पानी प्रतियोगीहरू पुरस्कृत... Darjeeling discovers Lloyd after 146 yrs- Individuals for the first time pay homage to the man who ‘found’ the hill town ... Talks ‘test’ for CM: Morcha- Calcutta meeting to focus on six subjects .... Tech student dies in hostel- Police suspect drug overdose... Journalist becomes Mamata's CA

पानी प्रतियोगीहरू पुरस्कृत
मनोज बोगटी, कालिमन्युज, कालेबुङ, 6 जून। कालेबुङ कृषक कल्याण सङ्गठनले जिल्लामा बढिरहेको पिउने पानीको समस्यालाई समाधान गर्न जिल्लास्तरीय पिउने पानीको मुहान संरक्षणको निम्ति एक प्रतियोगितात्मक जनपहल गतवर्ष नै शुरू गरेको थियो। प्रतियोगिता अनुसार गाउँ वस्ती जहॉं पनि पानीको मुहान रहेको छ, त्यसको संरक्षण गर्नको निम्ति गर्नुपर्ने सबैप्रकारका कार्यपदक्षेप गरिइनुपर्ने रहेको थियो। जसले राम्रो काम गर्छ उसलाई पुरस्कार दिने सङ्गठनले घोषणा गरेको थियो।  

तीन वर्षसम्म प्रतियोेगितामा अंशग्रहणकारीहरूको कार्यप्रदर्शनलाई हेर्ने अनि जसको राम्रो प्रदर्शन हुन्छ उसलाई क्रमैले पहिले पुरस्कारकोरूपमा 1 लाख, दोस्रो पुरस्कारकोरूपमा 50 हजार अनि तेस्रो पुरस्कारकोरूपमा 25 हजार नगद दिने पनि घोषणा गरिएको थियो। यसप्रतियोगिताको पहिलोवर्षमा धेरैले अंशग्रहण गरेको थियो भने उनीहरूको कार्यप्रदर्शनलाई हेरेर सङ्गठनले विश्वपर्यावरण दिवसको अवसरमा आज उत्तम कार्य गर्ने प्रतियोगी सङ्गठनलाई पुरस्कृत गरेको छ। पहिलो पुरस्कार सिङ्गबुली त्रिसुली सङ्घ, दोस्रो पुरस्कार समथार कृषक सङ्घ अनि तेस्रो पुरस्कार रोङ्गो कृषक सङ्घलाई प्रदान गरियो। कार्यक्रमका मुख्य अतिथि महकुमा अधिकारी एलएन शेर्पाको बाहुलीबाट विजेता प्रतियोगीहरूलाई ट्रफी प्रदान गरियो भने गीतकोलबोङ, बोङ सालिम्बोङ, मन्सोङ, लिजाहिल अनि अप्पर चुङथुङ कृषक सङ्घलाई शान्तवना पुरस्कार दिइयो। उनीहरूलाई पुरस्कार प्रदान गरिए पनि जसले अन्तिम वर्षसम्म उत्तम कार्यलाई जारी राख्छ उसलाई नै नगद राशि प्रदान गरिने पनि सङ्गठनका मूल सचिव विष्णु छेत्रीले जनाएका छन्‌।  

यसै अवसरमा नेउरा फरेष्टबाट सड़क खोल्ने कुरालाई अवमान्य गर्दै सड़कको विकल्प अरू नै हुनुपर्ने मागमा सङ्गठनले आज हस्ताक्षर संग्रह पनि गरेको थियो।

Headline News

KalimNews; 
Todays meeting between GJM and WB Govt may focus on sectorial tribal status to hill people, territorial jurisdiction, legislative powers of the new administrative arrangement and transfer of the tauzi department, regularisation of DGHC causal workers and management of forests. 
Dead body of Bijay Chhetri was found in a stream of Kiran Chandra TE near Naxalbari. Chhetri was a resident of Atal TE. 
During a vehicle accident in Mirik 8 injured. 

Darjeeling discovers Lloyd after 146 yrs- Individuals for the first time pay homage to the man who ‘found’ the hill town 

The memorial to Lloyd in Darjeeling. Picture by Suman Tamang

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, Darjeeling, June 5: Darjeeling yesterday paid homage to its discoverer Lt. Gen. George W. Aylmer Lloyd for the first time ever.

None in Darjeeling remembers any organisation or an individual ever paying homage to Lloyd till date. Yesterday, a group of school students and members of the civil society paid homage to Lloyd on his 146th death anniversary.

Ajay Tamang, one of the organisers of the event, said: “We had forgotten the person who discovered the place. Despite Lloyd being buried in Darjeeling, few here have cared about this gentleman. This is an effort to safeguard our history.”

