EDUCATION: Teachers on job-axe protest

EDUCATION: Teachers on job-axe protest – what a mess, what a mess Bengal has made of the education system here ?!!

FROM THE TELEGRAPH CORRESPONDENT

Siliguri, June 16: Four contractual teachers of Siliguri College demonstrated in front of the principal’s office today after their contracts were terminated by the authorities.

The teachers alleged that they were “victimised” after one of them filed a case against the college in Calcutta High Court for non-implementation of a government order on salary revision.

“On February 27, 2009, the state government passed an order to revise the salaries of part-time teachers like us. According to the order, a teacher with less than four years of service should get Rs 7,000 per month, those with four years and 10 months’ service should get Rs 8,000 and teachers having above 10 years’ experience should get Rs 10,000,” said Debasmita Pal, a teacher of the sociology department whose contract has been terminated. “But the college never implemented the order. Whenever we went to discuss it with the principal, he made some excuses to avoid us. In April this year, I filed a case.”

Besides Pal, Manavendu Kar of physiology, Sangita Raha of philosophy and Swarnalekha Chakraborty of sociology departments also received the termination notices yesterday.

Pal who alleged that she was socially boycotted after filing the case said: “The notice just intimated us that we should not report for duty from today without offering any explanation. The college authorities have victimised us for going to the court. The decision of our termination was not passed by the governing body.”

Malay Karanjai, the college principal, said the decision was taken by the governing body. “They (the four) do not fulfill certain criteria like passing the NET or SLET which have been specified by the UGC for part-time teachers.”

SPORTS: 3 more from Sikkim to play I-League

SPORTS: 3 more from Sikkim to play I-League – Sikkim searches more Bhaichungs but Darjeeling stifled by Bengal with no searches for more Sunil Chhetris ?!!

Players selected under the Search for More Bhaichungs practise at the Paljor Stadium in Gangtok - nothing in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong, Mirik, Alipurduars or Siliguri ?!! (Photo or Picture by Telegraph)

FROM THE TELEGRAPH
BY BIJOY GURUNG

Gangtok, June 16: Three more footballers from Sikkim, all products of Search for More Bhaichungs scheme, are set to play in the I-League for ONGC and HAL Bangalore — clubs that have qualified to the top tier of the Indian football league this year.

The qualification of the two Second Division clubs has placed midfielder Bikash Jairu and defender Robin Gurung from ONGC and Nim Tshering Lepcha of HAL Bangalore in the company of their batch-mates Sanju Pradhan and Nirmal Chettri, who are now playing for Calcutta soccer giants East Bengal.

All the five footballers are products of the scheme launched by the Sikkim government in 1999 with an aim to produce quality footballers. They along with 25 others had received training at the Sports Hostel in Namchi and later at the State Sports Academy in Gangtok.

Sanju and Nirmal were picked by Air India Mumbai in 2006. They later switched to East Bengal and have been playing the national league for the past four years. The duo are in their third year with the Calcutta club. Bikash and Robin were selected by ONGC in 2008, the same year when Nim Tshering found a place in HAL Bangalore.

“This year we will have six Sikkimese footballers (including Bhaichung) in the I-League with Robin, Bikash and Nim Tshering playing,” said East Bengal defender Sanju today.

“We got selected by Air India, worked hard, showed our skills and then got the chance (of playing in the final XI). They (the three) also need to show their game even if they get five minutes of playing time,” said Nirmal.

Robin said he and Bikash had been picked by ONGC while playing for Sikkim in the Santosh Trophy in 2008 in Jammu and Kashmir. “We are both regulars in the team,” said Robin, 20.

“It is a dream come true. It is also an opportunity to be seen on television. I can get a chance to play against Bhaichung,” said Robin. He was in praise of the Search for More Bhaichungs scheme of the government and the training received from their coaches at the hostel and the academy.

Bikash echoed his team-mate. “The football talent of Sikkim is getting exposed in the national arena, which is a healthy sign. We still have to go a long way. I feel that there will be more showcasing of football talent in the big clubs in the days to come,” he said.

Regarding future plans, Bikash said: “Every Indian footballer has a dream of playing for East Bengal once in a lifetime and I also share the same dream and want to play with my friends Sanju and Nirmal.”

State sports academy chief coach Hangu Norden Lepcha was hopeful about the three young players’ prospects.

“If they play well in the I-League, they will get a chance to be picked by other big clubs. They need to maintain discipline as they have got everything else,” said Lepcha.

BREAKING NEWS on NATURAL DISASTERS: 3 killed in slide in Kalimpong’s Gumbahatta area

BREAKING NEWS: 3 killed in slide in Kalimpong’s Gumbahatta area – and this is just the start of the monsoons, very ominous ?!!

Upper Gumbahatta Landslide this morning 17 June 2010 (Photo from Save The Hills via Himalayan Beacon)

Section of the road affected between Darjeeling and Siliguri - a gentle monsoon predicted, now CRPF to be airlifted ?!! (Photo Himalaya Darpan)

From our Special News Correspondent in Kalimpong

Kalimpong, June 17: After the heavy thunderstorms last night in Kalimpong, 3 persons were killed after a plumbed wall collapsed and a house in the Upper Gumba Hatta area was severely damaged at 4.30 am this morning.

The three unfortunate victims were identified as Surekha Bhutia (48), Dewata Bhutia (21) and Sriyang Bhutia (16). Search and rescue teams are currently working to find more victims and clear the area.

EARLIER

Landslide disrupts supply lines between Siliguri, Darjeeling – just the beginning ?!!

FROM SIFY NEWS

Supply lines between Siliguri and Darjeeling districts of West Bengal were disrupted Wednesday following a landslide on national highway 55 in the Kurseong sub-division of Darjeeling district, officials said.

No casualties were reported.

The landslide destroyed a 21-metre length of the highway completely besides damaging partially another 22-metre stretch.

‘The landslide occurred due to overnight rains. It will take few days to repair the road,’ Kurseong sub-divisional officer S.T. Bhutia said.

A North East Frontier Railway press statement said toy train services between Kurseong and New Jalpaiguri were suspended due to the landslide, which affected narrow gauge tracks between Rongtong and Tindharia.

Kurseong is a hill station in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal.

Heavy monsoon precipitation is a common cause of landslides in the Darjeeling hills, which are formed of recent rock structures.

Landslip hits Toy Train services – makes much difference to an ineffectual service anyway ?!!

FROM THE HINDU
BY ANANYA DUTTA

KOLKATA: Services of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), popularly known as the Toy Train, were suspended on a section of the train’s route on Wednesday and are unlikely to resume in the coming weeks after a major landslip occurred in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district.

“Services on the section between New Jalpaiguri and Kurseong will remain suspended until the debris on the tracks is cleared,” P. P. Roy, director of DHR, told The Hindu over telephone.

The landslip also blocked National Highway 55, one of the key links between the Darjeeling hills and the plains. However, no casualties or serious injuries have been reported so far, district official T.D. Sherpa said.

He added that work on repair of the highway had begun and it would take about 15 days for the situation to return to normal.

Wait for rain not over yet – more disasters yet to come ?!!

FROM THE STATESMAN

KOLKATA, 16 JUNE: The city dwellers will have to wait a little longer for the rain. The weatherman says there will be no rain in the next 48 hours and the temperature will continue to be high. The temperate recorded in the city today was 37 degrees Celsius with 64 per cent humidity during the day.

Monsoon had arrived after a long wait but two days have passed since the city received showers. The city temperature that had dipped because of pre-monsoon showers shot up again on the third day since the monsoon commenced, coupled with high humidity and discomfort level.

“The monsoon flow has weakened due to a cyclonic circulation that has moved towards Bangladesh, quite far from the state,” said Dr GC Debnath, director of Alipore Meteorological Office.

He said that it would take 48 hours for the condition to subside. The monsoon flow will be reactivated in the North Bengal region first and heavy rain may occur at isolated places over Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts of Sub-Himalayan West Bengal during next 24 hours. It will take 48 hours for the flow to be active in South Bengal. SNS

MEANWHILE

ACCIDENT: Car fall kills 1

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Gangtok, June 15: Buddha Gurung, 25, was killed when the taxi he was driving fell some 60 feet down Indira Bypass here on Monday night. Buddha, a resident of Tadong, died on the spot, police said.

GORKHA ADIVASI POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Panel to probe Aila funds misuse in hills – Scanner on Morcha, contractors

GORKHA ADIVASI POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Panel to probe Aila funds misuse in hills – Scanner on Morcha, contractors – or all hill contractors, all because Bengal did not get the “Lion’s Share” of the disaster pie ?!!

BL Meena - DGHC administrator turned Bengal politician ?!!

FROM THE TELEGRAPH
BY VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, June 15: The DGHC has set up a committee to probe charges of embezzlement of funds provided for development projects in the hills after the devastation caused by Cyclone Aila in May last year.

DGHC administrator B.L. Meena had accused the leaders of the frontal organisations of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha of conniving with contractors awarded the tenders, taking up the projects themselves and then doing sub-standard work across the hills.

Meena had alleged that only 30 to 35 per cent of the Rs 70 crore disbursed by the council had been used to execute the projects. The rest, sources close to him indicated, had been embezzled.

Today, Meena told The Telegraph from Siliguri: “I have formed a committee which has started probing all the projects that were undertaken by the DGHC after the devastation caused by Cyclone Aila.” Meena himself is heading the committee.

DGHC sources said the committee would make a detailed inspection of the projects, assess the costs involved and then submit a report. “This will make it clear if inferior material had been used, whether the work done was shoddy or not and if all the terms and conditions of the contracts had been adhered to,” a source said.

The committee will not have on it any engineers who are working with the council.

“All engineers (on the committee) have been brought from outside the DGHC. Some of the engineers are retired and others are still working (with the state government),” said Meena.

Sources said the idea was to ensure that anyone who had a hand in the irregularities committed was not part of the probe team.

