To contact us CLICK HERE
View Kalimpong News at http://kalimpongnews.net/newz/
Citizen reporters may send photographs related to news with proper information to newskalimpong@gmail.com

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Morcha getting softer...Police station protests of GJMM stop, wheel jam stays ....Guerillas kill schoolboy

Morcha lease-out plea to hill council- Police station protests stop, wheel jam stays 
TT, Darjeeling, June 29: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has written to the DGHC to lease out properties occupied by the Gorkhaland Personnel for a year, another conciliatory gesture from the hill party within seven days.
The letter says the Morcha is willing to pay rents. Although the DGHC has refused to acknowledge having received the request, Darjeeling district magistrate said he had already forwarded the letter to the council administrator.
The letter comes close on the heels of DGHC administrator B.L. Meena filing FIRs against the GLP occupation of seven council buildings across the Darjeeling hills.
The Morcha, which had been on the backfoot since ABGL leader Madan Tamang’s death last month, has been in recent times trying to avoid any confrontation with the government that is out to oust the squatters from the DGHC properties.
On June 22, in another of its softening stands, the Morcha had withdrawn the GLP — a squad of lathi-wielding volunteers — from three DGHC buildings at Deolo, Relli and Kafer in Kalimpong subdivision. The same day, the party had also lifted its indefinite strike after four days. But the squad still retains the Parijat Guest House in Gorubathan, Teesta-Tribeni Guest House, Roy Villa and the tourist centre at Jamuni.
After Meena filed the FIR, police had visited the GLP headquarters in Jamuni, 40km from Darjeeling town, on June 16 following which Morcha supporters agitated in front of Kurseong police station, hurling stones at the building. The police lathicharge on the crowd had led to the four-day shutdown across the hills starting June 19.
Roy Villa in Darjeeling is a DGHC property which has remained defunct for several decades. Sister Nivedita, an Anglo-Irish social worker and among the famous disciples of Swami Vivekananda, had spent the last few days of her life at Roy Villa, where she died on October 13, 1911.
The famed Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) was also started from Roy Villa before it was shifted to its present location at Birch Hill in the early 1950s. The council had renovated the property in the late 90s but had not been put into any use, before the GLP set up its camp.
While Parjiat is supposed to be a DGHC guest house for officials, the ones at Teesta-Tribeni and Jamuni are tourist centres that have not been fully completed till date.
Darjeeling district magistrate Surendra Gupta said: “I have forwarded the letter (in which the Morcha has asked the buildings for rent) to the administrator of the DGHC as the properties belong to the council.”
Sources said the letter was submitted to Gupta by a Morcha delegation on June 25.
Meena, however, said he was unaware of any such request. “No, I have not received any such request,” said Meena. The Telegraph had called up Meena on two consecutive days to enquire about the Morcha letter but the official had the same answer on both the occasions.
Although the Morcha had publicly maintained that it would not vacate any more buildings, its request for lease underscores the fact that it does not want to go in for any confrontation with the state. The party has also decided to stop demonstrating in front of police stations and has asked it supporters to participate in the daily two-hour road blockades instead.
“The demonstrations in front of the police stations will be discontinued from today and supporters are requested to assemble for road blockades,” read posters signed by the Morcha’s town committee that were plastered in town today. The announcement comes even as there is a crackdown on those hindering traffic flow.
“The police have started a suo-motu case against Morcha activists staging road blockades. They have been booked under Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 186/506 (obstruction of public servant and criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code,” said I.J. Thapa, the inspector-in-charge of Darjeeling Sadar police station. But no one has been arrested.
The blockades had started from Monday to demand the transfer of the Kurseong subdivisional officer who had ordered the lathicharge on June 16. The party also wants a judicial inquiry into the lathicharge.
Tribal meet postponed
The meeting between the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad and the state government scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed by a day, home secretary Samar Ghosh said. The tribal delegation will sit for talks over various demands, including the granting of Sixth Schedule status to the Terai and the Dooars. (Photos: 2 hr road blockade of GJMM  in Kalimpong volunteered by Nari Morcha members blocking all including essential services- Army, Postal, Police - Pix: Samten)
KalimNews: Darjeeling Police has confirmed that it has registered a case against 49 GJNM leaders of Darjeeling Sadar for repeatedly blocking the road and obstructing government officers and police personnels. The first four are Rajani Rai, Mangala Rai, Dhanmaya  Tamang and Kavita Chhetri. A source confirmed that though KL Tamta IG of North Bengal is transferred will not be released for sometime and BL Meena, Administrator of DGHC will be in chair till 2011. It is also understood that DSP Rakesh Singh of Kuresong PS will not be transferred as demanded by GJMM.
The talk called by the state government with the leaders of ABAVP is postponed to 1st July. 10 from different branch committees of Dooars and 5 from State committe of ABAVP will attend the meeting.
Kalimpong treks on silk route- Egg supplier to Assam
Rajeev Ravidas, TT, Kalimpong, June 29: The Central Silk Board has taken around 5,000 soalu trees of the Hill Nursery here on a three-year lease to rear muga worms as the hill town has started selling eggs of muga worms to Assam, famous for its expensive yarn.
