Inclusion in NE Council welcomed...Samiran's Photos in Kolkata

KalimNews:The demand of inclusion of the Darjeeling hill areas in the North East Council is widely praised by all in the hills, even it is praised by the plain people as a wise thought.

Central and the State Government had divulged that the demand for the inclusion of Dooars and Terai in the proposed Regional authority is not considerable and the Union Government tried to convince about it to the GJMM delegation on Monday at North Block in Delhi. It has further added that problems will arise on including these areas as such it is not advisable to do so.
Titbits: 1.GJMM is the other side of the GNLF coin- CPRM 
2. N.B.Chhetri, Headmaster of Sarswati High School, Mugnpoo, Ex MLA and leader of GNLF Union leader is advised to stay away from Mungpoo by GJMM.
3. VC of NBU suspended Registrar on charges of corruption.
4. 2 live Bombs discovered inside a bag left by a passenger in a bus at Jaigaon

Smile chugs into Dooars, garden lady shows the way- Women who made it happen

Anirban Choudhury, TT, Alipurduar, March 30: The Smile Train has finally chugged into the Dooars and the garden workers are grateful to Daisy Raj Singh for having given them a chance to board it.

From left: Daisy Raj Singh and Dr Neela Bhattacharya at the camp in Hamiltonganj on Sunday; and Pinki Sonkar

The wife of the manager of Rydak Tea Estate, Singh has been going around campaigning about the free treatment and surgery for cleft lip that the Smile Train project of the US offers at the Anandaloke Hospital and Neurosciences Centre in Siliguri, 150km from here.

The Smile Train is the NGO that treated Pinki Sonkar — the Uttar Pradesh-based protagonist of Megan Mylan’s Oscar-winning documentary, Smile Pinki — and changed her life.

Singh organised the first free check-up camp for people with cleft lip in September in Rydak. Around 30 people from the BPL category who had registered themselves at the camp, whose expenses were borne by her, have gone through the surgery in Siliguri. But before that, she had a trying time convincing them to attend the camp.

Cleft lip or a cleft palate is a common birth defect in the Dooars especially in the tea belt and is a result of malnutrition, said Dr Neela Bhattacharya who conducts the surgery at Anandaloke. Dr Bhattacharya has been associated with Smile Train for three years.

“Around 300 people from the Dooars have been operated on so far. Many come from the Northeast and Bihar. Cleft lip occurs in children when the mother is deprived of a nutritious diet during pregnancy. Sometimes it is genetic too. But in the Dooars it is mostly because of malnutrition,” said Dr Bhattacharya.

A cleft lip surgery costs at least Rs 20,000.

Added to this is the expense incurred on trips to the hospital. Sometimes one or two family members have to accompany the patients and stay away from home, often in hotels near the hospital.

“For most garden workers, the surgery is beyond their means. But they did not know that they could get it done for free,” said Singh.

When she heard of the Smile-Anandaloke tie-up, Singh contacted Dr Bhattacharya before she did the rounds of the labour lines of the Dooars gardens — Kalchini, Hatiabari, Kohinoor, Mainabari, to name a few. Singh, who has an army background, has been staying in Rydak for 11 years.

She started her campaign with the help of four local boys, going door to door and trying to convince parents to bring the children with cleft lips to free check-up camps as the first step.

“Initially people were reluctant to attend the camps. But then the news spread.” Jashoda Toppo, a 40-year-old worker has been operated upon, as has been Joydeep Das, who is nearly two years old and is from Samuktala. Five-year-old Payel Biswakarma from Turturi, too, has a winning smile now.

On Sunday, Singh organised another such camp at Little Angel School, Hamiltonganj in Kalchini block. Singh is happy that 23 people had registered from different tea gardens for the surgery.

“My reward is the winning smile they give me,” said Singh.

Cong ally patch up in Siliguri

From left: Deb with Datta and Malakar. (Kundan Yolmo)

Siliguri, March 30: The Trinamul Congress and the Congress today decided to form the Siliguri Municipal Corporation together, ending the cold war and putting up a show of unity ahead of the civic polls to be held across the state in May.

Although mayor Gangotri Datta has offered to step down from her post, no decision on the new incumbent or the composition of the mayors-in-council were announced.

Leaders of both the parties said the decision to dissolve the current board and form a new one had been taken under instructions from the respective high commands to further firm up the bonding between the two outfits.