BL Meena's office in Pintail village near Siliguri - moved from Darjeeling for a reason as is now apparent ?!!

However, the exact number of engineers entrusted with the inspection is not yet known. “We are using the engineers as and when we require. So, a precise figure (of engineers involved in inspection) cannot be said,” the source said.

Asked about alleged involvement of the frontal leaders of the Morcha in the development projects, Meena said: “I do not want to make any comment on this issue. I have already given my statement, there is no point in repeating it.”  (How about a copy to the press for analysis of facts vs fiction ?!!)

In April this year, when Meena was asked if funds had been embezzlement while executing the development projects, he had said: “I had better not comment on this…because everybody is aware of what is happening in the hills.”

Expressing dissatisfaction with the quality of work executed by the contractors in the DGHC area, Meena had also said: “In many cases, we have found that organisations like the Gorkha Janmukti Nari Morcha and the Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha are executing the projects (instead of the contractors who had been given charge).”

Meena had also specifically named two projects in Sukna which the Nari Morcha and the Yuva Morcha leaders had allegedly taken over.

The assistant secretary of the Morcha, Binay Tamang, today said: “The Morcha has not been elected to the DGHC. It is Meena who is running it and he is also the signing authority. So he should be held responsible if any irregularities have been committed.”

Earlier, Morcha president Bimal Gurung had refused to get drawn into the controversy. While addressing a public meeting at St Joseph’s grounds on May 30, Gurung had said: “Everything is being blamed on the Morcha. Are we in control of the DGHC? We are not signing the DGHC cheques. Those who are signing the cheques and issuing payment should be held responsible.”

Vacate order to Gorkha squad – why, because it “belongs” to Bengal ?!!

CRPF in Kalimpong library - a conveniently forgotten oversight ?!!

FROM THE TELEGRAPH CORRESPONDENT

Kalimpong, June 15: Police have told the Gorkhaland Personnel to vacate the seven DGHC properties they have been occupying illegally in the hills in three-four days or risk being evicted forcefully. (By Bengal Police or the CRPF ?!!)

The move came in the wake of FIRs lodged by the acting administrator of the DGHC, B.L. Meena, accusing the GLP of illegally occupying the council’s buildings in Darjeeling, Gorubathan, Deolo, Tribeni, Kafer and Relli.

A Telegraph file picture of GLP personnel staying at Tribeni Tourist Lodge - and Tamta and the CRPF are salivating ?!!

“The illegal occupants will be given three-four days to vacate these buildings. The legal process has started. We have registered a case under Section 448 (of the IPC). People occupying these properties can be arrested without warrant,” K.L. Tamta, the inspector general of police, north Bengal, told The Telegraph.

Accompanied by Meena, Tamta today visited Tribeni Tourist Lodge, one of the seven properties occupied by the GLP.

“I had lodged the FIRs at Gorubathan, Kalimpong, Rongli-Rongliot and Darjeeling Sadar police stations last Friday, requesting the police to take necessary steps to evict the so-called GLP from these places,” said Meena.

Apart from Tribeni lodge, the other properties are Deolo Tourist Lodge, Gorkha Huts, Kafer Tourist Lodge, Parijat, Dalim Fort and Roy Villa. The GLP was raised by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in 2008. Even Morcha president Bimal Gurung sometimes stays in some of these lodges under the protection of the GLP.

Tribeni Tourist Lodge near Teesta Township occupied by the GLP personnel - "Local Tourism" at its best or a result of Bengal's neglect, need bookings from Kolkatta ?!! (Telegraph File picture)

The Morcha has recruited around 4,000-odd boys and girls from the hills and the Dooars for the GLP and pays them a monthly remuneration ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000.

“I have instructed the officers in-charge of the police stations, which have jurisdiction over these properties, to visit the places and record the names and addresses of the people occupying them,” said Tamta.

Meena said it was difficult to say how many GLP cadres were staying in these lodges. “In the past, over 500 cadres used to stay in the Tribeni lodge. Now, the number has perhaps come down to about 60,” he added.

KL Tamta - Police or Bengal Politician, set to bring "peace or confrontation" in the Hills, now on final push ?!!

Apart from providing security to Morcha chief Bimal Gurung, the stick-wielding personnel are also seen patrolling the streets in uniform.

The GLP is made up of volunteers raised initially —according to party claims — for crowd management during public programmes. Later, the party had tried to make it function like a parallel police force, checking cars to seize “illegal liquor”. The administration had then announced that the GLP seizures went against the law.

Meena and Tamta visited the Tribeni lodge to see for themselves the existing facilities there. The administration has plans to shift a company of CRPF from Reang on NH31A to Tribeni, 18km from here.

The Morcha warned that forcible eviction of the GLP cadres could lead to law and order problem. “Tamta and Meena will have to shoulder the responsibility if any law and problem arises. We may even take recourse to indefinite strike if they go ahead with their plan,” said Binay Tamang, the assistant secretary of the Morcha.

CM meets governor – to let our people go ?!!

HE Governor of Darjeeling MK Narayanan - Peace at all costs or the 're-murder' of Indian Democratic voices ?!!

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today called on governor M.K.Narayanan at the Raj Bhavan in Calcutta to discuss the situation in the hills.

Raj Bhavan sources said the governor, who had returned from Darjeeling on June 8 after a month-long stay, had expressed his desire to share his concern over the situation in the hills with the chief minister.

“During the meeting, the governor discussed the Darjeeling situation at length with Bhattacharjee, besides last month’s civic polls,” said a source close to the chief minister. The source added that Bhattacharjee had also told the governor that there was “no violence before and after the polls”.

The meeting that began at 5.30pm lasted for an hour.

Narayanan was in Darjeeling when ABGL president Madan Tamang was murdered on May 21. Tamang had called on the governor and complained to him about the absence of democracy in the hills four days before the assassination. The governor had also visited Delhi a week ago to brief the Centre on the situation in the hills.

MEANWHILE IN THE DARJEELING PLAINS

Terai cries for facelift – Naxalbari longs to become visitor’s paradise – Bengal’s ruse to bifurcate Darjeeling, Dooars still neglected ?!!

The memorials to leaders of the Naxalite movement at Naxalbari - nothing when the leaders were still alive and now capturing their efforts in stone, a political victory for CPM ?!! (Photo by Kundan Yolmo)

FROM THE TELEGRAPH CORRESPONDENT

Siliguri, June 15: Tucked away in the Terai on the border with Nepal, Naxalbari, might be known more as the epicenter of India’s ultra Left movement, but the block has other things to offer in terms of tourism.

The area offers everything that a tourist wants: forests, rivulets, hilly tracts, tea estates and as an added advantage, a glimpse of history. But the residents feel that the authorities are yet to tap the block’s tourism potential.

“Our area is no less attractive than the Dooars. What is needed is a concerted effort as witnessed in the Dooars in the past 10 years or so. The Dooars has marched much ahead of us with the backing of the state government, particularly the forest and tourism departments. Naxalbari can be developed as a tourist circuit, added with some nearby areas like Panighata, Lohagarh and Putung in Kurseong subdivision,” said Ritesh Biswas, a Naxalbari resident.

“Some eateries have come up along NH31C that connects Panitanki on the India-Nepal border with Naxalbari. But more needs to be done to lure tourists to the Terai,” he added.

According to local people, if the state government, in association with stakeholders of tourism, drafts a comprehensive plan and executes it, the Terai can emerge as an ace destination for tourists in north Bengal.

“Making arrangements to visit tea estates, jungle trails or short trips to small hillocks like Panighata and Putung are no big deal,” said Ajoy Das, a businessman. “Moreover, there are several people interested in knowing the history of Naxalite movement that originated here.”

The block is known to be an elephant corridor with the forest stretching till the bank of the Mechi that marks the international boundary with Nepal.

“There are at least 20-25 tea estates on either side of the highway. Like in the Dooars, jungle safaris can be organised in forests like Tukuria, Kalabari and Panighata,” said resident Dinesh Rai.

Another attraction in Naxalbari is the Dhimal community, a tribe living in Dhimalbusty. “Tourists can experience and learn about the Dhimal culture. We have dance troupes and singers who can perform to entertain the visitors,” said Garjan Mallick, a senior member of the community.

While touring Naxalbari, the visitors can make a “foreign trip” also. “They can hire a cab and visit Kakarvitta in Nepal and even move to Dhulbari, famous for foreign-made goods,” said a Naxalbari resident.

Raj Basu, associated with the Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators’ Association, said: “The block showcases nature, has an international border and has everything from forests to tea estates to rivers. We feel the residents should moot a proposal for Naxalbari’s development as a tourist hub. From our side, we can definitely help them move further and develop the circuit. State government departments like tourism and forests also have a role to play here.”

HOW TO REACH NAXALBARI

Mechi Bridge at Panitanki - any commuters 'to and from' Nepal to consider stopping at Naxalbari, high hopes ?!! (Photo by Kundan Yolmo)

From Siliguri

Buses ply on NH31C that passes through Naxalbari and Khoribari and connects Panitanki on Nepal border

From NJP

Take taxi or autorickshaw to reach Siliguri, 4km away, and then take a bus to Naxalbari

From Bagdogra airport

Taxis ply to Naxalbari, 20km away.

Stadium on lines of ‘English county’ – note: the political timing, with funds earlier withheld, finally moved to action with a parochial, communal political agenda, while nothing for Darjeeling & Dooars ?!!

Kanchenjung'h'a or Kanchanjunga Stadium, (Like Gang'h'a or G'h'anga) Infrastructure lacking - but Bengal getting all the current political problems in Darjeeling & Dooars astutely solved through Sports Politics ?!!

FROM THE TELEGRAPH CORRESPONDENT

Siliguri, June 15: The Bengal Ambuja group is constructing a cricket stadium of “international standard” on a 25-acre plot on the Uttarayon Township premises near here.

“It will be a natural green stadium, and not a concrete junk, with all modern amenities essential for an international cricket stadium,” said Asok Bhattacharya, the state urban development minister.