In recent times, diseased seeds have become a cause of worry for the northeastern state that has been on the lookout for healthy eggs.
According to the understanding with the Kalimpong unit of the state directorate of textiles’ sericulture division, after three years, the silk board will cultivate soalu or kutmeru trees on the land under its possession. The lease from the nursery was taken around 10 days ago.
“The interest shown by the Central Silk Board should augur well for Kalimpong and other parts of the hills that have good potential for muga cultivation,” said Arup Thakur, the head of the Kalimpong unit of the sericulture division.
“I had first experimented with muga cultivation here in 2003. With the encouragement I received from B.K. Mukherjee, additional director of the directorate of textiles, we formally started the cultivation through the department in 2005,” he said.
The sericulture department had convinced cultivators to grow soalu trees — the leaves of which are eaten by worms that produce the yarns — on about 70 acres of land.
“About 80 families cultivate soalu. An acre of land can fetch each family around Rs 7,000 after each harvest,” said Thakur. 
The department buys cocoons from the cultivators at Re 1 a piece. The eggs are sold at Rs 5 per 100 gram within the state. The seeds are sold at Rs 6 per 100 gram to Assam. Last year, 500 seeds or eggs had been sold to Assam and 6,000 to Cooch Behar. Thakur said the target was to sell at least 4,000 seeds to Assam.
“You can either extract yarn from the cocoons or retain them and produce moths for laying eggs. These eggs or seeds are called disease-free layings or DFLs. There is a huge demand for DFLs in Assam and Cooch Behar,” said Thakur. According to him, the DFLs produced between July and August and September and October are the best.
“Muga silk costs anywhere between Rs 7,000 and Rs 8,000 a kg in the market,” he said. He added that the department plans to expand the cultivation to other parts of the subdivision and Darjeeling.
“We want to start muga cultivation in Lingsey village. We have already started rearing the worms on a 10-acre plot of land under the Mungsong division of the cinchona plantation,” Thakur said.
16 yr boy shot dead by Maoists
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100630/images/30zzamokbig.jpgTT, Midnapore, June 29: Maoists abducted a 16-year-old boy on his way to school, shot him dead and branded him a police informer in West Midnapore’s Belpahari, an apparent act of desperation after being hit by police several times in the past few weeks.
Class X student Fulchand Mahato was found with bullets in his head and chest near a waterfall in the mountainous Kashmar village, about 2km from his home.
He was missing since leaving for school — 10km away — on a cycle yesterday.
This is the first instance of the rebels killing a schoolboy in Bengal. “The brutality shows how badly cornered and desperate the Maoists are,” said Jhargram superintendent of police Praveen Tripathi.
The Maoists are now doing things they earlier did not (see chart). A string of arrests since the May 28 Jnaneswari tragedy that killed 150 people, encounter deaths of at least nine guerrillas and a series of close shaves have apparently made the rebels resort to tactics that suggest a panic reaction.
They burnt alive the 80-year-old mother and 55-year-old sister of a CPM leader in Bankura last Wednesday. They have snatched phones from villagers suspecting moles among them.
A poster on a tree today announced that Fulchand was lying dead near the waterfall.
A joint force team traced the body. A poster left near it said he had been “given the death penalty for being a police informer”.
“His mother waited till last evening but he did not return home. Then she contacted Fulchand’s father through a relative,” said a neighbour at Jamirdiha, 275km from Calcutta
His father Srinath has been living away from home out of fear because he is a CPM supporter. Fulchand’s uncle had been shot dead by the Maoists in February 2008.
The Mahatos are traditionally CPM supporters, the neighbour said. But why should a 16-year-old become a target for his family’s political allegiance? That the Maoists know.
To escape their wrath, Fulchand’s elder brother Madhu had last year become a supporter of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities. “He quit the outfit a few months later and fled home with his father,” an officer said.
Madhu now lives in Purulia’s Bandwan, 50km from home, and Srinath with relatives elsewhere in Belpahari.
Fulchand stayed with his mother Rinku.
Srinath was at the police station today when the joint force team called up to say they had found the body. “The father fainted,” an officer said.
When he regained consciousness, Srinath said he should have stayed at home. “Then they would have killed me but spared Fulchand.”

Strike date the same but no unity 
Radhika Ramaseshan, TT, New Delhi, June 29: Left, BJP and some non-Congress parties have called a Bharat bandh on July 5 against the Centre’s “failure” to rein in prices, but the common date appeared more to do with “not keeping quiet” on a bread-and-butter issue.
Leaders of several of these parties conceded it wasn’t a show of unity against the Congress and none was out to invoke the spirit of 1977 or 1989 when the Left and its erstwhile rivals toppled Indira Gandhi after the Emergency and later Rajiv Gandhi over Bofors.
“Logically, no party would want to keep quiet on a livelihood issue,” said CPI secretary and Rajya Sabha MP D. Raja. “We are not fighting for political power. If we chose a common date, it is because we do not want to inconvenience people with constant strikes.”
