12 जुलाईसम्ममा कालेबुङ आउनुपर्ने अल्बिन लामालाई दियो कमिटीले अल्टिमेटम
मनोज वोगटी, कालिमन्युज, कालेबुङ, 2 जुलाई। युनिपे टु यु अनि भिजारेभ नामक कम्पनीका कालेबुङका दम्पती एजेन्ट एल्विन लामा अनि अनुपमा लामा जो लगानी कर्ताहरूको पैसा फर्काउन नसकेर कालेबुङबाट भागेका थिए उनीहरूलाई आज लगानीकर्ताहरूले सिलगढ़ीमा बसेर बयानबाजी नगरेर कालेबुङ आउनुपर्ने बताएका छन्। सुनाखरी समाचारले चार कम्पनीका एजेन्टहरूले कालेबुङवासीबाट करोड़ौ लुटेर भागेको समाचार प्रकाशित गरेपछि चार मध्ये एक कम्पनी युनिपे अनि भिजारेभका एजेन्ट एल्विन लामाले सुनखरी कार्यालय पुगी स्पष्टीकरण दिएका थिए।
अहिलेसम्म एक दैनिक अनि एक लोकल च्यानलमा आफू मलेशियामा रहेको अनि लगानीकर्ताहरूको पैसा फिर्ता गराउन प्रयासरत् रहेको भन्दै जुलाई महिनासम्म पैसा फर्काउने बाचा गरेको भए पनि अहिलेसम्म कालेबुङका लगानीकर्ताहरूको अघि मुख नदेखाएका एल्विन लामाले अचानक सुनाखरीको कार्यालय पुगी वयानबाजी गरेपछि तिनी मलेशियामा नभएर सिलगढ़ीमा नै लुकेर बसेको पक्कापक्की भएपछि लगानीकर्ताहरूले एक प्रेस विज्ञप्ती जारी गर्दै तिनलाई कालेबुङ आउनु पर्ने बताएका छन्। एल्विन लामाले सुनाखरीमा कम्पनी डुवेको विवृति सिलगढीबाट नै दिएकोले लगानीकर्ताहरूले सिलगढ़ीमा बसेर वयानबाजी र स्पष्टिकरण नदिएर कालेबुङ आएर शीघ्र नै लगानीकर्ताहरूसित भेटेर कुराकानी गर्नुपर्ने जनाएका छन्। एल्विन लामाले सुनाखरी कार्यालय पुगी उनीहरूसम्बन्धमा छापिएको समाचारमा आपत्ती जनाएका थिए। सुनाखरीले युनिपे सम्बन्धमा समाचार प्रकाशित गरेपछि शुक्रबार डुबेको पैसा फिर्ता गराउन गठित कमिटीले लगानीकर्ताहरूलाई लिएर बैठक नै गरेको थियो। बैठकमा युनिपेका एजेन्टहरूसित भइरहेको सम्पर्कबारे लगानीकर्ताहरूलाई जनाइएको थियो। तर एल्विन लामाले सुनाखरी कार्यालय पुगी खबरको खण्डन गर्दै पत्रकारलाई नै दोष्याउने काम गरेका थिए। एल्विन लामाले खबरको खण्डन गर्दै कम्पनीबारे दिएको विवृतिबारे लगानीकर्ताहरूले असन्तोष प्रकट गरेका छन्। कमिटीले जारी गरेको विज्ञप्तीमा लेखिए अनुसार एल्विन लामाले कम्पनीबारे वयान दिएपछि कमिटीलाई लगानीकर्ताहरूले फोन गर्दै लामाको वयानमा कतिको सत्यता छ भन्ने कुरा सोधिरहेका छन्।
विज्ञप्तीमा लेखिएको छ, विगत 18 मई 20011 को दिन एक च्यानलमा अनि 20 मई 2011को दिन एक नेपाली दैनिक(सुनाखरी होइन)मा दिएको खबरको कुनै महत्व एल्विन लामाले राखेका छैनन्। तिनले त्यसबेला दिएका आश्वासनहरू सबै झुटो साबित भएका छन्। अब लगानीकर्ताहरूले समाचारपत्रमा एल्विन लामाले दिएको आश्वासन र स्पष्टिकरणमा विश्वास गर्ने छैनन्। यसकारण एल्विन लामा स्वंय कालेबुङ आएर मलेशियामा के भयो, अहिले कम्पनी कुन अवस्थामा छ, पैसा फर्किने सम्भावना कति छ सबै बताउनुपर्छ। सत्य कुरा भन्नु पर्छ। कालेबुङबाट बाहिर गएर, ठेगानासम्म नदिएर लगानीकर्ताहरूलाई झुक्काउने काम लामाले बन्द गरुन्।
विज्ञप्ती अनुसार पैसा फर्काउनको निम्ति एजेन्ट अनुपमा लामाले बताउने गरेको प्रकल्पलाई स्पष्ट पार्न कालेबुङ आउने कुरालाई पनि अनुपमा लामाले नै स्थगित गरेकोले लगानीकर्ताहरू अन्योलमा परेका छन्। कमिटीका पदाधिकारीहरूले अनुपमा लामालाई अल्टिमेटम दिँदै विज्ञप्तीमा भनिएको छ, 5 देखि 12 जुलाईसम्ममा अनुपमा लामाले कमिटीसित सभा गरेर कुरा स्पष्ट नगरे प्रकल्पको कुरा पनि झुटो मानिनेछ। अनुपमा लामाले 15 जुलाईसम्ममा पैसा फिर्ता दिने भनेर दिएको बचनबारे पनि लगानीकर्ताहरू जान्न इच्छुक रहेको विज्ञप्तीमा जनाइएको छ। एल्विन लामा अनि अनुपमा लामाले 12 जुलाईसम्म व्यक्तिगत रुपमा कालेबुङ आएर बैठक गर्नुपर्ने कमिटीका शान्ति शर्मा, महेश छेत्री, सुनिता राई अनि सञ्जय शर्माले हस्ताक्षर गरेको विज्ञप्तीमा जनाइएको छ।
Free ambulances for carrying pregnant women in Hills
SNS, DARJEELING, 1 JULY: To facilitate free transportation of pregnant women for delivery, 23 ambulances have been deployed in the Hills. The service has been started from today across the three sub-divisions of the Hills, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong.