“Work is in progress and we would like to iterate that it will be set amid lush green surroundings, as seen in the English county and the cricket grounds in New Zealand.”

Deputy mayor of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation Nantu Paul said the decade-old demand of a cricket stadium of international standard was raised in a meeting with Bhattacharya at the Siliguri Mahakuma Krira Parishad office on June 12. “He listened to us and said work has been started by Calcutta-based realtor Bengal Ambuja on the Uttarayon premises.”

Currently, Siliguri’s Kanchenjungha Stadium with a capacity of 35,000 is used both for football and cricket matches along with other sports like athletics. However, except for a few Ranji Trophy and Deodhar Trophy matches, Siliguri has not hosted any international games.

“Last week, Biswarup Dey, the joint secretary of the Cricket Association of Bengal, visited Kanchenjungha and told us that it lacks the infrastructure to host big cricket events,” said Paul, who is also the SMKP secretary. “This prompted us to take up the issue with the minister, who then confirmed the construction of the new stadium.”

The SMKP is focusing on development of infrastructure at Kanchenjungha Stadium as well. “Floodlights will be installed at the stadium soon as the state finance department sanctions Rs 3.50 crore. The PWD will do the work,” Bhattacharya said. “Tenders will be invited shortly by the department.”

Lauding the SMKP’s efforts, Paul said: “It (setting up floodlights) was a longstanding demand. Once the lights are installed, we will have the opportunity to organise football matches and other events at night and the sports-lovers of the town can enjoy the games in the evening.”

Fire probe ordered – quick action at last, but no hospitals yet for the hill towns and Dooars – everything focused on just Siliguri, wonder why ?!!

FROM THE TELEGRAPH CORRESPONDENT

Siliguri, June 15: The health minister today ordered a probe into the fire that destroyed the emergency OT of the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital.

Surjya Kanta Mishra, who was in Jalpaiguri today, said the PWD had been told to start repairing the damaged OT. “We want it to be restored as early as possible and have given necessary instructions to the PWD,” the health minister said. “A probe has been ordered by our department and accordingly NBMCH authorities have been engaged to collect information on what led to the fire and the damage.”

Fire officials said a magisterial inquiry would begin soon. “Possibly a deputy magistrate will be asked to probe the matter. He will be assisted by a fire official and an NBMCH representative,” said an official of the fire department.

The fire had started from the AC of the OT on Sunday, damaging it completely. Thirty patients from the two adjoining male and female casualty wards had to be shifted in a hurry. The blaze has put pressure on the main operation theatre of the hospital, which now may have to deal with almost 30 surgeries a day.

AND JUST BELOW DARJEELING PLAINS

Protest over road project – Land acquisition stalled – development, Bengal style ?!!

Villagers block NH34 at Kaliachak on Monday to protect land acquisition - the same that may happen in Darjeeling towns for expansion of roads, due to CPM's corrupt 'cadres and hakim baboos' earlier selling land surreptitiously here (called tri-shed or 'tirsath' land) ?!! (photo by Suraji Roy)

FROM THE TELEGRAPH CORRESPONDENT

Malda, June 15: The widening of NH34 in Malda district has been stopped after villagers protested the acquisition of land by the National Highways Authority of India.

Hundreds of villagers from Kaliachak led by district Congress president and MP from Malda South Abu Hashem Khan Chowdhury today demonstrated at the district collectorate during a meeting between the NHAI project director and the district land and land reforms officer.

The protesters were objecting to the “manner” in which the NHAI was trying to acquire land on a 1.5-km stretch in Sujapur, 1.8-km in Jadupur and 1.2-km in Jalalpur to widen the highway that connects Calcutta with north Bengal. About 600 families living on the 4.5-km stretch in the three areas will be affected if land is acquired, a villager claimed.

Following the protest, today’s meeting was postponed to June 23. It was decided that a team of the NHAI officials and people’s representatives will visit the areas on that day.

Abu Hashem said the NHAI was acquiring 60 metres along the existing highway to convert it into a four-lane road. “We want them to acquire 57 metres instead. Otherwise, several mosques, houses and shops will have to be demolished.”

Md Esharuddin, a mango grower and a resident of Sujapur, dubbed the compensation “inadequate”. “I had bought eight cottahs of land by the side of the road for Rs 2.40 lakh per cottah. But the NHAI has been offering Rs 53,000 per cottah now. This is inadequate,” he said.

Project director of the NHAI Ram Narayan Chowdhury could not offer any solution. “The Union cabinet has decided to widen 251km (including 72km in the district) stretch of the highway from Krishnagar to Malda. But the villagers are obstructing the acquisition. We will inform the Centre,” Chowdhury said. On the compensation package, he said the decision had been taken jointly by the state government and the Centre.

SIKKIM: Tough policy bears green fruits

SIKKIM: Tough policy bears green fruits – but no diplomatic solution on NH31A yet, the lifeline to Sikkim, is flying over from Gangtok easier ?!!

A private truck on the Namthang-Namchi road with a message of Green Sikkim - avoiding the expedient political issue, A Telegraph photo or picture ?!!

FROM THE TELEGRAPH CORRESPONDENT

Gangtok, June 15: Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling today said some of the difficult decisions taken by his government to preserve the forests in the state had yielded a four per cent rise in the green cover.

“From the time we came to power in 1994, we undertook policies and measures to protect the environment and our forests. As a result, the forest cover of Sikkim has increased by four per cent till today,” said Chamling while launching the fifth phase of the Green Mission at Chintan Bhavan here.

“The forest cover of Sikkim in 1995-96 was 43.95 per cent. According to the 2009 report of the ministry of forests, the green cover of Sikkim is now 47.59 per cent which is because of our sound environment conservation policies,” said Chamling.

SK number plates, first violators (Photo by Samiran)

He said some forest conservation policies like ban on animal grazing in forests and removal of cow sheds from jungles had come under a lot of flak at the time of its introduction. “But we went ahead with our mission to conserve our rich biodiversity for our future generations,” said the chief minister. He appealed to the people to participate in the mission whole-heartedly.

“The Green Mission is not of the government alone but it is a mission of the people and we have to set a successful example for the nation.” He observed that the mission fits the eco-tourism thrust of the state government perfectly. The mission will not only increase the forest cover but also lead to sustainable development and make Sikkim a truly eco-friendly tourism destination, he added.

The Green Mission launched in 2006 calls for public participation in planting saplings and ornamental flower plants like rhododendrons and bushes along the roads and barren land, both government and private. It also seeks to beautify the roads of Sikkim with trees and flowers.

Under the direction of Bengal Police - deliberately creating rifts, Sikkim leadership unaware or in collusion ?!! (Photo by Samiran)

According to the forest secretary S.T. Lachungpa, 5- 6 lakh saplings and flower seedlings have been planted by all sections of the society in the state every year since the mission started.

The forest secretary claimed a survival rate of around 70 per cent for the saplings planted under the mission.

State conservator of forests (territorial) Pradeep Kumar said the saplings planted under the mission roughly covered 200km every year. Last year, around 6.2 lakh of saplings were planted, he said.

TEA: Goodricke Group – Monsoon’s child

TEA: Goodricke Group – Monsoon’s child – more successful than most ?!!

The Goodricke Group's showpiece, The Castleton Tea Estate Factory in Kurseong - surviving against all odds (Photo by Gorkhs Daju)

From Equity Master / Himalayan Beacon

The corporate name Goodricke ‘Group’ appears to be a misnomer as its operations presently comprise only of tea plantations – all under one roof. It has a few subsidiary companies – tea and investment outfits -but they are of little or no consequence.

Its uniqueness however lies elsewhere.

With a planted area of 9,670 hectares (23,885 acres) comprising 17 tea gardens and located in the 2 states of Assam and West Bengal, it must rank as one of the last big erstwhile sterling tea companies in India still basking under British colonial rule and which is listed for trading on the Indian bourses.

Its 74% equity owner Camellia Plc, the ultimate holding company, also has agricultural operations in Bangladesh, Africa and Brazil. Goodricke’s incorporation into the Indian scheme of things materialized in 1975 when it reluctantly melded within the Indian Companies Act.

The directors’ report tries to cram in too much of data and the writer of the report gets totally confused along the way. Page 15 of the report states that the Indian tea industry is witnessing the initial steps towards the path of prosperity after 7 long years of difficulties. Page 16 of the report however has a different take on the matter.

World Record in Tea Prices plaque - the Champagne of World Teas ?!! (Himal News File Photo)

Here, it states that only in 2008 after 9 long years did the average price per kg cross the 1998 price. The Directors ‘report on the whole makes for very shoddy reading..

The company makes three brands of tea, Darjeeling teas (with a very low yield of 561 kgs per hectare) with its distinctive flavor, Assam orthodox with its liquor and Dooars CTC (both gardens giving an average yield of 2000kgs per hectare). It also makes and sells packet tea and instant tea – but the latter 2 remain mere bit players in the overall scheme of things.

The operations of tea companies is difficult to comprehend at least from the way production, consumption, purchase and sales data is presented. The presentation has to made in a manner which can be made sense of, or the whole purpose is lost.

The whole exercise in its present form is only to confound. It grows tea for one–16.16 m kgs, it consumed green tea leaves –90 m kgs of it including 19 m kgs that it bought—it produced tea and instant tea—20m kgs, it purchased tea -6m kgs, and it sold tea including Packet tea and Instant tea—26m kgs. And it also appears to import tea leaves or some such. As one can see, no cross comparisons are possible whatsoever.

The manufacture of high grade tea is a complex and capital intensive exercise too. A gross fixed asset base of Rs 1.7 bn (the value of land is a piffling Rs 67 m in the overall valuation) could just about help the company to rustle up a turnover of Rs 3.7 bn in 2009.