The BJP-led NDA and the Left made separate announcements for the strike to protest the “unjustified” hike in petroleum prices.
NDA convener Sharad Yadav said the strike had not been called under a common banner because there were “far too many contradictions”.
Observers said ideology, politics and mutual distrust had come in the way of what might have been passed off as a show of unity that is sure to cripple Left-ruled Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.
If the so-called secular-communal divide had precluded a Left-BJP alliance ahead of the Bengal and Kerala elections next year, mutual rivalries pre-empted the Samajwadi Party and the BSP from sharing a platform.
More important, no party wants a general election now because all of them are fighting with their backs to the wall to save their regional turf.
Only the BJP expressed a desire to be accepted as part of a larger anti-Congress front.
“The floor co-ordination you saw in the last session (of Parliament) is being reflected outside,” spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said. “The mood is to combat the Congress.”
Sources said the BJP joined the “bandh” bandwagon as a “me too” afterthought. Till yesterday, its leaders had been saying they would stage rallies on July 1 and 2.
This morning, the party’s core committee decided the BJP should be part of the national strike the Left had yesterday declared it planned to call.
CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury said the Left had taken an “independent” decision. “We have only aligned with secular forces like the Telugu Desam Party, ADMK and the Biju Janata Dal,” the Rajya Sabha MP told The Telegraph.
Yechury emphasised the Left was not even dealing with its former friends from the “secular” Samajwadi Party and Lalu Prasad’s RJD after their leaders had let them down on the cut motions in the Parliament session.
However, Lalu Prasad is believed to have conveyed to CPM leaders that he is willing to be part of the endeavour despite the presence of Bihar rival Janata Dal (United) because he didn’t want to be “isolated” on a populist issue.
Buddha letter
Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to review the fuel price hike and “withhold the decision”.
“This hike in prices of petroleum products will not only immediately and directly increase the cost of transportation, from mass transit vehicles to goods vehicles, but will also have a cascading effect on the cost of production in agriculture and industry, and will further enhance the rate of inflation,” the letter said. 
Autopsy again on maid body 
TT, Gangtok, June 29: A second post-mortem was conducted on the body of Hemlata Chettri at the South Sikkim district hospital on Monday as her family had doubts about the nature of autopsy held in Singapore where she had died under mysterious circumstances while working as a domestic help.
The last rites of the 32-year-old woman were performed at her native village in West Sikkim today.
“We don’t know what kind of post-mortem was done in Singapore. Another post-mortem was needed by our doctors for our satisfaction as we have doubts about the circumstances of her death,” said Iman Singh Limboo, a friend of Hemlata’s family.
The woman was found dead on June 22 morning in the basement of a building where she was working. Her family alleged that she had been murdered by her employers who used to torture her.
The family received a phone call on June 22 from an anonymous woman informing them that Hemlata had committed suicide by jumping from the building.
In Hemlata’s death certificate that the Indian high commission in Singapore had faxed to the family members here, the cause of death was listed as “craniocerebral injuries”.
After the body reached Sikkim on Saturday, the relatives submitted an application to the chief judicial magistrate (South and West) for a post-mortem. The autopsy was held at the South district hospital at Namchi. This is the second post-mortem as sources have told The Telegraph that an autopsy was conducted in Singapore.
“We will wait for the post-mortem report to come before proceeding further. The report will be available within a week,” said Limboo.
Deputy inspector-general of police, range, S. Rao said Sikkim police would conduct their own inquiries.
Sources said once the inquiry report was ready, the state government could forward it to the ministry of external affairs for the matter to be taken up with the Singapore authorities. They said the police would also probe the role of Ran Maya Subba with whom Hemlata had gone to Singapore to work.
Hemlata had left for Singapore with a friend from her village in Sombaria in November.
Fish float dead in aquarium
TT, Gangtok, June 29: Seven albino and black shark fish have surfaced dead at the Central Park Aquarium in Namchi, triggering questions on the safety of a dozen species reared at the facility.
The is the second incident of ornamental fish dying in less than two weeks in the aquarium that was set up as part of the beautification of the South Sikkim district headquarters in 2008.
“We noticed a difference in behaviour of 10 albino and black shark fish in their tank yesterday morning. Later, seven fish died and the other three are now kept under observation in a separate tank,” said Arjun Kumar Adhikari, the in-charge of Paksam Communication and Services that was given the charge of the aquarium.
“We have been taking care of the aquarium on a no-loss-no profit basis with whole hearted dedication as the concept itself was designed and developed by the agency,” said Adhikari.
The aquarium, set up in open space with a tree embracing it, has eight quarters to house species like angel fish, piranhas, parrot fish and gold fish. Most of the fish have been brought from Latin America, especially the Amazon forests.
Asked about the cause of the deaths, Adhikari said: “Most of the fish have shown some allergic reactions. Two dead fish have been sent for tests for investigation. We will look into the case from all angles and a detailed report will be submitted to the authorities in the first week of July.”
Sikkim urban development secretary Tobjor Dorjee said experts from Siliguri had been called to find out the cause of the deaths at the aquarium. “They will carry out an enquiry and submit a report to us in one week,” he said.
