Python in Kalimpong, .. Extra force plea for GNLF comeback

KalimNews: A 12 ft long Python was found in Tari Gaon of   Lower Bom Busty. It was found near a road under construction by the local people in the morning time. Later the python was taken out from the small stream and handed over to the Forest officials for safe custody.I t is assumed that the python weighs about 20kg. 

When the python was spotted by some villagers there was a commotion in the village as they had never seen such a huge python.
KalimNews: Police failed to identify the body of one dead in the NH31A vehicle accident near 27 mile. The person assumed to be from Nepal is yet to be claimed by his family members. The ill fated vehicle was traveling from Singtam to Siliguri on wednesday. The other dead was identified as Santu Poddar of Siliguri and the injured Ganesh Sharma and Mina Sharma  are recovering.
Extra force plea for GNLF comeback 

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, Oct. 28: Nearly 25 GNLF leaders have decided to return to the hills en masse, prompting the Darjeeling police chief to ask the state government for more forces to ensure their security.

The announcement comes even as the GNLF steps up its offensive before the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha signs an agreement on the interim set-up for the hills. The Subash Ghisingh-led party had already started forming village committees and yesterday announced the formation of a unit in Darjeeling subdivision, almost three years after nearly 40 leaders were hounded out of the hills. It is not yet clear if Ghisingh will be part of the group that is planning the comeback after Diwali.

Darjeeling superintendent of police D.P. Singh said: “We have received letters from 25 GNLF leaders expressing desire to return home. I have written to the state government seeking additional forces to ensure their safety and security.” Singh said no intimation had come from Ghisingh, who had been forced to leave the hills in June 2008.

However, sources in the police said “before Dashain (Durga Puja) they had received information that Ghisingh, too, was planning a return”.

The GNLF, as part of the rival camp, is trying to take advantage of the fluid hill politics before the pact on the interim set-up is sealed with the Morcha. The ABGL, another Morcha rival, had yesterday said the hills would go up in flames if the deal was sealed as people wanted Gorkhaland and not any interim arrangement. In a tactical move, the ABGL while naming its former president Madan Tamang had also mentioned the names of Morcha supporters Pramila Sharma and Akbar Lama — all three were killed — as those who had sacrificed their lives for Gorkhaland and not for any interim set-up.

Ghisingh along with around 40 prominent party leaders were forced to leave the hills after a bullet fired from the house of a GNLF leader killed Morcha supporter Pramila in June 2008. Houses of many of the leaders were torched and vandalised allegedly by Morcha supporters who claimed that the general public had chased the GNLF leaders away.

The only GNLF leader who managed to enter the hills early this year is Dawa Pakhrin. He, however, came back only after resigning as the president of the GNLF’s Kalimpong branch committee. Even Shanta Chhetri, the GNLF MLA from Kurseong, has not been able to visit her constituency since 2008.

On March 4 this year, a National Human Rights Commission directive asked the state chief secretary and the director general of police to provide security to GNLF leaders wanting to return.

Observers believe that the GNLF leaders are confident that they can return home not because of the NHRC’s directive but also because of the “fluid political situation in the hills”.

“The GNLF and the ABGL have been able to make some inroads largely because of the fallout of the murder of ABGL leader Madan Tamang. The GNLF leaders perhaps believe that this is the right time to return home,” said an observer. 

Smut clip spurs girl suicide- boyfriend accused of circulating MMS

Demonstrations by members of the DYFI and the Chhatra Parsihad outside ASP’s office in Siliguri on Thursday. Pictures by Kundan Yolmo

TT, Siliguri, Oct. 28: A student of a polytechnic college here has committed suicide, almost a month after she filed a police complaint accusing her boyfriend of circulating an MMS on the physical intimacy between them that he had clicked with his cellphone.

The girl, a second-year civil engineering student of Siliguri Polytechnic Institute, hanged herself at her residence at Pati Colony here yesterday evening. Anindya Garai, a third-year architecture student of the same institution, had allegedly released the MMS on the campus last month. He had also uploaded it on the Internet.

“The two were having an affair. Anindya, who used to stay in a private boarding at Santinagar in Dabgram near the college, had taken the girl there. While the duo were in an objectionable position, he recorded the video and is suspected to have circulated it later,” said Gaurav Sharma, the additional superintendent of police of Siliguri.