But tea economics is still primarily the domain of the weather gods on the one hand and the disastrous end product of the inability of tea growers to get their act together and try to match production with demand. Why is it that tea growers globally cannot produce just that quantum of tea to meet with the demand? What is the magic mantra here please? After all, tea is grown primarily only in the Asian and the African continent.

In 2008, tea prices finally went North after a long hiatus as the mismatch in the supply /demand of tea globally finally evened out, while in 2009 tea prices rose exponentially due to the global crop deficit arising from drought like conditions in Africa leading to another severe supply/demand mismatch.

In India, the erratic monsoon also played its part. This affected overall Indian tea production–to which Goodricke contributed its mite. However helping Goodricke garner higher prices than the industry average, the company claims, was the superior quality of the teas that it produced and the good tidings emanating from its continued spending on fixed assets.

The net result was a record pretax profit of Rs 530 m. Strangely enough, inspite of producing less tea it chose to export more in value terms in 2009, though exports brought in a gross margin of only 10% against a domestic sales margin of over 19%.

There are other reasons too that enabled it to record the highest profits ever in the last many years. The sharply higher ‘other income’ at Rs 132 m constituted a neat 24% of pretax profits. Not all of this other income was of the positive kind. Close to Rs 55m constituted write back of provisions no longer required and is strictly speaking a below the bottomline book entry. However to be fair, Rs 52 m of this other income was also simultaneously expensed out under the heading of ‘Expenses’. Why this dual entry for the same amount please?

But full marks also to the management for the deft handling of its priorities with the bountiful cash that it generated from operations. It moved swiftly to close out its working capital borrowings of Rs 240m and also reduced long term borrowings. It also added a neat Rs 170 m to its fixed asset base. Dividend payout including tax was limited to 24% of post tax profits.

The directors’ report has a few interesting asides. The global mismatch in demand / supply is expected to continue into the current financial year the report states. It also adds that there is a noticeable change in the climatic conditions with erratic rainfall distribution and precipitation levels due to global warming. This it states will play an important role in tea cultivation in the coming years. If so, will this amount to a good luck charm for the tea industry in terms of higher tea prices? Definitely, not good for the economy though.

Disclosure: Please note that I am not a shareholder of this company.

This column “Cool Hand Luke” is written by Luke Verghese. Luke has been a business journalist, financial analyst and knowledge management head with a professional experience of more than 20 years. An avid watcher of the stock market, he has written extensively on stock market trends. His articles have featured in Business Standard, Financial Express and Fortune India amongst others. He has also been the Deputy Editor, Fortune India and the Financial Editor of The Business and Political Observer.

GORKHA ADIVASI POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE: GLP chief bail plea rejected

GORKHA ADIVASI POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE: GLP chief bail plea rejected – shows emphatically how even the Bengal judiciary is unwaveringly  biased, now Asok and Buddhadeb to also have FIRs filed against them on conspiracy to murder Madan Tamang allegations next – as true ?!!

GLP Chief (Rtd) Col Ramesh Allay - anticipatory bail rejection 'a scare ploy tactic' aimed at Dooars GLP cadres ?!!

FROM THE TELEGRAPH CORRESPONDENT

Darjeeling, June 14: The sessions court here today rejected an anticipatory bail plea by Lt Col (retd) Ramesh Allay, the chief of the Gorkhaland Personnel who was named in the FIR filed after ABGL chief Madan Tamang’s murder.

“We had moved the bail plea, saying that Allay is a leader of a party (The Bharatiya Gorkha Bhutpurba Sainik Morcha – see report on “Lathicharge Memory Meet” on April 6, 2010) and his name has been falsely implicated. We also told the court that our client had an impeccable record while he was serving in the army.

The bail was rejected as the court believes that the investigation is still at an early stage,” said Dinesh Chandra Rai, who represented Allay in court.

Siliguri Lathi Charge on Gorkha ex-servicemen's peaceful demonstration 2 years ago - now another judicial way to get back at their chief, Col Ramesh Allay with still yet no RTI reply from the Centre or State ?!! (Himal News File Photo)

Following Tamang’s murder on May 21, Laxman Pradhan, the Darjeeling district secretary of the ABGL, had in the FIR accused Allay, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung, general secretary Roshan Giri and four other leaders of conspiring to kill the party president.

Sudesh Raimaji, 36, a contractor in Darjeeling who had been arrested by police for criminal conspiracy, was also produced in the court of the chief judicial magistrate here today and remanded in judicial custody.

The judge, D. Mukherjee, fixed the next date of hearing on June 28

Raimaji had been arrested on June 4 and the next day, he was remanded in police custody for 10 days.

MEANWHILE IN A SIMILAR MURDER CHARGE IN BENGAL

Youths charged for friend’s fall in river – Sudesh Raimaji’s personal bond not good enough – because he is a Gorkha from the hills ?!!

Gorkha contractor Sudesh Raimaji - still to remain in judicial custody, and still 'guilty' till proven 'innocent' - so much for voluntarily surrendering to a 'parochial and communal' Bengal Justice System ?!! (Photo Himalaya Darpan)

FROM THE TELEGRAPH CORRESPONDENT

Raiganj, June 14: The six youths from Raiganj who had accompanied Abir Dutta, missing after allegedly falling off a launch into a Sunderbans river on Saturday night, have been charged with negligence and inconsistency in statements.

The youths were released on personal bonds.

“It is not convincing that the six youths did not notice for an hour that their friend was missing.

Police have recorded their statements which varied from one person to another. We are not divulging further details in the interest of the probe. The youths were charged with negligence and inconsistency in statements,” said Lakshminarayan Meena, the superintendent of police of South 24 Parganas.

He said searches were still on in the Gomor river to trace Abir. The 26-year-old was a cricketer with the North Dinajpur district sports association.

A senior police officer said the youths had claimed that Abir’s mobile phone was active even two hours after his fall from the launch. “How could the mobile phone remain active for two hours even after one falls in a river? We had conducted a thorough search on the launch, but the phone could not be traced,” he said.

Gopal Debnath, one of the youths, when contacted, said they were too nervous and shocked after the incident. “That was why we might have made some incorrect or confusing statements,’ he said.

Debnath said they were having their dinner in the cabin of the launch around 9pm. “A little later, the cook said he had heard something heavy fall in the river. It struck us at that time that Abir was not with us and it could be that he had fallen in the river. There was no negligence on our part,” Debnath said.

Don’t play billiards out of statehood issue: NFNS – Center still trying to water down the Gorkha Statehood demand through proxy politics and the setting up of endless new commissions and subsequently wasting time while the peaceful situation further deteriorates ?!!

Expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh - helping, hindering or further delaying the just and constitutional "Gorkha Cause" ?!!

FROM HINDUSTAN TIMES
BY HT CORRESPONDENT

Lucknow, June 14, 2010: The National Federation for New States (NFNS) in Lucknow on Monday held its maiden national conference for creation of six new states in the country.

It blamed the center and the respective states for engaging in the policy of ‘managing by postponement’ the crisis of the demand of new states.

NFNS unanimously elected the expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh as its chairman in the presence of the convenor, Raja Bundela of Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha (BMM) and co-convenor, P Nirup Reddy of Telengana Vikas Kendra (TVK).

Though (one-time Congressman) Raja Bundela said that the NFNS would struggle for new states without engaging in any kind of violence or vandalism, Amar Singh warned of self propelled public movement if the center and the state governments dilly-dallied the issue.’

Amar Singh said: “Stop playing billiards and play football. Instead of the indirect approach like in the sport of billiards, the governments should ‘kick and goal’  like in football.”

He meant that governments should be direct in their approach towards statehoods to these six regions.  The regions are-Telengana, Vidharbha, Bundelkhand, Harit Pradesh, Purvanchal, and Gorkhaland. (nice watering down of  Gorkha Issue – just lump it in with the rest and make everybody wait, and wait, and wait – till they finally get violent – and then crackdown with the army – Gorkha army ?!!)

The federation would hold its next meeting in Darjeeling at the end of this month. The federation earlier was known with a different name-National Federation of Smaller States (NFSS) but went defunct after the creation of Uttrakhand, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand.

“Now instead of ‘smaller’ we changed it to ‘new’ states because small is the wrong word. Now of the regions that we are demanding statehood for are small. If Telengana was made a state, then it would be bigger than 134 countries in the world,” said P Nirup Reddy who by profession is a Supreme Court lawyer.

Munesh Tamang, who is associate professor in English but also leads the separate Gorkhaland movement through Bharatiya Gorkha Parishad said: “Struggle for separate Gorkhaland is not based only on the issues of governance. It is also the matter of self-representation and identify. We Gorkhas, speak Nepali but we were always Indian. We have no other history. But in popular imagination we are not Indian.”

Reddy and Bundela said that the federation would only struggle for the six regions and would not add any new statehood demands. “We are struggling only for those six regions for which the central government had agreed statehood for. We are not demanding any new commission because commission mean an issue going into a cold storage,” said Reddy.

Bundela, talking about Bundelkhand said that the region existed as a state and had a chief minister but it was later divided into two and merged in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Ajit Singh did not turn up at the conference. Amar Singh announced that from December 1 he would take up a 350 km foot-march from Allahabad to Gorakhpur for statehood to Pruvanchal.

Amar Singh said that he was doubtful about UP chief minister, Mayawati’s statements of favouring smaller states out of UP. “She has majority with her. If she is serious, then all that she has to do is to move a proposal for the smaller states and then send it to the center. This would make the states a reality faster. Instead she is writing letters to the center about the statehood of Bundelkhand, Harit Pradesh and Purvanchal.”

NFNS said that British government had the vision to make commissions every ten years for reorganization of states every, just recently election constituencies have been delimited, but the governments do not think about reorganization of states.

A five-member delegation of National Federation for New States (NFNS) would meet the Governor, BL Joshi over its demand of statehoods to Bundelkhand, Purvanchal and Harit Pradesh.