Historically, Darjeeling had belonged to the Sikkim king, whose area had extended till eastern Nepal. However, in the 1700s, Nepal continuously attacked Darjeeling and conquered the area till the Teesta river.

The Archaeological Survey of India says this changed when the East India Company declared war with Nepal and the victorious British forced Nepal to cede 4,000 square miles (10,000 sqkm) of territory through a treaty signed at Sigauli in 1816.

The British gave back Darjeeling to the Sikkim monarchy but a decade later, a dispute cropped up between Nepal and Sikkim once again. It was then that the British sent two officers, Captain Lloyd and J.W. Grant, commercial resident of Malda, to broker peace between Nepal and Sikkim in 1828.

Captain Lloyd arrived near Ghoom, also known as the Old Gurkha Station, and immensely liked Darjeeling. The British East India Company gave him the responsibility to negotiate a lease of the area with the Chogyal of Sikkim. The deed of grant giving possession of the hills of Darjeeling to the East India Company was signed on February 1, 1835.

In 1841, the East India Company granted the Sikkim monarchy an allowance of Rs 3,000 as compensation and raised the amount to Rs 6,000 in 1846. While Lloyd continued to stay in Darjeeling, Arthur Campbell was given charge to establish a sanatorium and develop the area. Campbell, the first administrator of Darjeeling under British rule, also introduced tea to the hills.

Lloyd died here at the age of 76 in 1865 and his body was laid to rest near the old cemetery along 18, Lebong Cart Road. Although the site was declared “to be of national importance” by the ASI (Calcutta circle) under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Acts, 1958, due attention has never been given to the place.

“We would want Lloyd’s burial site to be converted into a tourist spot and more attention should be paid to make it attractive. The entire cemetery should be well persevered,” said Udayan Rai, another person who came to pay homage to Lloyd.

The neglect of Darjeeling’s discoverer is palpable as a few metres away, the well-preserved tomb of Alexander Csoma De Koros is situated. The Hungarian, considered a renowned Tibetologist, had served the Asiatic Society in Calcutta. The tomb of Koros has also been declared a site of national importance. Local people say there has been a consistent attempt by the Hungarian government to look after the tomb. “Every year people from the Hungarian embassy visit the place to ensure that it is preserved well. For ages, we haven’t seen any Indian official visiting the tomb of Lloyd,” said a resident who stays nearby.

Talks ‘test’ for CM: Morcha- Calcutta meeting to focus on six subjects 

Mamata, Gurung

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, Darjeeling, June 5: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has said the party’s first formal meeting with the state government in Calcutta tomorrow will be “a test” of Mamata Banerjee’s sincerity to solve the hill imbroglio.
“Till date, the new chief minister has managed to create an image among her electorate that she is very humane and stands for the oppressed people. We have had a very healthy and positive discussion with her but this is the first time we are getting involved in a thorough discussion and it will definitely be a test of her government’s intention,” Morcha spokesperson Harka Bahadur Chhetri said today.
Morcha leaders have met Mamata twice after she assumed office on May 20. One of the meetings involved the participation of Bimal Gurung, the president of the Morcha. Following the talks, Gurung had said he was “very happy” with Mamata’s plan for the Darjeeling hills.
Neither Gurung nor Mamata will, however, be attending the talks tomorrow. The meeting will be held between government officials and the Morcha leaders. Roshan Giri, Harka Bahadur Chhetri, L.B. Pariyar, Smardeep Blone, Wilson Chompromary, Kamal Pakhrin and Shankar Adhikhary will represent the Morcha.
Sources in the Morcha said six specific subjects were likely to be discussed in tomorrow’s meeting. Territorial jurisdiction and legislative powers of the new administrative arrangement and transfer of the tauzi department, which keeps land records, to the body are among the subjects.
Regularisation of more than 6,000 causal workers of the DGHC and management of forests, including reserve forests, are the other subjects that will figure in the talks. The meeting will also discuss the granting of “sectoral” tribal status to an agreed area.
The sources said “sectoral” tribal status was an arrangement under which the tribal status would be given to.
“There are four to five places in India where such a status has been given. The entire population of such areas are classified as tribes,” said a source. “Territory is the most important issue as we first need to know our area of jurisdiction,” said the source.
Government sources have confirmed to The Telegraph that the Darjeeling district administration had already collected data on the Nepali-dominated areas in the Siliguri subdivision and had submitted a report to the government a couple of days back. Another source confirmed that DGHC officials had been called to Calcutta soon after Mamata had met Gurung on May 30.
The Morcha hoped most of the issues should be amicably solved. “During the last meeting, the chief minister had said since she would bestow so much of power on the hill authority, solving issues like regularisation of DGHC workers would not be a problem. Let us see whether her promise to solve the Darjeeling issue politically was merely an electoral stunt or a sincere effort,” said a Morcha leader.

