Darjeeling, Nov. 25: The Gorkha Janmukti Yuwa Morcha has started the groundwork for the revival of the agitation for a separate state by reorganising its units and appealing to people to write the slogan “we want Gorkhaland” on walls.

The youth wing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha had recently announced that it would renew the demand for Gorkhaland by holding a meeting at Mungpoo on December 18.

“We have already started reorganising Yuwa Morcha units in different place. Our supporters are visiting various municipalities and villages to bring together youths for the movement. We are giving thrust to the consolidation of our position in Teesta Valley and areas along NH31A,” said Sidhant Rai, the organising secretary of the Yuwa Morcha.

Sources said office-bearers of the Yuwa Morcha had been removed at different units and new faces brought in to give a fillip to the Gorkhaland stir.

The most notable part of the shuffle was the appointment of Sanjay Thulung as the vice-president of the outfit’s central committee. The post had been lying vacant for long.

The organisation is seeking to involve the common people also in the agitation.

“We appeal to all people to start rewriting the slogan ‘we want Gorkhaland’ on walls and any every other available space, especially along roads from tomorrow onwards,” he added.

The Morcha had initiated a similar campaign when it had started the agitation for the statehood in 2007. The party had asked all shopkeepers to use the word “Gorkhaland” on their sign boards.

The Yuwa Morcha today said the Mungpoo meeting might be advanced depending on the situation (with regard to the formation of small states) in the country.

“We might bring forward the date of the meeting if a situation favourable for the formation of small states emerges in any other part of the country. The Mungpoo event has been planed to announce our agitation programmes,” said Rai.

The decision to restart the agitation was taken after Uttar Pradesh Assembly had passed a resolution on November 21 to divide the state into four.

The youth wing today sent a letter to the President, Prime Minister, home minister, BJP president and also to the Morcha president Bimal Gurung, saying Gorkhaland deserved to be given preference if the government had plans to form new states.

Salary hike demand

The Morcha-affiliated Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union has demanded a 33 per cent hike in the salaries of tea garden staff. A three-year agreement had been reached between planters and trade unions earlier to increase the wages of workers and the sub-staff.

“The wage hike for the staff is still due. We demand a flat 33 per cent increase in the salaries,” said P.T. Sherpa, the president of the Morcha union. The hike is due from April 1. The Darjeeling Tea Association will hold a meeting of the unions and the planters on November 28 to discuss the issue.

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VIVEK CHHETRI AND AVIJIT SINHA

Nov. 24: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha will ask for “corporation” status for the Darjeeling municipality, a request that the government is likely to grant as a law related to the civic status upgrade had been amended during the Left regime.

Prospective chairperson of the Darjeeling municipality, the Morcha’s Amar Singh Rai, today said: “We will look into the issue of upgrading the municipality into a corporation. I have been going through the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act and there should not be much problem in upgrading our municipality.”

A senior cabinet minister said the Mamata Banerjee-government was not against upgrading the civic status of Darjeeling. “We are not opposed to the idea of granting such status to the Darjeeling municipality. Let us receive a formal proposal and we will consider it in due course,” the minister said.

The Morcha has won uncontested the elections to Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong municipalities. Elections to the Mirik municipality will be held on December 11 after which the boards of all four civic bodies will be formed.

The corporation status for the Darjeeling was first proposed a decade ago by the earlier CPM government. But the proposal had been shot down by then DGHC chairperson Subash Ghisingh and his resistance had sparked a rebellion in his party, the GNLF, in 2001.

A corporation status would mean more funds for the civic body. “There is not much of a difference in the laws under which municipalities and corporations are governed. In case a municipality is upgraded, it increases the status of the town that it is in charge of and creates more funds options. It also gains some administrative powers and the right to make laws required to provide services to the area concerned,” said former municipal affairs minister Asok Bhattacharya.

The corporation issue had taken the hills by storm in 2001. D.K. Pradhan, who was then the GNLF chairperson of Darjeeling municipality and the brain behind the initiative to upgrade the municipality, was forced to resign from his civic post and ultimately from the party because of the corporation issue. One of the speculation doing the rounds then was that Ghisingh was scared of the power that the corporation and its mayor might yield.

“In Bengal, municipalities are graded on the basis of the population. But I had made several requests to the government then that an exception should be made for the hills where the population is scattered. Ultimately in 1998, the Darjeeling municipality was upgraded from Group D grade to Group A,” said Pradhan, who is now with the Morcha.