Three red tail catfish had floated dead in the aquarium on June 16 because of a snag in the continuous supply of fresh water at the facility.
Councillor does a volte-face
TT, Siliguri, June 29: Trinamul Congress councillor Chaitali Sen Sharma today withdrew her resignation, barely 24 hours after putting in her papers and accusing her party members of harassing her.
However, the chairperson of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation said she was yet to decide if the letter intimating the withdrawal of resignation would be accepted.
This afternoon the councillor from Ward 31 and her party leader in the SMC, Gautam Deb, met chairperson Sabita Devi Agarwal and handed her the letter withdrawing the resignation.
Sen Sharma who had cited “ill health and unavoidable circumstances” yesterday while quitting from her post, said today that “non-cooperation” from party workers was the reason behind putting in the papers.
The drama began late last evening when district youth leader Madan Bhattacharya and councillor Ranjan Shil Sharma, who had spit betel nut juice on a school inspector on June 9 last year, met Sen Sharma. Deb, the district president of Trinamul, later joined them to make the councillor see reason. They told her that her resignation would send wrong messages, which it did. The Congress in one of its spat with Trinamul had alleged that the party should first control its infighting.
Around midnight, Trinamul sources said, Sen Sharma had agreed to withdraw her resignation.
Asked what had prompted the U-turn, Sen Sharma said: “Our district president assured me that he would take action against those who tried to interfere with my work.” She said she had complained to the party leader against Kaushik Dutta, Bubai Dutta, Shovan Chakraborty and Mili Das.
The chairperson said she would decide on the councillor’s letter withdrawing her resignation after consulting the commissioner. “I have to follow the SMC act,” Agarwal said.
Ex-MLA pulled out and shot
TT, Nanoor, June 29: Alleged Trinamul Congress activists dragged a former CPM MLA who had been denied a ticket by the party in 2006 out of his house and shot him dead in Birbhum’s Nanoor this evening.
Some 200 people with guns, bombs, axes and rods marched into Ananda Das’s home and ransacked it as the blood-soaked body lay in front of the two-storey house.
His teenage daughter Chaiti fled through the rear with her three-year-old brother in her arms. She hid at a neigh- bour’s house in the absence of her mother, who was not at home.
The Class X student said the group had attacked a Citu office next door when her father went out to the verandah to see what was happening. “I told my father not to venture out and attract attention. Some of those on the rampage saw my father and one of them pointed towards him. Then they rushed towards our house,” said the girl, shaking in horror.
Das, 52, tried to run inside but in vain. The attackers beat him up and then pumped bullets into him. “He took four-five bullets and was killed on the spot,” said Birbhum superintendent of police Rabindranath Mukherjee, who was camping in the village tonight.
Das had been an MLA from Nanoor for 20 years until the party dropped him 2006.
Sources said there were allegations of his involvement in the alleged Nanoor massacre of 2000 in which 11 Trinamul supporters were killed. His suspected role in the incident may have been a reason why the party denied him a ticket six years later. Sources said the CPM had been trying to distance itself from Das.
But to many in Trinamul, he was the face of the alleged massacre. Like in most parts of Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s party has been increasingly assertive in this Left bastion since the 2008 rural polls. In February 2009, five CPM activists were killed when the Marxists tried an armed “recapture” of nearby Papuri village. This February, two CPM workers were killed in neighbouring Palundi.
The genesis of today’s trouble lay in the murder bid on Trinamul supporter Samsul Hoda, 36, who is in hospital after being shot at four times.
The armed gang first raided the CPM zonal committee office. They hurled bombs and broke furniture. Then they targeted the Citu office outside Das’s house.
Chaiti alleged that the police station, less than a kilometre away, had not responded immediately to frantic calls. “They could not come in half an hour. My father was killed.”
When the police came, the attackers pelted them with stones. After rain drove the attackers away around 7.30pm, the police moved in and rescued four CPM workers who had been locked up in the party office. The SP blamed the stone-throwing for the delay. Two men have been held, he added.
CPM state secretary Biman Bose accused Trinamul of launching a “pre-planned” attack. The party has called a 12-hour bandh in Bolpur subdivision tomorrow.
Trinamul denied its role in the attack. “It is the result of the CPM’s infighting,” said its state chief Subrata Bakshi.
Mamata choice exposes rift 
TT, Cooch Behar, June 29: The Trinamul Congress state leadership’s decision to nominate Amina Ahmed the vice-chairperson of the Cooch Behar municipality is snowballing into a major rift in the party with a two-time winner in the civic elections today announcing his intention to resign as the councillor.
Expressing displeasure over being ignored for the post of vice-chairperson, Dilip Saha, however, said he would remain with the party.
“I am not quitting the party but I have made up my mind to resign as councillor. I have taken the decision after speaking with members of the party’s ward committee,” said Saha today.
Amina had been chosen by the Trinamul state leadership after the party’s district unit had failed to reach a consensus on the nominee for the post.
Saha won from Ward 5 by a margin of 987 votes. “This is the highest winning margin in any of the 20 wards of this municipality. Moreover, I contested from the same ward in 2005 and I was the only Trinamul candidate to win at that time,” said Saha.