Tech student dies in hostel- Police suspect drug overdose

Monojit Roy and the hostel room where he was found “unconscious”. (Biplab Basak)

TT, Jalpaiguri, June 5: A final year civil engineering student of Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College was declared brought dead in hospital last night, half an hour after he was found “unconscious” in his hostel room strewn with liquor bottles and apparatus to smoke marijuana.

Police said Monojit Roy was found in an “unconscious” state in Room 125 of the boys’ hostel around 11pm. They suspect that Monojit took drugs along with marijuana and alcohol and had died probably of an overdose.

The principal of the college, Jyotirmoy Jhampati, said the 22-year-old had sat for the last examination for the final year of the four-year BTech course on May 25 and had even been placed with a private firm in Hyderabad.

“The college had given over for the summer break but Monojit and about four to five students had stayed back in the hostel to finish pending projects. He was supposed to return to his home in Srinagar village in Basirhat today. This incident is serious,” Jhampati said.

Dr Dibyendu Das, who was on emergency duty at the Jalpaiguri district hospital last night, said a few boys had brought Monojit to the emergency after 11pm. “The boy was already dead. It seemed that he was in deep sleep, there were no marks or injuries on the body. He had died a few hours before being brought to the hospital, but the cause of death will be clear after the post-mortem,” the doctor said.

The police said it was apparent that the youth took taking alcohol and drugs as the verandah adjacent to the room he stayed in had bottles of liquor and a chillum used to smoke ganja. On the door of the room, Manojit had scrawled in Bengali: “Aaj noy, kaal theke porashuna korte hobe. Kaal theke ganja, mod, charas, brown sugar shob bondho. Munna (Not today, I will start studying from tomorrow. From tomorrow ganja, liquor, charas, brown sugar, everything will stop. Munna).” Monojit went by the nickname of Munna.

Madhusudan Roy said his son Monojit had called him up yesterday to say he would start for home today.

“We had no idea that he was into drugs and alcohol. No one from the college had also informed us about his habits. He was a good student and I blame the college authorities for not being vigilant enough to stop students from harming themselves,” he said. He said that Monojit was the elder of his two children, the other being a 15-year-old girl.

Roy, who is a truck driver, said his son had secured 647 marks in the higher secondary examinations in 2006.

The additional superintendent of police of Jalpaiguri, Santosh Pandey, said: “We have seized liquor bottles and other elements used to take intoxicating drugs from the room. I have spoken to the youth’s hostel friends and classmates.”

The officer said post-mortem would be conducted only after Monojit’s father arrived.

Journalist becomes Mamata's CA

TNN, Jun 5, 2011, KOLKATA: Journalist Debasis Bhattacharya has been appointed to the sensitive job of confidential assistant to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. His appointment was confirmed by a source in the chief minister's secretariat on Saturday evening.

Bhattacharya is known for his Left-wing leanings. He has been active in the area of civil liberties and had been associated with the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights. He has also worked in the print and the electronic media for many years. He is also known for his amiable personality.

While the appointment of a Left-wing activist as Mamata's C.A. has created a flutter in political circles, observers pointed out that there was nothing surprising about it as in the course of her movements in Singur and Nandigram Mamata had come close to many Leftwing intellectuals and activists, among them former CPM leaders also. Some of them had even been a part of Mamata's thinktank. In fact, the whole course of Mamata's struggle against forcible land acquisition for private industrialists had been influenced by Left ideals, it was pointed out. Naxalite leader Purnendu Bose is now the labour minister in Mamata's cabinet.

New colour scheme for Writers'?

Close inspection reveals that the exterior walls of Writers' Building certainly deserve a fresh coat of paint, but will this relic of the Raj lose its red hue during the Mamata regime? At least, some other buildings in the city like Nandan will get a new colour scheme, painter Shuvaprasanna indicated after his meeting with chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday.

"We discussed several issues on the beautification of the city. The colour patterns of buildings like Nandan certainly have to be in keeping with their utility. We discussed the colour schemes of several buildings in Kolkata," Shuvaprasanna said.