“We have also come to know that the clip has been uploaded on certain websites. We are trying to remove it in consultation with the appropriate authorities.” A cellphone storeowner in the Junction area was detained for interrogation in the evening.

The FIR filed by the girl (a copy of which is with The Telegraph) said she had an affair with Anindya who took the opportunity and recorded a video of the physical intimacy between them.

“When I wanted to end our relationship, he threatened that he would release the MMS. Within the next few days, I found that it had been circulated among students in my college. I find it tough to live now and if no steps are taken against him and he is not punished, I would have no other option but to commit suicide,” reads the FIR filed by the girl.

She had also mentioned in the FIR that Anindya was a resident of Balarampally in Sonamukhi, Bankura.

The girl’s father Nilratan Saha is a grocer. The Sahas have refused to speak even as the neighbours and representatives of students’ organisations accused the police of a lackadaisical attitude.

“It is absolutely the irresponsible attitude of the police, who failed to arrest Anindya in the past one month, that prompted her to take the drastic step,” said Sheikh Mukhtar Ahmed, a secretary of the Chhatra Parishad, the student wing of the Congress.

The Chhatra Parishad and the SFI and DYFI — student and youth wings of the CPM — submitted separate memorandums to the ASP, demanding stringent action against Anindya.

The principal of the polytechnic college Subrata Sarkar said he was shocked when he heard about the incident. He denied that he had known about the September 18 FIR or that Anindya had been missing since, despite the fact that the student had not attended classes for nearly a month. “I came to know about all these from the media. The college is now shut.”

Accusing the police of being irresponsible, Jaya Prasad, a neighbour of the Sahas, said: “How can the police sit idle and not take action against the youth who made her life hell? Much like that boy, the police are equally responsible for her death. If they had arrested him, she would have found some solace and refrained from committing suicide.”

Pranab Pal, another resident of Pati Colony, said they were shocked when they heard about the suicide. “We want the youth to be behind bars. He should be severely punished,” he said.

The police said a hunt was on for Anindya. “The youth, who is a resident of Sonamukhi in Bankura district, escaped after the first FIR. We have deputed an officer and are searching for him,” ASP Sharma said. “After yesterday’s incident, the girl’s mother has filed another FIR, levelling the same allegations against him.” (KalimNews: A man is detained and found connected in uploading the video to internet or making CDs.)

KalimNews: A mms clip with some intimate scenes is being circulated among school students of Kalimpong. A clip that includes a photo of a school girl in school uniform  with  hazy pornographic scenes is attached in which the identity of the girl is not clear. The name of the girl is also indicated in the clip and it is quite clear that  the clip is made to defame the girl and the school. Both the girl and the school is aware of the clip but no case registered in the police station.

Apollo heart unit

TT, Siliguri, Oct. 28: The Apollo Group of Hospitals will set up a heart institute at five places across the state, including one in Siliguri.

One such institute already started functioning in Calcutta last month.

“Apart from Calcutta, we have chosen Siliguri, Asansol, Midnapore, Sreerampur and Howrah to set up Apollo Gleneagles Heart Institutes. The aim is to provide best cardiac care expertise to people in distant places so that they do not have to travel to the metros for treatment,” Rupali Basu, the chief executive officer of Apollo Gleneagles Hospital in Calcutta, said here today.

“Siliguri will be one of our major centres that will cater for not only the six districts in the region but also patients from neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal,” she said.

According to Debashish Ghosh, a senior cardiologist at the Calcutta institute, the Siliguri unit will initially have a 50-bed coronary care unit (CCU) for those who have suffered heart attacks and diagnostic facility for other heart diseases.

“The first four hours after a heart attack are crucial and best treatment should be provided during that period. Initially, we plan to establish CCUs with best facilities and experts to give them such care,” he said.

The facility in Calcutta has arrhythmia clinic for treatment of patients with abnormal heart rates, heart failure unit for post cardiac surgery and angioplasty, pacemaker wing for management and maintenance of patients with pacemakers and clinics for expecting mothers with hypertension and cardiac conditions.

“These clinics will be set up in all the five institutes but surgeries and angioplasties will be done only in Calcutta,” said Basu. “Once we find a site in Siliguri, we will probably establish the heart institute in the next six months.”

Aussies eye peak after charity

(From left) Barap Namygal Bhutia, Michael Bishop, Dana Najedly and Robert Fletcher in Gangtok on Thursday. Picture by Prabin Khaling

TT, Gangtok, Oct. 28: Three Australians today set off on an expedition to scale Mt Joponu in West Sikkim after weeklong community services in Siliguri.