The delegation includes NFNS chairperson, Amar Singh, convenor, Raja Bundela, co-convenor, P Nirup Reddy, Munish Tamang from Gorkhaland and Raju Shetty who demands statehood to Vidharba.

EARLIER

Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha Delhi and NCR meet and reaffirm faith on party President – while the so called anti-GJM  ‘Democratic Forum’ of the ABGL, CPRM, GNLF and Dawa Sherpa and their supporters keep eroding the GJM credibility through hearsay and unnecessary media attention ?!!

The Democratic Forum members meet the Governor on 18th May 2010 - creating divisive opinions to further empower Bengal's grip through dissension by any means on the "Gorkha Statehood Cause" ?!!

FROM THE HIMALAYAN BEACON

New Delhi, 13th June: A meeting was called by Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha (GJYM – Delhi & NCR) at Gorkha Welfare Centre, which was presided over by the GJYM Vice President Shri Pankaj Chhetri.

In this marathon meet, which lasted for almost three hours, the youth leaders touched upon various ongoing political issues of the hills of Darjeeling.

Once again, they vehemently condemned the brutal murder of Madan Tamang, the then President of AIGL. The youth leaders from Delhi and NCR affirmed a complete faith on the leadership of Mr. Bimal Gurung and reiterated that the GJM, the firm believer of Gandhian philosophy of non-violence, cannot be a part of the crime and said the allegation about the involvement of the prominent GJM leaders is completely baseless.

They demanded the proper investigation of the whole matter and supported party for seeking CBI enquiry to lift the curtain from the real culprit. The youth leaders also damned the torture that is being meted out on innocent locals by the police, in the wake of the murder of ABGL leader Madan Tamang last month. They blamed the state government of failing to maintain law and order in the hills.

Bimal Gurung speaking at GJM maha rally - a reality Bengal deliberately remains blind to ?!! (PTI)

The youth leaders also cheered the success of the public meeting held by GJM at North Point Ground, Darjeeling on 30th May 2010.

Addressing the meet, the Vice President of the Delhi Morcha Pankaj Chhetri said. “The huge gathering of people in lakhs during the public meeting on May 30 clearly exhibited the strength of GJM, and urged the people of Darjeeling to have patience and not to get swayed away by unwanted elements that is trying to bring about the faction among the Gorkhas of the hill”.

Adding to it, the advisor of the Delhi GJYM Shri Ranjan Sharma said, “We are emotional by nature and at times we tend to overreact, let’s wait till the verdict is out; till then don’t let yourself be puppet in the hands of the elements trying to bring political instability in the hills of Darjeeling”.

The youth leaders also discussed upon the change of nomenclature of the proposed state from “Gorkhaland” to the “Gorkha Adivasi Pradesh (GAP)”.

Addressing the meet, the General Secretary of Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha, Delhi & NCR, Shri Shanker Mangar said “It is for a better socio-economic future of both the communities, who have so far been suppressed by Bengal Govt. Lets wait till June 15th, and hope that Adhibasi Bikash Parishad will respond positivey to the offer”.

Among others prominent youth leaders of GJYM core committee present in the meeting were Shyam Rai, Robin Pradhan and Vijay Mankrati.

Chamling is behind the SC petition – GJM – just waiting for the recent  Manipur vs Nagaland problems to manifest in this region also ?!!

Pawan Chamling - fronting his chief legal aide & advisor OP Bhandari and keeping quiet, quite unconcerned of the fallout on Sikkim's innocent commuters ?!!

FROM HIMALYAN BEACON, SIKKIM EXPRESS and VOICE OF SIKKIM

GANGTOK, June 13: Following the contempt notices issued by the Supreme Court to Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) president Bimal Gurung and joint secretary Binay Tamang on the basis of contempt of court petition filed by Sikkimese advocate OP Bhandari, the party has claimed the involvement of Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling behind the whole legal affair.

The Chief Minister of Sikkim is behind the petition filed in the Supreme Court by OP Bhandari, said GJM general secretary Roshan Giri to media in Darjeeling over the contempt notices issued to the party chief.

According to reports published by two Siliguri based newspapers, the GJM general secretary further accused Chamling of being ‘anti-Gorkha and anti-Gorkhaland’.

OP Bhandari is trying to drag our party president Bimal Gurung and joint secretary Binay Tamang in the petition filed in the Supreme Court over the NH 31A issue, said Giri.

Giri asserted that the party fully respects the directives of the apex Court and has not violated any directive. He informed that the party has kept the NH 31A open respecting the directives of the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) party here did not issue any immediate rejoinder regarding the allegations made by GJM against the party president and Chief Minister.

We will be issuing an official press statement tomorrow, said SDF spokesperson Bhim Dahal.

While the ruling front showed reluctance to make immediate comments, petitioner Bhandari was vocal in refuting the allegations made by GJM.

“I am the petitioner and my name is there in the petition. I attend every hearing. How can GJM claim the involvement of the Sikkim Chief Minister?”, countered Bhandari to the GJM allegations.

“The GJM is making baseless allegations just to tarnish the image of the Chief Minister and Sikkim”, said Bhandari. He asserted that he had filed the petition in his personal capacity as a concerned Sikkimese person to protect the Sikkim’s interests along the NH 31A. Sikkim loses Rs. 7 crores during one day bandh along the NH 31A and much hardships is caused the Sikkimese people, he said.

The advocate who is the OSD (Legal) in the Chief Minister’s Office said that he had filed the petition in the apex court way back in 2005 when he was not holding that post.

63 years on, full freedom is about to flow – freedom from the Tyranny of Bengal, at long last, or ruse to again fool the Dooars Adivasis ?!!

Bhutan's water supply to the Dooars - Bengal never woke up earlier, now that it is loosing Dooars ?!!

REPEAT – FROM THE TELEGRAPH CORRESPONDENT

Jaigaon, June 14: If dams are modern India’s temples, a group of eight tea gardens in Jalpaiguri district have been the new religion’s outcastes.

Six decades after Independence, these gardens have never tasted Indian water, their 60,000 residents perhaps alone in the country in being denied a necessity that even parched Rajasthan can claim by right.

But now these tea estates, which have for almost a century drunk and bathed in mountain water imported from neighbouring Bhutan, are ready to enter India’s water supply map in six weeks’ time, thanks to a central scheme.

Ever since they came into existence a century ago near the Bhutan foothills, these gardens have been drawing water for their households from the Himalayan streams and lakes across the border, through pipelines built with the garden authorities’ own money.

The surplus water went into the tea bushes and factories, which otherwise made do with the local groundwater — unfit for drinking or household use — pumped out by tube wells. But from the middle of July, deep tube wells will start pumping clean water from several hundred feet under the Indian soil to these gardens in Nagrakata block under the Sajal Dhara scheme.

After these tea gardens came up, their owners had approached the local authorities in Bhutan’s Samtse district and requested the use of their water, which they had in plenty, a senior Bhutan government official said.

The gardens then laid pipes, some up to 5km long, through Bhutan’s forests and hills and erected high reservoirs in that country, employing local Bhutanese labour.

“It was an agreement between the tea gardens and our people that epitomises the friendship between the two countries,” the official said.

The arrangement continued even after Independence, when the country’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, highlighted the importance of public water supply by terming irrigation dams the “temples of modern India” along with power stations.

In the 1980s, Thimphu told the Samtse administration to levy a “water rent” on the eight gardens as a “commercial token”. The tax was nominal considering the 36 lakh litres the gardens drew every day, and ranged between Rs 3,000 and Rs 6,000 a year, the official said. The agreement, renewed annually or biannually, allowed Bhutanese farmers to enter the “adjacent Indian territory” to “graze cattle, collect fodder” and forage for “wood and thatches during the day time”.

That pact will come to an end when work under Sajal Dhara, which started on May 28, is completed. District public health engineering (PHE) sources said the pumps would supply 8,000 to 12,000 litres of water an hour to each of the eight gardens: Carron, Changmari, Gatiya, Bandapani, Chamurchi, Lankapara, Jiti and Makrapara.

“We are looking forward to getting our own water. Now, when supply is disrupted, we have to walk up to a kilometre to fetch fresh water. Also, the water often becomes muddy during the rains and we have to strain it,” said Sabitri Baraik, a worker at Carron.

The Centre is funding 90 per cent of the deep tube-well project, with the gardens providing the rest of the money.

Each garden will need to pay between Rs 9 lakh and Rs 20 lakh, the assistant engineer of the Jalpaiguri PHE department, Aniruddha Bhattacharya, said. Carron will need to cough up Rs 20 lakh.

“We had to bore more than 300 feet deep to get water in Carron tea estate,” said Prabhas Barman, a supervisor with the private company boring the tube wells.

Under the agreement with Thimphu, renewed the last time on November 30, 2008, the gardens were to build pucca water channels and water locking gates to prevent soil erosion in Bhutan. They had to “build strong bridges/covers over the Channel at path/passage for safe crossing” of humans and live stock and “prevent pollution of the water supply”.

In Calcutta, Bhutan consul-general Tsering Wangda welcomed the development. “This is a very good development that water has been found on the Indian side. Therefore, as far as water resources are concerned, both sides will be independent of each other. Moreover, the Bhutanese people will have more water to use,” Wangda said.

He said Bhutan’s decision to let these gardens use its water was based on the “mutual trust and friendship the two countries enjoyed”.

Lock on Calypso hype, fruit plant silent – no confidence motion of the industrial sector in Bengal ?!!

A file picture of the factory of the Calypso plant - no Industrial confidence in Siliguri under Bengal ?!!

FROM THE TELEGRAPH CORRESPONDENT

Siliguri, June 14: The Bangalore-based Calypso Foods Pvt Ltd has shut down its operations here, putting under a cloud the much hyped farmer-partnership programme that the fruit processing plant once symbolised.

The second company to invest in food processing in north Bengal after Dabur, the export-oriented Rs 10 crore fruit processing plant had spawned high hopes among farmers who cultivate pineapple, tomato, mango, gherkins and baby corn.