After the alliance’s victory in the SMC polls held in September, both Trinamul and the Congress had staked claim to the mayor’s chair. Ultimately, at the insistence of Mamata’s rival and Raiganj MP Deepa Das Munshi, the Congress had formed the board with the backing of the Left that had been ousted from the civic body after 28 years. The Congress’s Datta became the mayor.

Since then, the Trinamul had been sitting in the Opposition. Even yesterday, at the budget session, Trinamul had accused the Congress-led board of having a tacit understanding with the Left.

However, today, Datta said at the joint media conference: “I will offer the mayor’s post to Trinamul if it is necessary for the sake of the alliance.”

District Congress president Shankar Malakar said: “We had a meeting with the Trinamul leadership today and reached a consensus that from now on the Trinamul Congress and Congress will run the board together. The board will no longer thrive on the outside support of the CPM.”

“The people of Siliguri have voted for us to see the alliance running the SMC. There had been some problems during the mayoral elections but we consider them to be a closed chapter,” said Trinamul district president Gautam Deb.

In Calcutta, Trinamul leader Partha Chatterjee said the development was a “very good news”.

“It will further strengthen the ties between the two parties,” Chatterjee said. “This was just the thing that we needed to send out a signal of unity between the two parties before the coming municipal polls. This has taken place because of the initiative of our party leader Mamata Banerjee who said the past bitterness should be forgotten.”

Deb said Datta would ask for Trinamul’s support to pass the budget tomorrow. The Trinamul would then assure her of its support and the budget will be passed. A decision will then be taken on dissolving the current board and setting up a new one.

Nurul Islam, the CPM leader in the SMC and the former mayor, said: “There was always an underlying understanding between the two parties and that was only made public today.”

Minister convoy kills one

TT, Siliguri, March 30: A 58-year-old farmer succumbed to his injuries at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital today after he was hit, allegedly by agriculture minister Paresh Adhikary’s convoy last evening.

Naren Roy, a resident of Dhapganj, on the outskirts of Jalpaiguri, was pedalling home from a market. “He was on his bicycle when the third car of the minister’s convoy hit him from behind on the Jalpaiguri-Haldibari road,” said Gopal Burman, a witness. “It was one of the police vehicles that was not part of the three-car convoy which took him to the Jalpaiguri district hospital.”

Naren was shifted to the NBMCH where he died around 6.30am. Senior police officers said efforts were on to arrange for compensation for his family. The minister, who was returning from a farmers’ meeting at Haldibari, refused comment saying: “I am in the Assembly in Calcutta.”

KalimNews:Samiran Paul of Kalimpong has exhibited his works on cultural photography representing hill region for the first time and on travel photography for the second time, along with other members of "Alok Rekhay", in its 7th photography exposition held at Gaganendra Pradarshanshala, Kolkata information centre.He is happy and grateful to his mentor and all the photographers of Alok Rekhay for giving him the platform and oportunity to show his works along with the eminent photographers of Alokrekhay, Kolkata.
The exposition was inaugurated by the eminent painter Sri Samir Aich, Chief Guest . of the programme. Special guest Smt. Bulbul Roy, Hon. joint secretary Academy of fine Arts, Kolkata, Shri Benu Sen , the eminent photographer the guest  of honour and Shri Debidas Banerjee, the eminent photographer and also the founder member of Alokrekhay were on the dias.
Speaking to Mr. Debadish Banerjee, Paul comments that it is pleasing to find someone so far away from the cultural and photographic society of kolkata so enthusiastic about the photography.
Among the members Sri Abhijit Bhattcharjya portrayed the Indian women in their different spheres of works. Bikash Mondol presented different moods of the people involved in hadicrafts. Sri Sushannta Sengupta, Pradip Dutta, Sujot kumar Saha depicted Banaras, Kumaon Himalaya, Sikkim through their lens. Kartik Das exhibited some fusion works mixing photography and hand drawn sketches giving it a new dimension in a mixed media.
Sandipan shared with the spectators some beautiful glimpses from various fairs across India. Different festivals moods were captured by Sri Debidas Banerjee. majestically. Some fantastic photographs and abstract works of Sri S. P. Mukherjee were also exihibited. Apart from these there were some spectacular photos created by Sri Chinmoy Chakraborty, Imran Ahmed, Sri Joydip Bhattacharjya, Goutam Mazumder and Sri Gora Bhattacharjya.
Right from its inauguration to the last day the exhibition was thronged and highly appreciated by Kolkattans and it is exteded for two more days.