He was critical of Amina’s husband, Abdul Jalil Ahmed, a state general secretary of Trinamul, though he did not name him. “That there was lobbying in Calcutta before the party leadership to make Amina the vice-chairperson is something that a large section of our party members here cannot accept. Therefore, keeping in mind the sentiments of our supporters and voters, I will submit my resignation as councillor to the subdivisional officer on July 6, a day after Amina Ahmed is sworn in as the vice-chairperson,” said Saha.
Trinamul’s district president denied that there was any dissent in the party. “We are going to carry out the decision of the party leadership to the letter and Amina Ahmed will be sworn in as the vice-chairperson on July 5,” said Rabindranath Ghosh.
Abdul Jalil said: “We do not want to enter into any controversy, we are doing what our state leadership wants.
Jail for Orissa MLA for riot
Manoj Pradhan
TT, Bhubaneswar, June 29: Orissa BJP legislator Manoj Pradhan was sentenced today to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment over the death of a Christian during the Kandhamal riots, the first conviction of the jailed MLA who had been slapped with 14 cases.
The judicial process will take some time to reach a definite conclusion because the MLA has the option of appeal but the conviction will help chief minister Naveen Patnaik feel justified that he dumped his ally before the Lok Sabha polls.
A fast-track court convicted the MLA from G Udaygiri in the case involving the murder of Parikshit Digal, who was killed on the evening of August 27, 2008, during the violence against Christians that came to be known as the Kandhamal riots.
The communal violence had broken out following the murder of VHP leader Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and four of his associates on August 23 at the Jalespeta Ashram in Kandhamal.
Pradhan, who got elected from jail where he is an undertrial, was a disciple of the VHP leader.
Delivering the judgment at Phulbani, around 210 km from the state capital, additional sessions judge Sobhan Kumar Dash also imposed a fine of Rs 6,000 on Pradhan.
Pradhan, who is lodged in the Phulbani district jail, today denied the allegations. The MLA said he accepted the court verdict but would file an appeal in the high court. An appeal can be filed within 30 days from the date of conviction.
As many as 14 cases had been filed against the Pradhan in connection with Kandhamal riots, out of which he has been acquitted in seven. Of the remaining seven cases, three relate to murder and four to torching of churches and houses. Another person named Prafulla Mallick was also convicted and awarded the same sentence.
Convictions that carry prison sentences above two years can lead to disqualification. However, according to lawyer Pitambar Acharya, Pradhan will not be disqualified for three months of the appeal period.
Politicians usually contend that disqualification should not apply till all legal options, including an appeal before the Supreme Court, are exhausted.
State BJP spokesperson Ashok Sahu stressed on the appeal option. “It’s a fit case for appeal in the high court. We will go in for appeal in the high court,” he said.
If the ruling BJD, which had parted ways with the BJP over several issues that included the riots, felt vindicated, it did not betray such an emotion.
“Our party believes that the law will take its own course. We have nothing more to say on this at this moment,” said senior BJD leader R.N. Pani.
The Archbishop of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Diocese, Raphael Cheenath, hailed the verdict. “This is the judgment which we had been waiting for since a long time. This gives an occasion to repose faith in the judiciary,” he said.“We will pursue the case with vigour in the appellate court,” said government pleader Bijoy Krishna Patnaik.
Altogether, 891 criminal cases had been registered against more than 5,500 persons in connection with the Kandhamal riots, out of which 119 cases have been disposed of so far. Nearly 150 accused have been convicted, while 636 have been acquitted.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Tribals to ask hills to back autonomy - DOOARS ADIVASIS TO MEET MORCHA LEADERS

TT, Siliguri, June 28: The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad’s north Bengal unit today said it would ask the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to support its demand for Sixth Schedule status for the Terai and the Dooars where the tribals are in a majority.
The Adivasi leaders have also decided to sit with the Morcha for a discussion but no date has been finalised yet for the meeting.
On the larger question of a joint movement with the hill party for Gorkha Adivasi Pradesh, Parishad leaders said they would have to find out first how the tribals could benefit from the creation of such a state. On May 30, Morcha chief Bimal Gurung had for the first time re-christened Gorkhaland as Gorkha Adivasi Pradesh and invited the tribals to join the statehood movement.
“When we sit for discussions with the Morcha, we will ask them how exactly the tribals will benefit by joining the movement for a state,” said John Barla, the president of the Dooars-Terai regional unit of the Parishad. “But our main agenda will be to seek their support for our demand for Sixth Schedule status for the Terai and the Dooars.”
Barla claimed that the 350-odd tribals present at a three-hour long meeting in Banarhat in Jalpaiguri this afternoon supported the proposal to discuss with the Morcha the statehood and other issues related to socio-economic development in this part of the state.
However, the state leadership of the Parishad is opposed to any meeting with Gurung’s party and has maintained that it is ready to talk only with the government on the development of tribal areas in Bengal.
“We are aware of the stand of our state leaders but we find no harm in discussing with the Morcha areas that are of common interest. And, depending on the outcome, join the Morcha movement in the future,” Barla said.