The shutdown, four years after its grand opening by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has left around 100 farmers associated with the plant in the lurch and another 100 or so factory employees, who worked on a daily wage basis, jobless. Some 400-500 growers, who sold their produce to the unit though not regularly, also have been affected.

With the plant in Bidhannagar — located off NH31 and 40km from Siliguri — shutting down, most of the Calypso farmers have resorted to the earlier practice of sending their produce to the north Indian states.

“This season (March to mid-August) the unit has hardly functioned for a day or two,” said Arun Mondal, secretary of the North Bengal Pineapple Growers’ Association. “As the company owed money to the growers, they did not supply fruits to Calypso this time. Since last week, the unit is completely under lock and key.”

Allegations are that ever since operations began in 2006, there have been several disputes between the farmers and the company over the quality and size of fruits supplied. “After sometime (because of the dispute), the farmers started supplying fruits to Delhi and other northern states, where they had no problem with quality or size,” said Monohar Brajabasi, a CPM Darjeeling district committee member from Bidhannagar. “The company had also started bringing pineapple from the Northeast.”

The CPM leader said those employed in the factory were on daily wage. “They would hardly get work on a regular basis and often had to face delay in payments.”

The Bidhannagar area has around 20,000 growers, producing 3-3.5 lakh tonnes of pineapple.

“Initially, more than 100 growers got themselves associated with Calypso. These farmers would sell their entire produce to the company. Another 400 to 500 pineapple and gherkin growers would supply their produce to the unit on and off. The problem began when the company started missing payment dates and accumulating dues,” secretary of the growers’ body said.

“On our side, we resumed sending our produce to north India. This year, the production is good and prices are pretty steady, but the farmers are having problems trying to get a foothold in north India,” he added. A kilo of pineapple has been fetching Rs 5 or so this year.

The Telegraph had tried to contact the Calypso authorities in Bangalore but none of the telephone numbers given on the website of Calypso Foods worked. Debashis Sinha, the manager of the plant, was also unavailable.

Representatives of the private bank from where the company had taken loan said there were dues in the Calypso accounts. “We are looking into the matter,” an officer of the bank said.

The district horticulture department said it had not received any formal letter from Calypso about the shutdown. “No letter mentioning the closure of the unit has reached us so far. However, we have information that the unit is shut,” said Biplab Sarkar, the district horticulture officer, Siliguri.

HEALTH & CORRUPTION: Whip out at scam hint – CPM forces Hooghly zilla parishad chief to resign

HEALTH & CORRUPTION: Whip out at scam hint – CPM forces Hooghly zilla parishad chief to resign – “culture of corruption” rampant in Bengal, a sad legacy of the commie-congie nexus ?!!

Asit Patra - guilty of corruption or scapegoat victim ruse ?!!

FROM THE TELEGRAPH BUREAU

June 14: The Hooghly zilla parishad chief stepped down today under instructions from the CPM brass after being accused of siphoning away money meant for medicines in district hospitals.

Sources said Asit Patra was told to resign barely two days after the preliminary findings of a health department probe reached the party, the promptness suggesting that the CPM, which had often brazened out charges against leaders in the past, accepts the need for “rectification” after successive electoral routs.

Patra is a district secreta-riat member of the party and local CPM sources described him as a “high-profile leader”.

A source in the Hooghly CPM unit said “the health de-partment probe had indicted Patra”, the ex-officio head of the district health committee, for producing “inflated medicine bills” in connivance with health officials. “The district party unit held an emergency meeting yesterday and asked him to quit,” the source said.

The state party leadership at Alimuddin Street had greenlighted the district unit’s crackdown on Patra, CPM state secretariat member Benoy Konar said.

The committee headed by Patra clears the purchase of about Rs 5 crore worth of medicines and allied supplies for five hospitals in the district every year.

Party sources said the committee’s chief had allegedly signed bills against which no medicines had been bought.

State health service director Aniruddha Kar said in Calcutta: “Irregularities to the tune of a few crores had been detect-ed in the purchase of drugs and the health department is conducting a detailed inquiry.”

Patra, 61, said he had resigned “accepting moral responsibility” for the “irregularities in the purchase of medicines by the committee”.

Konar said he could not recall another leader of such seniority being forced to resign following a corruption charge.

In the late ’80s, after SFI leader Alokesh Das was accused of setting several important Kalyani University documents on fire, the party had refused to take any action against him. Das later went on to become an MP.

However, the situation has changed, CPM insiders said. Of the 12 Hooghly municipalities that went to the polls on May 30, the Left has bagged only one. It had won eight of the 12 last time.

“We want the organisation to be rid of corrupt people, regardless of what post he or she is holding. We have to refur- bish the party’s image, which has taken a beating in recent years. Only a clean organisation and its dedicated workers can counter the Opposition,” a CPM central committee member said.

Officials in Calcutta said that according to procedure, the health department would file a police case after completing its inquiry.

HEALTH SERVICES IN SILIGURI: Fire overburdens OT with 30 surgeries a day – NBMCH demands blaze report from PWD – private nursing homes ready to make a killing there – no history of doing so ?!!

A patient waits under a tree after being taken out of the emergency ward following the fire on Sunday - still waiting, or ready to be transferred to a private nursing home, if the patient can afford it ?!! (Photo by Kundan Yolmo)

FROM THE TELEGRAPH CORRESPONDENT

Siliguri, June 14: The fire at the operation theatre of the emergency ward of the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital yesterday has put additional load on the main OT, which will now have to deal with nearly 30 surgeries a day.

“The emergency OT deals with at least five to seven operations daily. These surgeries will now be carried out at the main operation theatre,” said Samir Ghosh Roy, the superintendent of the NBMCH. According to hospital sources, the main OT usually handles 15-20 operations daily.

The referral hospital presently has two functioning OTs — the main OT and the one meant for gynaecology, where normal deliveries and those under Caesarean section are conducted. The main OT has one room each for cardiology, orthopaedic, eye, urology, ENT and general surgery.

“There were 14 surgeries on the schedule of the main OT today but on some days it even caters for up to 20 operations. Now that even the emergency surgeries will be carried out here, the workload will increase. It might reach 30,” a nurse at the main OT said.

The fire broke out at the emergency OT yesterday after a short circuit in the AC. The blaze had triggered panic because of the presence of 10 oxygen cylinders.

Fire officials said excess supply of electricity to the plug points of the AC had led to the short circuit. Thirty patients were evacuated from the male and the female casualty wards adjacent to the emergency OT.

The emergency ward limped back to normal although sources said the rush was much less compared to the other days.

“There is great rush on other days and by the afternoon we usually admit about 25 patients. However, till noon today only 10 patients were admitted to the male and female casualty wards. The word of the fire had spread and people were probably scared,” said an employee at the emergency ward. The female and male casualty wards together can accommodate 100 patients at a time.

The NBMCH authorities have sought a report on the fire from the staff at the emergency ward and the PWD’s electrical engineer.

“These reports will be forwarded to the director of medical education at Swasthya Bhawan in Calcutta who will constitute a committee for a high-level inquiry,” Ghosh Roy said.

Regarding the measures taken for installation of fire prevention and protection systems, the superintendent said meetings would be held with fire department officials.

“We will conduct a survey of the entire NBMCH complex and the electrical system installed here. A proposal will be prepared for installation of proper fire prevention and protection arrangement and will be submitted to the fire department,” Ghosh Roy said.

NATIONAL POLITICS: Delhi reopens Dow liability – Fresh look at deal to buy Carbide

NATIONAL POLITICS: Delhi reopens Dow liability – Fresh look at deal to buy Carbide – making up for past national mistakes ?!!

Dow Chemicals - unmoving on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Victims by Union Carbide, but interested only in UC's profits ?!!

BY JAYANTA ROY CHOWDHURY

New Delhi, June 13: The government will examine the deal under which Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide to see if Dow can be allowed to shrug off financial responsibility for cleaning up Bhopal’s environment.

“We will have to examine the nature of the purchase agreement by which Dow Chemical bought over Union Carbide and see whether it absolves them of financial liability for Bhopal,” said Salman Khursheed, corporate affairs minister.

In an interview to The Telegraph, Khursheed said if Dow had legally protected or indemnified itself against the liabilities of Carbide, it might be able to wriggle out.

“In principle, as a lawyer, I don’t think Dow Chemical may be held responsible for the liability. A successor’s liability depends on the arrangement under which the transaction has taken place.”

The minister, however, added the analogy of a “buyer of a house (who) cannot escape paying an electricity bill left unpaid by claiming he was unaware of the bill”.

Implicit in the statement is the indication that Dow would have to pay the dues that Carbide would have borne, if the purchase agreement did not protect it from past liabilities.

He said the government might have considered blocking the sale of Union Carbide to Dow till its dues were settled, but “I don’t know which official was dealing with this matter then and what actually transpired”.

The $45-billion (sales in 2009) Dow Chemical Company has set aside $2.2 billion to address future asbestos-related liabilities arising out of the Union Carbide acquisition.

However, the US multinational’s stand has been that it is not liable for Bhopal-related liabilities as Union Carbide had sold all its shares in Union Carbide India Ltd in 1994, seven years before Dow bought Carbide.

The Congress-led government has decided to refer to a group of ministers the issue of who will pay for cleaning up Bhopal’s air and groundwater pollution caused by the 1984 gas leak.

Khursheed said his ministry might also consider a law to enforce civil liability for major industrial disasters. “We will look at fixing of criminal liability in the case of such disasters but that has to be done carefully.”

This is the second group of ministers on the issue. The earlier one, led by Arjun Singh and formed during the tenure of the last UPA government, hardly held any meetings.

The new group will consider legal advice as well as a note prepared by the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers that argued against letting Dow walk away without paying for the clean-up.

It took the stand that courts of law should fix corporate responsibility and whichever company was considered a successor of Union Carbide should be asked to pay. It argued that since Dow had bought Union Carbide for $9.3 billion in 2001, under Indian corporate law it would be responsible as the successor for cleaning up the environment.