Michael Bishop, 50, Dana Najedly, 60, and her husband Robert Fletcher, 63, left Gangtok for Yuksom, 140km from here, today, along with state government-appointed liaison officer, Bhaichung Yonzon.

While Bishop and Najedly are doctors, Fletcher is a civil engineer. Their target is 5,930-metre high Mt Joponu, a favourite peak for foreign climbers visiting Sikkim.

The expedition to Joponu is a short break for the Australian trio from their community work in the slums of Siliguri.

“We had been organising free medical camps in Siliguri for the past one week. We are also working towards upgrading facilities at a sports club at Bidya Chakro colony there. In between, we decided to come to Sikkim to do some trekking and climbing and explore the beautiful wilderness and mountains of this state,” said Bishop.

“After the trip, we will return to Siliguri on November 11 and continue the work for one more week,” he said.

According to the itinerary prepared by Sikkim Holidays, which is organising the expedition, the Australian team would be reaching the base camp at Thangshing at 3,960 metre after five days of trek from Yuksom.

“The team is expected to summit Joponu on November 4. But we have kept one day extra in case there is bad weather,” said Barap Namygal Bhutia, the managing director of Sikkim Holidays.

The most experienced climber in the team is Bishop who scaled Goechala in West Sikkim in November 2009 and in April 2010. The peak is over 10,000 feet high.

‘The route (to Goechala) was beautiful with lots of wildlife, spectacular scenery and friendly people and I decided that I would go climbing there again,” he said.

Bishop said he had scaled peaks in New Zealand and Australia. “The peaks in New Zealand are of lesser height, around 3,000 metre. Here we want to climb a peak which is double the height of those in New Zealand and it will be more difficult,” he said.

But for Najedly and Fletcher, the expedition to Joponu will be their first experience of mountaineering. But the couple said they had undergone physical training in Australia for the trek.

Bishop said they would return home in April and planned to come back with more people.

“We want to bring doctors and professionals from Australia to Sikkim for trekking and climbing and at the same time, engage in community services. We will return to Australia in April and hope to come back with a bigger team for expeditions and community work in Sikkim and probably in Kalimpong,” he said.

Asked whether such idea would be appealing to other Australians, Bishop said: “Australians like to do charity and help the poor and at the same time, visit beautiful places and do some adventure sports.” 

Pity The nation

By Arundhati Roy, 27 October, 2010:

I write this from Srinagar, Kashmir. This morning’s papers say that I may be arrested on charges of sedition for what I have said at recent public meetings on Kashmir. I said what millions of people here say every day. I said what I, as well as other commentators have written and said for years. Anybody who cares to read the transcripts of my speeches will see that they were fundamentally a call for justice. I spoke about justice for the people of Kashmir who live under one of the most brutal military occupations in the world; for Kashmiri Pandits who live out the tragedy of having been driven out of their homeland; for Dalit soldiers killed in Kashmir whose graves I visited on garbage heaps in their villages in Cuddalore; for the Indian poor who pay the price of this occupation in material ways and who are now learning to live in the terror of what is becoming a police state.

Yesterday I traveled to Shopian, the apple-town in South Kashmir which had remained closed for 47 days last year in protest against the brutal rape and murder of Asiya and Nilofer, the young women whose bodies were found in a shallow stream near their homes and whose murderers have still not been brought to justice. I met Shakeel, who is Nilofer’s husband and Asiya’s brother. We sat in a circle of people crazed with grief and anger who had lost hope that they would ever get ‘insaf’—justice—from India, and now believed that Azadi—freedom— was their only hope. I met young stone pelters who had been shot through their eyes. I traveled with a young man who told me how three of his friends, teenagers in Anantnag district, had been taken into custody and had their finger-nails pulled out as punishment for throwing stones.

In the papers some have accused me of giving ‘hate-speeches’, of wanting India to break up. On the contrary, what I say comes from love and pride. It comes from not wanting people to be killed, raped, imprisoned or have their finger-nails pulled out in order to force them to say they are Indians. It comes from wanting to live in a society that is striving to be a just one. Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds. Pity the nation that needs to jail those who ask for justice, while communal killers, mass murderers, corporate scamsters, looters, rapists, and those who prey on the poorest of the poor, roam free. (Source: Countercurrents.org)

Arundhati Roy
October 26 2010