“On February 2, 2000, A.K. Dutta, the secretary of the municipal affairs department wrote (Memo No 87/MA/O/C-4/1A-1/2000) that the state government was considering upgrading the Darjeeling municipality into a corporation. He said a bill would be introduced soon,” said Pradhan.

But Ghisingh refused to accept the new status.

Former CPM minister Bhattacharya recalled that the State Municipal Corporation Act was finally amended in 2006 to create provisions for the formation of corporations in the hills.

“There was a demand from the hills to upgrade Darjeeling municipality to a corporation. On that basis, our government amended the West Bengal Municipal Corporation Act 2006 making certain exceptions to the general criteria for forming corporations in other parts of the state,” Bhattacharya said.

“The law was made, but it was not implemented. The GNLF refused to relent,” he added.

The corporation issue sparked a controversy within the GNLF. The party announced a one-person-one-post policy and asked Pradhan to resign as the chairman of the civic body. Pradhan was then the MLA of Darjeeling too. Pradhan rebelled and had got the majority of the GNLF ward commissioners on his side only to be betrayed at the last moment.

The new municipality board passed a resolution in 2003, stating that it did not want corporation status.

Bhattacharya said since the amendment had been already made, the new board only needed to pass a resolution and submit it to the state government.

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The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader said the hills had received only Rs 40 crore from the state, and nothing from the Centre, against a demand of Rs 1,000 crore.

“Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had promised many things when she visited the affected areas. But nothing has been done yet. All we got was Rs 40 crore. No repair can be started with such meagre amount,” Chhetri said at Writers’ Buildings today.

Chhetri said the Morcha had demanded Rs 1,000 crore for Darjeeling after an earthquake registering 6.8 on the Richter hit on September 18.

“A few thousand people from 67 villages in Kalimpong alone lost their homes. They are still living in camps. But they need to shift before winter,” said Chhetri. “These people will not have other options but to launch an agitation if the promises are not kept.”

Chief secretary Samar Ghosh said neither the state nor the Centre had promised a rehabilitation package of Rs 1,000 crore as claimed by the MLA. He added that the state government had spent Rs 55 crore for earthquake relief and rehabilitation in north Bengal and plans to send more as and when possible.

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VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, Nov. 22: The Gorkha Janmukti Yuwa Morcha has decided to renew the agitation for a separate Gorkhaland state with a public meeting next month. The decision comes a day after chief minister Mayawati got an Assembly resolution passed to divide Uttar Pradesh into four states.

The agitation, the nature of which is not yet known, will start on December 18 with a rally in Kurseong’s Mungpoo.

The announcement is the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s way of reminding the people of the hills that the Gorkhaland demand has not been diluted, specially when efforts are on to create smaller states in other parts of the country, a leader of the outfit said.

He said having emerged as the strongest political force in the hills riding on the back of the statehood issue, the party did not want to be seen as putting the demand on the backburner.

“The Morcha is the strongest party in the hills today because of the statehood issue,” he said.

“So, we want to keep the statehood flame alive. At the same time, we will go ahead with the formation of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. We don’t want to convey the impression that we have shifted from our original demand of a separate state at a time when Mayawati has initiated steps to carve four states out of UP.”

The Morcha will concern itself with the creation of the GTA (the new administrative set-up for the hills), while its frontal organisation, the Yuwa Morcha, will carry on with the agitation for the separate state, the leader said.

Keeping in line with the party policy, Yuwa Morcha general secretary Priyabardan Rai said: “The youths have decided to renew the Gorkhaland agitation and we will hold a huge public meeting on December 18 at Mungpoo where the details of the agitation will be announced.

“Mayawati has shown courage by passing the resolution and we congratulate her spirit. The Morcha has been formed to pursue a separate Gorkhaland state and the Yuwa Morcha has nothing to do with the GTA. The GTA was accepted by our party because of the compulsion of the state government.”

He, however, did not spell out what these compulsions were.

But the Yuwa Morcha made it clear that the statehood agitation would be led by party president Bimal Gurung. The youth wing has also asked all other frontal organisations of the Morcha like the Gorkha Janmukti Nari Morcha, Bhutpurba Sainik Morcha and the labour affiliates to get ready for the agitation.