A proposal by Ratan Tata to organise a corporate clean-up was not found acceptable by the ministry, which represents the government in all legal cases related to the gas tragedy, as it went against the principle of making the successor pay.

Tata, who is also co-chair of the Indo-US CEO Forum, of which Dow president Andrew N. Liveris is a member, had proposed a corpus to be established jointly by Indian and US companies to clean up the site.

In response to a public interest litigation, Madhya Pradesh High Court had a few years ago ordered Dow to deposit Rs 100 crore to clean up the toxic waste and contamination in and around the factory.

The court wanted the chemical giant to clear some 70 tonnes of poisonous residue, which had contaminated the soil and groundwater at Carbide’s pesticides plant and penetrated vegetation and animal tissues in the surrounding area.

There are also demands to compensate about 20,000 people who have suffered health damage from exposure to contaminants in their drinking water and food.

Congress wants Arjun to restate ’84 stand – trying to find a way forward or a victim ?!!

Arjun Singh - still looking at all angles ?!!

RASHEED KIDWAI

Bhopal, June 13: Senior Congress leaders who served under Rajiv Gandhi want Arjun Singh to clear the air on former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson’s release, failing which they feel Sonia Gandhi should consider disciplinary action.

One of the triggers for the calls, ironically, appears to be Narendra Modi. The Gujarat chief minister has dared Sonia to name the “maut ka saudagar (merchant of death) in Bhopal”,  heightening anti-Arjun feelings within the Congress. Arjun is a member of the Congress Working Committee, the party’s top decision-making body.

M.L. Fotedar, Arjun’s close friend who was also an aide to Rajiv and Indira Gandhi, felt the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister should break his silence.

ML Fotedar - forthright advice ?!!

“Arjun Singh should come out in the larger interest of the country and the party. He should clear the air,” Fotedar, known not to speak his mind easily, told The Telegraph today.

State Congress chief Suresh Pachauri echoed the sentiment. “I cannot fathom why Arjun Singhji is not reiterating what he had said in December 1984. I have documentary evidence of the two main points that he had made after Anderson left Bhopal. Firstly, it was his (Arjun’s) decision and secondly, Rajiv Gandhi wanted the culprits of the gas tragedy to be punished severely.”

Pachauri said the leadership should ask Arjun to come out with the truth.

Fotedar said another key person was Arun Nehru. Nehru, a Congress general secretary then, also emphasised that as chief minister, it was Arjun’s call to let off Anderson on December 7, 1984, four days after the gas leak that killed over 15,000 people. He asserted that Rajiv had no role in the American’s release.

“It is obvious that chief minister Arjun Singh took the decision (to release Anderson) and informed the Centre, according to the press conference which the CM (Arjun) had addressed on December 7, 1984. He was the person in charge and he took the decision,” Nehru was quoted as saying by a news agency today.

Nehru subsequently fell out with Rajiv and quit the Congress. Now, he is politically inclined towards the BJP, but spends more time as a psephologist and columnist.

But old timers like Fotedar, Pachauri, Buta Singh, Satish Sharma, Arif Mohammad Khan, Vishwajeet Prithvijeet Singh and others close to Rajiv feel Nehru’s assertions are significant because the burly politician is no longer in the Congress and, therefore, has almost no reason to present facts in a biased way.

A senior Congress leader recalled Nehru’s influence during the tumultuous days of November-December 1984. “If there were three important persons close to Rajiv then, they were Arun Nehru, Arun Nehru and Arun Nehru.”

Within the Congress, however, Arjun and Nehru never got along well. When Arjun led the Congress to victory in the 1985 Assembly elections, he was removed as chief minister within 48 hours of being sworn in.

Rajiv sent Arjun off to Chandigarh as governor of Punjab at a time the state was battling militancy.

Arjun’s supporters suspect that Nehru conspired to shift Arjun out of Bhopal, even though the Congress had achieved a landslide in the state elections, winning 250 of the 320 seats under Arjun’s leadership.

Pranab on Anderson

Pranab Mukerjee - mouthpiece for Arjun ?!!

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee today said Arjun had decided to send Anderson out of the country in view of the deteriorating law and order situation after the gas tragedy.

“Singh (Arjun) had clearly said there was deterioration of law and order after the gas leak. People’s anger was also very high. Therefore, it was thought right to send him (Anderson) out of Bhopal,” Mukherjee said in Calcutta, citing Arjun’s statement days after the gas leak.

Mukherjee, who even then was holding the finance portfolio but had developed differences with Rajiv, said: “People’s frenzy was on high, therefore it was thought necessary to move out Warren Anderson.”

On the question of extraditing Anderson, the finance minister said: “The question of extradition has come up. The government would look into the legal avenues available for the possible extradition.”

MEANWHILE

Narendra Modi attacks Sonia Gandhi for ‘silence’ on Bhopal gas tragedy verdict – wrong political sound-bites directed at the wrong person; as if she was ‘directly involved’ or is the Prime Minister or the President, a very snide and unethical personality without a proper conscience – helping or hindering the BJP ?!!

Narendra Modi - knows not when to keep silent ?!!

From DNA India

Patna, Sunday, June 13, 2010 19:39 IST, PTI: Attacking Congress president Sonia Gandhi over her “silence” on the Bhopal gas tragedy verdict, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi today asked her to explain who was the ‘Maut ka saudagar’ (merchant of death).

Sonia Gandhi had during the campaign for the 2007 Gujarat Assembly polls called Modi a merchant of death for the 2002 riots in the state in the aftermath of the Godhra train carnage.

“Why is Sonia Gandhi silent on her party and government’s failure in ensuring justice to the Bhopal gas tragedy victims? Now will she explain who is the maut ka saudagar?,” he said while addressing the ‘Swabhiman Rally’ of the BJP on conclusion of the party’s two-day national executive here.

Modi said several thousands had died during the Bhopal gas leak in 1984 when Madhya Pradesh was ruled by the Congress party.

“The verdict in the case has come out recently after a 26-year delay. But Sonia Gandhi is maintaining a comfortable silence on the matter,” the BJP leader said.

Modi alleged that Gandhi’s silence on the issue of price rise of essential commodities “was killing thousands of poor in the country”.

He said the UPA under Sonia Gandhi had come to power with the promise of eradicating poverty, but even after completing a year in their second term, the plight of the poor in the country was only worsening every day.

The Gujarat chief minister claimed that the UPA government was helpless when it came to bringing the spiralling prices of essential commodities under control.

“Sonia Gandhi is a mother too. How come she does not understand the burden of a poor mother, who is not able to feed her child due to the high cost of the essential commodities,” he said.

On the Naxal problem, Modi said some sections in the Congress party claim it was a socio-economic issue and that Maoism grew when there was no development.

“The Congress party has ruled the country for over 50 years out of the 60 years since Independence. If there is no development in the country and if it is giving rise to Naxalism, then who is to be blamed but the Congress party,” he said. (or the communists ?!!)

Modi said the Naxals killed innocent people and the extremists should be answered in their own language.

“Development was important, but security of the common man was equally important,” he said.

Modi also thanked the people of Bihar for the generous help rendered to Gujarat for relief work after earthquake hit the state in 2001.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had yesterday objected to advertisements brought out by Gujarat government saying that it had liberally donated to the state following the Kosi floods.

Congress says Narendra Modi’s politics disruptive, divisive – definitely short circuiting BJP national respect, stature and also destroying faith the NDA coalition – too focused on greedy  “Prime Ministerial” ambitions ?!! Quite Unacceptable to India ‘Aam Aadmi’ or the World ?!!

Narendra Modi - spitting into the wind ?!!

From DNA India

New Delhi, Sunday, June 13, 2010 21:22 IST, PTI: The Congress today criticised Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi for “dragging” Sonia Gandhi into the issue of Bhopal gas tragedy case, saying the BJP leader practiced “disruptive, divisive and a low level of politics”.

“Narendra Modi has always practiced disruptive, divisive and a low level of politics and we reject his suggestions with contempt,” Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters when asked to react to Modi’s comments at a BJP rally in Patna.

Attacking the Congress chief over her “silence” on the Bhopal gas tragedy verdict, Modi today asked her to explain who was the ‘Maut ka saudagar’ (merchant of death).

Sonia Gandhi had during the campaign for the 2007 Gujarat assembly polls called Modi a merchant of death for the 2002 riots in the state in the aftermath of the Godhra train carnage.

“This is the brand of intellectually, morally and politically bankrupt politics which is being practiced by Narendra Modi. There is absolutely no moral right on Modi’s part for dragging in Sonia ji after 26 years of the Bhopal tragedy, when she was not in politics at the time he was talking about,” she said, adding the BJP itself had a lot of explaining to do on the issue.

The Congress spokesperson said that Modi’s brand of politics had brought him to a stage when his own alliance partner, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, refused to share platform with him, and the Gujarat chief minister goes to the extent of placing false advertisements in newspapers.

“The BJP itself has a great deal to answer regarding why they Bhopal gas tragedy. What has the BJP done in the last 26 years in Bhopal?” she said.

Natarajan said her party had made it “absolutely clear” that the government had set up a group of ministers, who will once again go into the issue and that the party wanted all the facts to come out in the Bhopal tragedy episode.

She also questioned the BJP on what it had done in the six years it was in power at the Centre.

“Let Modi please explain why did the BJP government — including the present Shivraj Singh Chauhan government in Madhya Pradesh — ever try (to get justice to the Bhopal victims), why did they reject the Centre’s request to set up an empowered commission into the Bhopal incident to help the victims. Why does not Modi answer that? ” she said.

She also asked why the BJP government accepted the legal opinion given by an American law firm, which said that extraditing Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson (to try in the Bhopal tragedy case) should not be done.

“Why did the BJP government accept that (legal opinion),” she queried.

Natarajan also asked why the NDA government in Bihar refuse to use the central funds for cleaning up the water table in the state.