According to him, things have started moving at a fast pace ever since Mamata took over as chief minister. Pointing to a photograph of Rabindranath Tagore on the wall of the chief minister's secretariat, he claimed that it took the former government a long time to replace an earlier portrait of the bard with this one.
Ramdev melts in crowd, sports woman's dress to hoodwink police

Baba Ramdev tears up 

PTI, June 5, 2011 , New Delhi:Maverick he is and Baba Ramdev proved it once again early this morning at Ramlila Maidan as he jumped from the dais and melted into the crowd, after which it took almost an hour for the police to locate the yoga guru who was clad in a woman's attire.
Locating the 46-year-old yoga guru in the crowd as well as sending him out of Delhi was marked by high drama, keeping the security establishment on their toes as they wanted to ensure law and order in the city.
As the men in khaki in large numbers marched in at the Ramlila Ground at around one am, the saffron-robed yoga guru rushed to the microphone and shouted 'Vande Mataram' to wake up most of his followers who had by then fallen asleep.
A large number of lathi and gun-toting policemen tried to climb the dais, following which, 46-year-old Ramdev sought five minutes from them to gather his articles but he took them by surprise as he leaped from the three-metre high podium and ran towards the enclosure where women were seated.
Policemen were at sea as they could not locate Ramdev amidst a big gathering of women and in order to dupe them, he was clad in a woman's attire and to cover his beard, he used the 'dupatta' of a follower.
Limping lady in salwar turns into running yogi
Imran Ahmed Siddiqui, TT, New Delhi, June 5: The yogis of legend might have vanished into thin air. But Baba Ramdev decided to do a Bonnie Prince Charlie, who fled a battle zone in a woman’s disguise two-and-a-half centuries ago
Wearing a white salwar and kameez, his face covered with a white dupatta, Ramdev tried to dodge past police around 4.15am today, after hiding among women supporters at the Ramlila grounds during the three-hour, late-night crackdown.
But the bearded Ramdev was less successful than the baby-faced Stuart prince: the yoga practitioner panicked and gave himself away by trying to flee when a group of unsuspecting cops approached him.
By then, the police had evicted most of the crowd from the protest venue and was trying to help those injured in the stampede following a stone-versus-tear gas battle. Three policemen saw the disguised Ramdev “limping” along the road outside the grounds, his arms around two women supporters, a senior officer said.
Thinking “the lady” had suffered a leg injury, the policemen asked the trio to get into an ambulance parked nearby. But instead of replying, the Baba began walking faster and, when the cops persisted with their request, broke into a run.
Within seconds, the now-suspicious cops had chased him down. When they pulled the dupatta off, they didn’t know whether to be shocked or amused.
“We couldn’t believe it at first. It was Ramdev in salwar kameez!” special commissioner Dharmendra Kumar told The Telegraph.The Baba was taken to the airport in a car and flown to Dehra Dun, from where he was driven to his ashram in Haridwar. He will not be allowed into the capital till the situation turns “conducive”, Kumar said.
The special commissioner claimed that had Ramdev cooperated “gracefully” and allowed himself to be led out of the protest zone, it would have averted the stampede that left 39 protesters and 29 policemen injured.
Police sources said the operation was planned meticulously and carried out by over 5,000 personnel led by Delhi police chief B.K. Gupta. “The home ministry had asked us in the evening to go ahead and evict Ramdev and his supporters,” an officer said.
The most crucial point was choosing the right time. There were between 30,000 and 50,000 people at the venue, and any misstep could have snowballed into a law-and-order crisis.
“So, at a high-level meeting, senior officers decided to start the operation after midnight since many among the crowd would be asleep by then,” the source said.
Gupta led the first team of officers to the ground around 11.50pm and, after inspecting the exit and entry gates, green-lighted the swoop. A police contingent, already on alert, arrived and surrounded the ground by 12.50am.
Some of the officers climbed on the dais where Ramdev was sleeping. His supporters were asleep on the ground.
“We woke him and told him there was an intelligence report about a threat to his life. We asked him to leave with his supporters but he wouldn’t budge,” an officer said.
Ramdev was told the police had withdrawn permission for his yoga programme and he must wind up his show, but he grabbed the microphone and began yelling to the crowd.
“When we caught him by the wrists, he asked some of his supporters standing near the dais to form a ring. He then jumped off the stage, his supporters cushioning the fall,” the officer said.
The crowd formed a three-tier ring, with women on the outer two tiers, to hold the police off. An hour’s battle began, with many of the protesters hurling stones and bricks at the force, which replied with tear gas. A minor stampede set in.
By this time, Ramdev and some women supporters had hid behind the small, makeshift enclosure at the back of the dais from where the Baba used to talk to the government negotiators over the phone.
He stayed there for about two hours before slipping out in disguise after most of the protesters had been evicted, some loaded into buses and dropped off at various locations outside Delhi.