He said the date for a meeting with the Morcha would be decided after the Parishad leadership meets state chief secretary Ardhendu Sen on Wednesday.
“Other than the date, we will also decide on the composition of the delegation after our return from Calcutta,” Barla said. “After today’s meeting, we will once again tell the Morcha about the consensus that has been reached about meeting with them.”
The Parishad leaders of the Terai and the Dooars believe that if they place the demands before the government jointly with the Morcha, they will have stronger bargaining power.
“We have been bargaining over several issues like the establishment of a 500-bed hospital in the Dooars, setting up of Hindi-medium schools and colleges in the Terai and the Dooars and the launch of vocational training courses for the past two years,” Barla said. “However, till today, none of these demands have been met and we feel that a joint movement will boost our bargaining power.”
Morcha leaders have welcomed the Parishad’s decision to hold a meeting with them.
“We will sit across the table with the Adivasis with an open mind,” said Harka Bahadur Chhetri, the media secretary of the Morcha.
“The Parishad, however, must understand that the state will adopt a carrot-and-stick policy to alienate them from us. The government is desperate to ensure that Parishad does not join us.” 
SNS, SILIGURI, 28 JUNE: Ending all speculation, the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad (ABAVP) has announced its decision to sit across the table with the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) over the latter's proposed state of Gorkha Adivasi Pradesh by incorporating the Darjeeling Hills, Terai and the Dooars.
The Adivasi body ~ a reckoning force in the Dooars ~ has however, refrained from announcing the date and venue for the proposed meet.
In a meeting of its Dooars-Terai regional unit held at Banarhat in the Dooars today, the ABAVP “unanimously” gave its nod for the meeting with the GJMM.
“Following a thorough discussion that ran for three-hours, we have unanimously decided to sit with the GJMM over its proposal. But the venue and date for the bi-partite parleys would be fixed only after we had returned from the meeting with the state chief secretary in Kolkata on 30 June,” the ABAVP Dooars regional committee president Mr John Barla said over the phone.  
After floating the concept of Gorkha Adivasi Pradesh (GAP) in a public meeting at Darjeeling on 30 May, the GJMM president Mr Bimal Gurung had written to the ABAVP on 3 June, proposing a joint movement for realising the demanded statehood. Yesterday, the GJMM supremo had also served a veiled ultimatum to the Adivasi leaders to take a decision on this soon; failing which “the chapter would be deemed closed once and for all”, he had warned.
Within 24 hours of the ultimatum, the ABAVP in its pre-scheduled meeting at Banarhat today came out in favour of a dialogue with the GJMM.
According to sources in the ABAVP, of the 11 block units from the Terai and Dooars that took part in the discussions today, a majority of nine favoured a meeting with the GJMM, one unit remained undecided and the remaining one opposed the move.
  s 
KalimNews:Political analysers are of the opinion that considering the talks of ABAVP with the WB government on 30 June, ABAVP leaders are now playing a pressure tactics to the Government. Their consent to the GJMM is to pressurise the government  with an option of either to hear their voice or face their allegiance with GJMM. In no way Adivasis wants to lose and are in bargaining point. Analysers view that on turning down by the government there is every likelihood of GJMM getting support of ABAVP.
TMC & Cong spar in Siliguri
TT, Siliguri, June 28: A Trinamul Congress delegation called on the Congress mayor of Siliguri today and accused her of failing to fulfil people’s expectations.
“We told her that the new board has not been able to fulfil the expectations of the people. Wards held by the Congress councillors and, in some cases, those of the CPM have been getting more funds than the ones held by us,” Darjeeling district Trinamul president Gautam Deb alleged.
He led a team of nine party councillors to Gangotri Dutta’s office in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation and spent almost two hours there.
Last year, the Trinamul-Congress combine had captured the 47-ward civic body, dislodging the Left for the first time since 1981. Trouble erupted when Trinamul, which had 14 councillors and the support of an Independent, demanded the mayor’s post. The Congress, which had 15 councillors, went one up, bagging the chair with Left support.
But the rift appeared to have disappeared this March when Trinamul announced it would join the Congress to run the board, creating a curious case of a Congress mayor propped up by the CPM as well as Mamata Banerjee’s party.
The first sign of the Congress-Trinamul relationship taking a beating here came on Friday when Deb walked out of a board meeting alleging misbehaviour by Congress chairperson Sabita Devi Agarwal.
Today, again hinting that all was not well, the Trinamul councillors told the mayor to improve services, take steps against the corrupt and make the use of funds transparent.
Reacting to the allegations, mayor Dutta said: “We have allotted funds for all the wards impartially. He (Deb) should keep his flock together before trying to find fault with us.”
She was referring to the resignation of a Trinamul councillor, indicating that there was infighting in the party.
Trinamul’s Chaitali Sen Sharma submitted her resignation to the chairperson, citing ill health.
Her leader, Deb, said he did not know about it.