FURTHERMORE

Modi rubs salt with own praise – Gujarat a ‘gleaming’ example for Bihar just out of ‘pothole’, says CM – interfering in another state to scupper alliances for short term gains ?!!

Narendra Modi's souped up Ad - too eager for publicity at any cost, and what an unfortunate fall-out ?!!

BY RADHIKA RAMASESHAN

Patna, June 13: Narendra Modi told the people of Bihar today that it was time they junked “vote-bank politics” and embraced “development politics”.

“If the politics of development is adopted, any state can come out of adversities,” the Gujarat chief minister said.

This was the closest Modi came to cutting down the chief minister, Nitish Kumar, in his speech at a BJP rally at Gandhi Maidan this evening.

“Vote-bank politics” was an allusion to Nitish’s strategy of cultivating electoral blocks (the Maha-Dalits, the extremely backward classes, women and Muslims) through development schemes and freebies.

Nitish had publicly put down Modi for releasing ads that were condescending towards Bihar and his government and extolled Gujarat as a “model state” in regional newspapers before the BJP national executive meeting.

Senior leader L.K. Advani reached out to Nitish without letting down Modi. He recalled that the NDA was built in 1995 when Nitish, then in George Fernandes’s Samata Party, agreed to become a BJP ally and hoped he would continue as one.

In an address that was neither confrontational nor conciliatory towards Nitish, Modi underlined the contrast between a “gleaming” Gujarat and a Bihar that just about peeked out of the “pothole”, in which it was submerged by successive dispensations. When he deemed it appropriate to praise Bihar, he singled out the BJP’s deputy chief minister, Sushil Modi, rather than Nitish for it.

“Bihar is a gaping hole. Sushil and his friends have just managed to fill the hole. As the finance minister, he left no stone unturned to fund deserving projects,” he said.

Modi indicated his response to the rebuff was not particularly Gandhian even if it was not quintessentially Modi.

As for Gujarat, it seemed as though the chief minister would run out of epithets to list his “credits”. “No village is without 24-hour electricity,” he claimed before people more used to being without power.

“You are blessed with Ma Ganga. In Gujarat, excepting the Narmada, there are no perennial rivers. I am cursed with registhan (a desert) and Pakistan as my neighbour. But thanks to public pressure, I have done rain-harvesting, built check dams, terrace lakes and what not.

“The result is that in five years agricultural production increased from Rs 19,000 crore to Rs 50,000 crore. I have no coalmines. I buy coal from Bihar and Jharkhand. Yet I have surplus power to lend to other states. The point is if you toil, you can overcome the most adverse circumstances,” said Modi.

He rubbed in the fact that this was his first visit after 2001. “Therefore, my first duty is to thank the people for the massive help they rendered during the earthquake when Gujarat was enveloped in a blanket of grief. You wiped our tears,” he said, as people shouted “Modi zindabad”.

The earthquake allusion was a palliative to undo the effect that an ad, trumpeting the Gujarat government’s help for the Kosi floods, had on Nitish. The Bihar CM had described it as “uncultured”.

Yesterday while virtually announcing that Modi was unwanted in Bihar, Nitish said he would return the Rs 5 crore that Gujarat had given as aid during floods in his state.

The other speakers, who included BJP chief ministers Ramesh Pokhriyal, B.S. Yeddyurappa and Prem Kumar Dhumal, and senior leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, ignored Nitish.

BJP smells Naveen in Nitish – again short-circuited by an overzealous Modi ?!!

Nitish Kumar - unimpressed ?!!

RADHIKA RAMASESHAN

Patna, June 13: The BJP thinks (thanks to an overzealous Narendra Modi ?!!) Nitish Kumar might do a Naveen Patnaik and pull out of the Bihar coalition before the Assembly elections after the first serious rupture in its relations with the Janata Dal (United) over Narendra Modi.

While the BJP has decided not to exacerbate the breach, it is also unlikely to put itself out to salvage the alliance and accede to Nitish’s terms. It will throw its weight behind the Gujarat chief minister.

The approach was encapsulated in spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy’s response that was crafted after several rounds of talks.

Rudy said: “We are a mature party, with a mature leadership that shows a great sense of resilience. But our self-respect is most important.”

BJP chief Nitin Gadkari said: “We will follow coalition dharma but with self-respect.” (damage control after egoistical petty politics ?!!)

The stress on “self-respect” was reflected in Rudy’s defence of Modi: “He is a leader and a successful chief minister. He is hailed by his supporters for the way he is ruling Gujarat and some overzealous ones among them have made efforts to widen his appeal by showing the truth (in the Modi ads that angered Nitish).”

Although Modi has more than his share of detractors in the BJP, the party rallied round him after Nitish called the ads “uncultured, unethical”. Nitish’s apologists in the party were told to get off when they sued for peace. Before Gadkari took a view, the local MLAs insisted the BJP must not yield to Nitish.

An MLA from north Bihar said that after the episode, the workers in his constituency phoned to requisition 10 instead of the original two buses to ferry people to the Patna rally on Sunday.

“There is tremendous enthusiasm for Modi,” he told Gadkari.

The “Rashtriya Swabhimaan” (national pride) rally had morphed into a “Modi Swabhimaan” one, the MLAs said.

Asked if Modi could deliver Bihar to the BJP if its relations with the Dal (United) were over, a state leader said: “That’s not the point. If Modi becomes negotiable today, tomorrow we will be told you will get only 50 seats.”

A section of the BJP is convinced Nitish is preparing for a “go solo” line. “A normally cautious person like him would not have made extreme statements had he not already decided he was better off without us. ”

Patnaik, the Orissa chief minister, had taken a calculated risk when he sundered ties with the BJP on election eve after the communal baggage from Kandhamal got too heavy to carry. BJP sources said a similar consideration might weigh with Nitish.

But while Patnaik faced no state-level rivals, Nitish has formidable adversaries in Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan. (both ready to go with Congress if Nitesh Kumar looses ?!!)

WATER SUPPLY IN GORKHA ADIVASI AREAS: Tea gardens in India watered by Bhutan

WATER SUPPLY IN GORKHA ADIVASI AREAS: Tea gardens in India watered by Bhutan – mutual trust and friendship a must to remain intact ?!!

Dooars water supply from Bhutan - diplomatic links a must for continued cooperation ?!!

FROM THE TELEGRAPH CORRESPONDENT

Jaigaon, June 13: If dams are modern India’s temples, a group of eight tea gardens in Jalpaiguri district have been the new religion’s outcastes.

Six decades after Independence, these gardens have never tasted Indian water, their 60,000 residents perhaps alone in the country in being denied a necessity that even parched Rajasthan can claim by right.

But now these tea estates, which have for almost a century drunk and bathed in mountain water imported from neighbouring Bhutan, are ready to enter India’s water supply map in six weeks’ time, thanks to a central scheme.

Ever since they came into existence a century ago near the Bhutan foothills, these gardens have been drawing water for their households from the Himalayan streams and lakes across the border, through pipelines built with the garden authorities’ own money.

The surplus water went into the tea bushes and factories, which otherwise made do with the local groundwater — unfit for drinking or household use — pumped out by tube wells.

But from the middle of July, deep tube wells will start pumping clean water from several hundred feet under the Indian soil to these gardens in Nagrakata block under the Sajal Dhara scheme.

After these tea gardens came up, their owners had approached the local authorities in Bhutan’s Samtse district and requested the use of their water, which they had in plenty, a senior Bhutan government official said.

The gardens then laid pipes, some up to 5km long, through Bhutan’s forests and hills and erected high reservoirs in that country, employing local Bhutanese labour.

“It was an agreement between the tea gardens and our people that epitomises the friendship between the two countries,” the official said.

The arrangement continued even after Independence, when the country’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, highlighted the importance of public water supply by terming irrigation dams the “temples of modern India” along with power stations.

In the 1980s, Thimphu told the Samtse administration to levy a “water rent” on the eight gardens as a “commercial token”.

The tax was nominal considering the 36 lakh litres the gardens drew every day, and ranged between Rs 3,000 and Rs 6,000 a year, the official said. The agreement, renewed annually or biannually, allowed Bhutanese farmers to enter the “adjacent Indian territory” to “graze cattle, collect fodder” and forage for “wood and thatches during the day time”.

That pact will come to an end when work under Sajal Dhara, which started on May 28, is completed. District public health engineering (PHE) sources said the pumps would supply 8,000 to 12,000 litres of water an hour to each of the eight gardens: Carron, Changmari, Gatiya, Bandapani, Chamurchi, Lankapara, Jiti and Makrapara.

“We are looking forward to getting our own water. Now, when supply is disrupted, we have to walk up to a kilometre to fetch fresh water. Also, the water often becomes muddy during the rains and we have to strain it,” said Sabitri Baraik, a worker at Carron.

The Centre is funding 90 per cent of the deep tube-well project, with the gardens providing the rest of the money. Each garden will need to pay between Rs 9 lakh and Rs 20 lakh, the assistant engineer of the Jalpaiguri PHE department, Aniruddha Bhattacharya, said. Carron will need to cough up Rs 20 lakh.

“We had to bore more than 300 feet deep to get water in Carron tea estate,” said Prabhas Barman, a supervisor with the private company boring the tube wells.

Under the agreement with Thimphu, renewed the last time on November 30, 2008, the gardens were to build pucca water channels and water locking gates to prevent soil erosion in Bhutan. They had to “build strong bridges/covers over the Channel at path/passage for safe crossing” of humans and live stock and “prevent pollution of the water supply”.

In Calcutta, Bhutan consul-general Tsering Wangda welcomed the development. “This is a very good development that water has been found on the Indian side. Therefore, as far as water resources are concerned, both sides will be independent of each other. Moreover, the Bhutanese people will have more water to use,” Wangda said.

He said Bhutan’s decision to let these gardens use its water was based on the “mutual trust and friendship the two countries enjoyed”.