to have started visiting Bijenbari to express their condolence to the family members of the dead. Today, the state irrigation and waterways minister Manas Bhuniya, on Monday, visited the injured people in the Darjeeling district hospital and assured help. On Sunday, Rajya Sabha MP Saman Pathak and former urban development minister Asoke Bhattacharya too reached Bijanbari to pacify and show solidarity to family members. Political parties like the All India Gorkha League (AIGL) and the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxist (CPRM) offered condolences to the families of the dead and injured through press statements.
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