Rift widens after walkout- March 30 bonding on verge of break-up at SMC - Mamata choice for Cooch Behar
TT, Siliguri, June 28: The relationship between anti-Left allies in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation soured further today with the Trinamul Congress accusing the Congress- run board of failing to upgrade the civic services.
The district president of Trinamul, Gautam Deb, said the mayor had been told that the board had not functioned according to the people’s expectations. “We told her that the new board has not been able to fulfil the expectations of the people. Wards held by the Congress councillors and, in some cases, those of the CPM have been getting more funds than the ones held by us,” said Deb, who is the leader of the party in the SMC, after a two-hour meeting with Congress mayor Gangotri Dutta. He was accompanied by nine of his party councillors.
The first sign of the relationship taking a beating in recent times came on Friday when Deb walked out of a board meeting alleging misbehaviour by Congress chairperson Sabita Devi Agarwal.
Last year, the Trinamul-Congress combine had captured the SMC, dislodging the Left from the civic body for the first time since 1981. However, problems emerged when Trinamul, which like the Congress bagged 15 of the 47 seats, demanded the mayor’s post and refused to join the board. The Congress, which stood its ground, won the mayor’s post with Left support. The Left had won in 17 wards.
But on March 30, the rift seemed to disappear with Trinamul announcing that it would join the Congress soon to run the board.
Today, hinting that all was not well with the board, the Trinamul councillors told the mayor to improve services, take necessary steps against persons involved in corruption and make transparent the use of the funds that the board had received in the past eight months.
Reacting to the Trinamul’s allegations, the mayor said: “We have allotted funds for all the wards impartially. I must say that he (Deb) should keep his flock together first before trying to find fault with us.” The mayor was referring to the resignation of a Trinamul councillor, indicating that there was infighting in the party.
Immediately after Deb’s media conference, Trinamul councillor Chaitali Sen Sharma of Ward 31 submitted her resignation to the chairperson, citing ill health. Deb feigned ignorance about the resignation. “I have not received any such letter,” he said.
The chairperson confirmed receiving the resignation letter and said she was yet to take any decision. “I am looking into it,” Agarwal said. 
Tusker in Malda

Dance to celebrate deaths
Pronab Mondal. TT, Calcutta, June 28: Bapi Mahato and his men danced to I am a disco dancer and drank to their merriment after derailing the Jnaneswari Express, CBI sleuths have concluded from his orders to arrange for a bottle and the music in phone intercepts.
The party to celebrate the carnage that left 150 people dead took place somewhere at Indraboni, a village about 6km from the place where the train was thrown off the tracks on May 28.
A CBI officer said the intercept had left them stunned. “The party went on for hours after the tragedy.”
The CID, which had recorded Bapi’s purported conversations, has handed the intercepts over to the CBI. The central bureau has taken over the probe into the sabotage that led to the tragedy.
Bapi, one of the prime accused in the case, was arrested from a lodge on the fringes of Jamshedpur last Sunday.
In one of the intercepts, he allegedly gloats over the “successful operation” after being told about several casualties.
CBI sources said Bapi had sent a man around the dawn of May 28 to see the impact of the operation. The conversation, recorded around 6am, ran like this:
Caller: It was major accident, the passenger train rammed into a goods train…several people died... many of them are screaming for help.
Bapi: Really? The goods train hit the passenger train?
Caller: Yes dada…. A number of policemen are here and media people.
Bapi: Ok, let it pass…. Our job’s done.
In one conversation, Bapi is said to have threatened to turn the Manikpara area into a shashan (burning ghat).
The village, 8km from Jhargram town, is apparently where the strike on the tracks was finalised. But the meeting could not be completed because of a police raid and Bapi suspected there were moles among the villagers. “This phone chat was held a day after the raid and Bapi was in a very foul mood,” a police officer said.
The first suggestion of celebrations emerged when the cops intercepted a call on May 28 afternoon. It went like this:
Bapi: Where are you?
Aide: In front of Kalada’s shop.
Bapi: What’s happening there?
Aide: Police are swarming the area….
Bapi: Oshob chhar… boro ekta jogar kor… khaoa daoa hobey (Let that be… arrange for a big one… we’ll eat and drink).
Aide: Kothay pabo (where will I get the big one)… the police are all over the place.
Bapi: I don’t want to hear all that. You’ll have to get the bottle.
By then the police were constantly monitoring the phone conversations of Bapi and his associates. If the police version is true, Bapi was oblivious of the fact that his phone could be tapped.
“The celebrations came to light when Bapi received a call during the party. We heard the chartbuster from the Mithun Chakraborty film. They possibly used loudspeakers,” a CBI officer said.
Bapi’s phone was under the scanner till May 31. It was found switched off after that. “It appears that he was not allowed to use his phone after Maoists leaders reached the area to seek an explanation from him why he had carried out the operation without informing them? He was taken away by the leaders after that. But we never heard him express any remorse in the three days after the incident in his interactions over the phone,” the officer said.
Bapi was today produced in the CBI’s special court in Calcutta, which sent him to a day’s jail custody. The court will record his statement tomorrow.
State go-slow on schools’ no-fail policy
TT, Calcutta, June 28: The Bengal government will not immediately introduce the policy of not detaining students till Class VIII as stipulated in the Centre’s right to education act.