“In the next couple of days, we will write to the President of India and will also fax copies to the Prime Minister, Union home minister and the chief minister, apprising them of our stand,” said Rai.

“If the Centre decides to create any new state in India, Gorkhaland must be given priority as this is a more than 100-year-old demand. The demand is from our heart and the mind,” said Rai.

The Yuwa Morcha’s announcement is also a reflection that despite the mother outfit agreeing to form the GTA, the demand for a separate state would continue to resonate in the hills.

“If the Centre fails to give us justice, the situation in the region could take a turn and the government will be responsible for that,” said Rai.

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VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, Nov. 20: Bimal Gurung today publicly hit out at the central committee members of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha from Mirik for the presence of rebels in the civic polls and told the leaders that they should be “ashamed of themselves”.

The Morcha has won all wards in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong municipalities uncontested, but five of the nine seats in Mirik will go to polls as Independents have filed nominations against party candidates. Three of the Independents belonged to the Morcha and were expelled from the party.

“The central committee members from Mirik are to blame for the fiasco. They were the ones who said that they would handle everything themselves. They should be ashamed of themselves. I am happy with the way things went about in other places, especially in Kurseong,” said Gurung.

The Morcha president was addressing a meeting organised by the party to felicitate all candidates who had emerged winners in the four municipalities uncontested.

“I had earlier told the central committee members that they should not contest the elections and give an opportunity to committed party workers. So, the leaders pushed their own candidates and at the end, they could not be forced to withdraw from the fray,” said Gurung.

L.B. Rai, a central committee member and a former chairperson of Mirik municipality, and Arun Ghisingh, the vice-president of the Mirik Mahakuma Samiti, are two prominent leaders who are in the fray.

Gurung said even if the Morcha candidates won the polls, he would be very careful while allocating posts in the civic board.

“It is the party leaders, and not the public, who should be blamed in Mirik. All must consider themselves to be Gorkhas but in Mirik, leaders of the two communities, Tamang and Rai, are fighting. In this fight, Mirik has lost out in development works in the past too,” said Gurung.

He also announced the names of the chairpersons and vice-chairpersons for Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong. The Morcha’s chairman candidate for Darjeeling is Amar Singh Rai and the vice-chairman nominee is Sukh Bahadur Biswakarma.

The Kurseong municipality will be headed by Sameerdeep Blone, while Kalpana Pradhan has been nominated for the post of the vice-chairperson. L.B. Pariyar and Ganga Maya Gurung have been named to hold the offices of the chairperson and the vice-chairperson in Kalimpong.

Gurung told the future councillors that committees would be formed in each ward to keep a check on corruption in the civic administration.

“People say Morcha leaders indulged in corrupt practices during the rehabilitation of Cyclone Aila victims. These things have to stop. The commissioners will not be given a free hand and to check corruption, committees must be formed in all wards.”

The Morcha president said those who had wanted to contest elections but were denied official party tickets should be made members of the ward committee, along with representatives of culture clan and social workers.

“The councillors will not be allowed to function independently and everything has to be endorsed by the respective ward committees,” said Gurung.

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Darjeeling, Nov. 18: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s dream of winning elections to all four hill municipalities uncontested received a jolt with Independents remaining in the fray in five wards of the Mirik civic body.

When the withdrawal of the nominations closed today, the Morcha acted swiftly and announced the expulsion of three Independents.

“Of the five candidates who did not withdraw the nominations, three were our party members. We have expelled them for going against the party decision. The other two candidates don’t belong to the Morcha and are probably backed by the GNLF,” said Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri.

Eight persons had filed papers as Independents in six of the nine seats in Mirik. While Saraswati Tamang (ward 3), Nima Singh Tamang (ward 6) and Sunil Bomzom (ward 7) withdrew their nominations this afternoon, the other Independents decided to stay in the fray. The five are Bijay Tamang (ward 6), Roshan Tamang (ward 7), Krishna Sarkri (ward 8), Bijay Tamang (ward 9) and Pemba Tshering Bhutia (ward 2).

The candidates expelled from the Morcha are Bijay Tamang, Roshan Tamang and Krishna Sarki. “Bijay Tamang was a member of the party’s town committee, while Roshan Tamang was with the Yuva Morcha. Krishna Sarki belonged to the Nari Morcha,” said Giri.