The police today clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 in central Delhi, anticipating protests by Ramdev’s supporters. A case has been registered against unknown persons for rioting, preventing public servants from discharging their duties, and damaging public property.
Special commissioner Kumar denied that the police had used batons on the protesters.
“We only fired tear gas shells after the crowd began throwing stones. They had brought the bricks and the stones along with them and had stacked them beside the shamiana. They also attacked the policemen with flowerpots,” he said.
World Environment Day 2011
World Environment Day was first celebrated on 5th June in 1972, and has since become an important vehicle through which the UN stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and encourages political attention and action. In the face of continuing deforestation (currently estimated at 5.2 million hectares worldwide per year) nothing could have been more pertinent than this year's theme of 'Forests: Nature at Your Service' which underscores the intrinsic link between quality of life and the health of forests. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has named India, for the first time, as the global host of World Environment Day 2011 on June 5, for "embracing the process of a transition to a Green Economy.
Environment is what we live in and breathe in. It is as much of our own creation as it is of nature.
The five sacred elements which make the environment live-able are water, air, fire, earth, and our spirit or senses. Our relationship with them helps us to live in harmony with nature and in peace with ourselves. Air, which is so essential to survive, represents our mind and knowledge. Fire symbolizes energy of the sun as well as of our bodies, which should be used for healing and protection and not for destruction.  Clean and pure water is sacred to life and is like our emotions which can cleanse with love or devastate with rage. Earth nourishes life and stands for our bodies and we must take care of mother earth as we take care of our bodies.
Our senses or spirit represent our core values of ethics and responsibility as protectors of the earth and her people. This circle of the elements of life helps us to remember to consider the whole, and not merely, a part of a problem or solution.
Alas! We seem to have lost our minds, dissipated our energies, ruined our emotions, ravaged our bodies and torn our moral fibre beyond repair. Why else (in our insatiable greed) would we turn the free bounties of nature into sale-able commodities, and ravage its treasures like marauders?
Life became possible on earth because it had an atmosphere conducive to sustain living beings. But for us it became the proverbial goose which laid just one golden egg each day, enough for its owners to live comfortably. Greed overpowered common sense and we killed the goose to get all the gold at one go. This has left us gasping for fresh clean air and panting for clear drinking water, let alone other basic necessities of life.
Of course, we love to talk of global warming, climate change, carbon foot prints and bio diversity, but care two hoots about protecting our forest and now, even, agricultural lands. We love to construct special economic zones over fertile land. Industry wants to prosper on empty stomachs. As for our green cover, we do not mind recklessly pulling down trees to make way for broader roads, and bigger residential/commercial establishments. How does it matter to us if our summers are becoming hotter and winters cooler? We have our cooling and heating gadgets in place and to hell with the majority of those who cannot afford them. We systematically pollute and deplete our natural water resources, and then cling proudly to our bottled mineral water. We have also created exclusive oxygen parlours where one can breathe fresh air for a price. So, as traders we are par excellence, and having corporatized the free gifts of nature, we are bleeding her to death.
A love for our environment cannot be created merely by introducing Environmental Education as a compulsory subject in schools. It has to become a way of life to be inculcated from infancy through the influence of family and society. Only if we could encourage our children to love and appreciate nature as much as the laptop and iPod; help them to realize the importance of trees by making them plant and nurture at least one; teach them to conserve resources by simply turning off the fan, light, tap when not in use; instill in them the dignity of labour by making them do small household chores; develop their taste buds to savour delicious but healthy food; and teach them to be sensitive by loving, sharing, and caring for others!!
As far as the fifth element of senses is concerned, actions and not rhetoric are needed. Only if we can change (in letter and spirit) the ‘i’ in the word happiness to ‘y’, then You will gain precedence over I, your concern will be above mine, and all will become fine with the world.
On this World Environment Day let us do our bit to improve the surroundings in which we are living, by being a little more loving, a shade less angry, a bit more tolerant, and a pinch less arrogant in our actions and behaviour. Coupled with this, small individual actions like tree-planting drives, community clean-ups, car-free days, outdoor nature trips, saying no to tobacco and smoking, will go a long way in making our blue planet green.
Shobha Shukla - is the Editor of Citizen News Service (CNS). She is a J2J Fellow of National Press Foundation (NPF) USA. She is also the Director of CNS Gender Initiative and CNS Diabetes Media Initiative (CNS-DMI). She has worked earlier with State Planning Institute, UP. Email: shobha@citizen-news.org, website: http://www.citizen-news.org