School education minister Partha De told the Assembly during Question Hour today a final decision to do away with the screening of students between Classes V and VIII would be taken after a survey on its pros and cons and an understanding of how to negate any possible adverse impact.
“The survey will be held to examine the progress of students under the present system in which laggards are held back (after Class IV). We will also find out to what extent the students will benefit if there is no annual screening. A decision on scrapping the annual exams and detention of students will be taken on the basis of the survey’s findings,” De said in response to a question from the RSP’s Jane Alam Mian.
Schools — government, government-aided and private — across boards cannot detain students till Class VIII under Right of Children for Free and Compulsory Education Act, which was recently passed in Parliament. The law has become effective from April 1.
One of its clauses states no child shall be held back in any class or expelled from school till the completion of elementary education at the age of 14, a source in the education department said.
“It is a central legislation and it can’t be rejected. But before we accept the provision dealing with no-detention till Class VIII, we must know what measures need to be taken to ensure that the new policy works out successfully and students can really benefit from it. We need time to adopt the new law,” the minister said.
De did not mention a timeframe within which the existing system — of no detention till Class IV — would be scrapped. Nor does the law specify any deadline for the implementation of the new policy, education officials said.
Many teachers feel the state is delaying the process because of its lack of education infrastructure. “Once the no-detention policy is implemented, the demand for junior high schools (Classes V to VIII) will considerably increase. The policy will not work if the state government does not set up enough such schools,” a primary school teacher said.
There are about 12,000 junior high and secondary schools in Bengal but that may not be enough to accommodate the possible increase in the number of students if the no-detention policy is implemented.
Annual exams are not held in Bengal’s 59,000-odd state-aided primary schools (till Class IV). But many students drop out after failing to clear their Class V annual exams.
What the teacher meant was that if these students didn’t drop out, the state would find it difficult to give them room to sit. 
Maoist killed, family sighs in disbelief Sentry duty for bosses fatal
Naresh Jana, TT, Ghritakham, June 28: Kamal Mahato was a village defence squad member asked to guard his Maoist bosses while they camped on the edge of a forest near Jhargram, police said today.
He was the lone rebel killed in the encounter with the security forces outside Ghritakham village early yesterday.
His widow Jayanti sat stone-faced in their small mud house this morning, watching her two sons play in the courtyard with other children.
Jayanti, 28, said she could not shed a tear because of her sons — Susanta, 7, and Basanta, 4. They didn’t know yet that their father was dead.
“See how my children are playing. See how happy they are. How can I rob them of that by crying? I will have to live the rest of my life with them,” Jayanti said, almost choking but in control.
Kamal had left home after dinner on Saturday evening, like he had been doing the past few days. “I knew my husband was acquainted with some of the Maoists. But I didn’t know the extent of his association. He had been leaving home after dinner and returning in the morning. I had no idea what he was doing,” Jayanti said.
Her heart skipped a beat when she heard gunfire outside the village yesterday. “I knew a battle had started between the police and the Maobadi but I did not know my husband was there. We woke up to the thud of police boots in the village. I became scared as the day wore on because my husband did not return,” she said.
Kamal’s elder brother Babulal, 36, a former CPM gram panchayat member, enquired at every possible place about his sibling but no one seemed to know where he was. “Even when we heard about the death of a Maoist, it did not strike us that he could be my husband,” said Jayanti.
Then some TV channels showed the body and the word spread. Babulal went to Jhargram today and identified it.
Kamal’s mother Durga, 65, finds it difficult to believe that her younger son worked for the guerrillas. “He used to till our two bigha plot,” she said.
Babulal earns Rs 4,000 a month working under the Sarva Siksha Abhijan project. His job is to monitor the midday meal scheme in schools and dropout rates.
Other villagers said the Maoists had been staying in a field 500 metres from Ghritakham since Tuesday. “They used to make us march with them and shout slogans demanding the withdrawal of the forces and the release of Chhatradhar Mahato. They had threatened to kill us if we failed to join them,” a man said.
Jhargram superintendent of police Praveen Tripathi said: “Kamal had five more village youths with him last night.” Their job was to look out for approaching police teams.
Kamal, Tripathi added, had earlier helped the Maoists abduct and kill three villagers who had been branded police informers.
Susanta realised his father was no more when he saw the body being brought down from a Matador van tonight. He ran towards it, took a hard look and broke down. Jayanti’s dam burst.
Many of the young villagers who had fled fearing police harassment yesterday returned today. But they looked at outsiders with suspicion.
Posters put up by the Maoist-trained village defence squad demanding the withdrawal of the joint forces from Jungle Mahal and urging villagers not to give their land to the Jindals for their factory were wiped clean off the walls today. “The police had entered only those houses that had the writings on them,” said a villager.
The Jindals are planning a steel plant in Salboni, 70km away. They have got the land they want.
Murder: Suspected Maoists last night shot dead a former CPM worker in Bankura’s Sarenga. Kiriti Duley, 42, was cycling home after selling sal leaves when he was attacked.