The municipal elections will be held on December 11 and Morcha candidates will take on the Independents in five seats. The rest of the wards have been won by M.K. Zimba (ward 3), Manikala Ghalay (ward 1), Mala Subba (ward 4) and Barun Subba (ward 5). This essentially means that the Morcha needs to win one more seat to take control of the municipality.

If the Morcha loses all the five seats, it will have to sit in the Opposition and this could come as a major blow to the party in Mirik. Notable leaders who have to fight the elections are Arun Ghisingh (ward 2), the vice-president of the Morcha’s Mirik Mahakuma Parishad, and L.B. Rai (ward 7), a central committee member of the party and a former chairperson of the Mirik municipality.

The Morcha has declared that Rai will be the chairperson of the Mirik municipality if the party wins the polls.

After retreating from the contest, Saraswati Tamang said she had filed the papers to drive home the point that no leader could carry on without taking others on board.

“Even though I was an ex-commissioner of the Mirik municipality and a member of the Morcha, certain leaders of the branch committee used to domineer over me. I was never against the party but wanted to prove a point. As I am convinced with the assurances of the central committee members, I decided to withdraw the nomination in the interest of the party,” she said.

Bijay Tamang, one of the expelled Morcha members, said: “We do not have any negative attitude towards the party but since this is a democratic country, we have decided to contest the elections.”

Although the Morcha has won all the seats uncontested in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong, the boards there can be formed only after the election process in Mirik is over. Counting of votes in Mirik will take place on December 13.
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Siliguri, Nov. 18: A delegation of industrialists from north Bengal has proposed to twin Darjeeling hills with England’s only tea garden, Tregothnan, for free flow of tourists and exchange of tea.

The proposal came from the North Bengal zonal council of the Confederation of Indian Industry, when a team visited the Tregothnan estate in September. The estate in Cornwall in the south-west of England comprises tea plantation, dense woods and several tourist attractions.

“It was nice to visit the estate that is spread over two counties of Cornwall and Kent. Tea is cultivated on around 100 acres on the estate. We proposed that Tregothnan can be twinned with Darjeeling hills, especially with focus on Darjeeling tea. There can be exchange of information, different species of tea and other flora between the two places,” said Ramgopal Jajodia, the chairperson of the zonal council of the CII.

Jonathon Jones, a director of the Tregothnan estate, told the delegation that he would take a positive look at the proposal.

“He (Jones) seemed to be enthusiastic about the idea and said joint efforts need to be made to forge the tie-up by including the stakeholders of the Darjeeling tea industry and the governments of India and the UK,” said Jajodia.

The delegates had recounted during their interaction with the Tregothnan officials that the bond between India and England with regard to tea go back to when the British had set up gardens in north Bengal and other parts of the country centuries back.

The CII feels the tie-up between the hills and the Tregothnan estate that came up in 1335 can give global exposure to Indian tea.

“Our intention is to augment the international market of Indian tea. If we can forge a relationship with the UK-based estate, it will go a long way in promoting Darjeeling as a tourist destination and the producer of best brew. This is because a lot of people from different parts of the UK and other countries visit Tregothnan and they can be told about Darjeeling. Similarly, Tregothnan can also be promoted among the tourists coming to Darjeeling,” said Jajodia.

The CII officials said they were eagerly looking forward to a reply from Tregothnan official Jones on the proposal when he attended the three-day Indian Tea Forum here next month.

The event will be organised by the CII from December 17 to 19.

“Jones has confirmed his participation at the event and will make a presentation on December 18. We can hear from him what exactly they want. The matter can be discussed with the tea stakeholders and government officials as well at the forum,” said Laxmi Limbu Kaushal, the administrative head of the CII zonal council and one of the delegates to the UK.

The forum is being organised to promote the beverage and tourism internationally, and will see experts discuss various issues related to the tea industry.

Kaushal said Tregothnan resembled Darjeeling in terms of flora.

“Like Darjeeling, the estate has tea plants, rhododendrons and shrubs. We saw in Tregothnan tea plants brought from Sikkim and Darjeeling. One of the Sikkim plants was 100 years old,” she said.
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Calcutta: A division bench of Calcutta High Court on Friday granted conditional bail to Subhas Tamang, an accused in the Madan Tamang murder case. The court has directed Subhas not to go out of Darjeeling town till further orders. He has been asked to furnish a bail bond of Rs 20,000 with two sureties from two persons from Darjeeling and he would have to visit the CBI camp office in Darjeeling every Monday, Wednesday and Friday till further orders. The court, however, declined to grant bail to three other accused who had also applied for reprieve this time.
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Kalimpong, Nov. 16: Vehicle owners in Kalimpong are unable to pay taxes as the administration is yet to make alternative arrangements after an arson destroyed all documents in the motor vehicle office here.

A mob had set on fire a single-storied building that used to house the motor vehicle department office in Kalimpong following the February 8 police firing at Sibchu. Although the entire building was not gutted in the fire, the motor office bore the brunt of the attack.

People in the Darjeeling hills had been refusing to pay all kinds of taxes and bills for over three years as part of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s non-co-operation movement for statehood. The party had asked the people to resume paying taxes from August following the signing of the GTA agreement.

However, vehicle owners in Kalimpong can’t pay the taxes as the local motor vehicle office lost all documents in the fire and officials haven’t yet received any directive from the higher-ups on how to go about collecting the money.

“An owner has to pay the tax in the office where his vehicle is registered. If he wants to make the payment in another place, he has to close his account in the office where the vehicle is registered and obtain a no-objection certificate,” said an official of the motor department.

The motor vehicle office in Kalimpong now operates from a temporary tin structure behind the building that was torched by the mob.

“People keep visiting the makeshift office to pay the tax, but we are helpless. However, we are making new records and case files if the vehicle owners come to us with documents like the blue book,” said an official.

Darjeeling district magistrate Saumitra Mohan also said creating new records with the documents the vehicle owners had was the only way out.

“I have told the RTO (road transport officer in Darjeeling) to start collecting taxes there (read Kalimpong). We have to re-enter the records, there is no other alternative,” he said over the phone.

The Kalimpong motor office is waiting for the order from the RTO to start the tax collection. The owners will have to pay huge fine if they take their vehicles to road without paying the tax.

Janmukti Chalak Mahasangh, a drivers’ association, has urged the administration to make necessary arrangements to enable people to pay their motor vehicle tax.

“We have written to the subdivisional officer in this regard. Some kind of arrangement must be made at the earliest,” said T.D. Bhutia, the president of the Mahasangh.

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Darjeeling, Nov. 16: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today threatened to expel eight dissidents who had filed nominations against the official party candidates for the municipality elections in Mirik.

In two wards, the Morcha candidates have to fight two Independents each if they don’t withdraw the nominations by November 18, the last date for doing so.

Just when the Morcha was looking to take control of all four hill municipalities of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong and Mirik uncontested since the other parties have boycotted the elections, the dissidents’ move has come as an embarrassment.

Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri was in Mirik today to ask the dissidents to withdraw their nominations. “We have told them to withdraw their nominations against the official party candidates by November 18, failing which they will be expelled,” Giri said over the phone from Mirik.

Last week, Morcha president Bimal Gurung had said in a warning that those who had not been given party tickets as official candidates should not file nominations as Independents. He had said rebels would be expelled and would not be taken back in the party even if they won the election. None of the dissidents spoke to the media.

In the nine-seat municipality, Pema Tshering Bhutia has decided to take on the vice-president of the Morcha’s Mirik Mahakuma Committee, Arun Ghisingh, in ward 2. Two Independents Roshan Tamang and Sunil Bomzom are contesting against L.B. Rai, a central committee member and a former chairperson of the Mirik municipality, in ward 7.

This time, too, Rai is tipped to be the Morcha candidate for the chairperson’s post. The other Independents include Saraswati Tamang (ward 3), Krishna Sarki (ward and Bijay Tamang (ward 9). Bijay Tamang and Nima Singh Tamang have both filed nominations as Independents in ward 6.

None has filed nominations against the Morcha candidates in wards 1, 4 and 5 in Mirik. The Morcha’s candidates who are likely to win uncontested from these three wards are Manikala Ghalay, Mala Subba and Barun Subba.

This development in Mirik also means that the formation of the municipal boards in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong — where none has filed nominations against the Morcha — could be delayed by almost a month.

District magistrate Saumitra Mohan said if there was scope of contest even in a single ward in any of the four hill municipalities, no board will be formed till the December 11 elections are over.

“In such a scenario, the boards will be formed only after the election process is complete,” said Mohan.

Officially, the administration can declare the Morcha candidates winners in seats where there are no other contestants only after the last day of withdrawal of nominations.
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