The Red Cross Society, a non-governmental organisation of Darjeeling has been handed the task of district control unit (DCU). Members of the organisation have been assigned to take phone calls 24/7 from across the hills and cater to the need, accordingly.
The ambulances have been arranged under the Matri Yan scheme of the government. Seven more vehicles will be deployed in the days to come. “One ambulance has been allotted for the district hospitals in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong, eight ambulances for the primary health centres located across the eight blocks in the Hills and 18 ambulances for primary health centres located in the rural areas of the hills,” said Ms Priya Darshani Rai, programme co-coordinator, Sadar Hospital, Darjeeling.
However, today too many calls were not received, said one of the member's of the Red Cross Society. "The scheme guarantees free and assured transport from home and charges of any kind will not be levied on the pregnant women and sick new born baby up to 28 days of birth,” a hospital official said.
"Officials who are in charge of looking after the programme should ensure that it is carried out properly. Since drivers have to ferry pregnant women and new born babies from long distance area, the officials should ensure the safety of the patient, phone calls should also be received round the clock,” said a local, Mr Rajesh Rai, who was in Sadar Hospital today with her wife for her delivery. The toll free number, where one can call is 102.
KalimNews
Headlines: Democratic front will meet on 10th July for a united programme to oppose the interim setup.
Center gants more package to Darjeeling.
KP Gautam a veteran journalist and photojournalist Chinlop Fudong felicitated by Sahitya Utthan Samity of Kalimpong on the occasion of Rev Ganga Prasad Pradhan Jayanti.
Kalimpong Municipality shuts down illegal fish stalls.
Fruits coated with carbide and wax for artificial ripening were seized by Kalimpong municipality.
The bugging of pranab mukherjee’s office
The chewing gum war
M J Akbar: Collateral damage is surely the most unhappy consequence of this tragic business called war.
There you are, quietly preparing the day’s propaganda sheet in yet another existentialist confrontation between George Bush and Saddam Hussein, or Barack Obama and Mullah Omar, or Pranab Mukherjee and P Chidambaram, and wham! From out of the night-blue a drone demolishes your ego so completely that you cannot recognise your self-esteem from the debris of your self-respect.
Spare a thought, friends, for the Congress spokespersons who were ordered last week to keep quiet at the peak of the raging civil war between the home minister and finance minister of India. There is little more devastating to the pride of a spokesperson than being told not to speak, particularly when heavy artillery and napalm are cascading through the battlefields of media.
The serious historian will, doubtless, record the range of emotions and arguments that have coursed through the War of the Chewing Gum. This is perhaps not the most serious conflict of 2011, but it is pepping up to become its most hilarious. There is enough bathos to daunt the muse of that poet-prince of satire, Alexander Pope. But jollity should not blind us to the serious questions that must be answered in the cause of national security as well as prestige. What, for instance, is Pakistan’s preeminent security establishment, ISI, thinking of Indian capabilities now that they are sure that the mightiest of all surveillance battles is being fought through that most useless invention in the history of mankind, that device of teenage mastication, chewing gum?
We belong to an age in which superpowers can pick, with heavyweight computers, any conversation that travels through the world’s airwaves, and then transcribe and decode it before breakfast. Even at the low end of the market, a ruthlessly chivalrous spy like James Bond would not be caught, dead or alive, with either chewing, or its first cousin bubble gum. That sleuths working on behalf of the home minister of rising India used this supremely silly blob of virtual rubber as a principal weapon is worrying confirmation that where security is concerned India is merely a fourth rate power.
Experts, either shocked or gleeful, have flooded the internet with deep-background analysis. It seems that there are two kinds of bugs. Permanent ones need to be planted inside walls, but that can only be done while the building is being constructed. Since the walls of India’s finance ministry were built before Lord Irwin became viceroy in 1930, that was clearly not a feasible option. Temporary, or opportunist, bugs can be scattered into the enemy quarters through the help of a fifth columnist, who then removes them after the requirement is over. Some clever chap thought little blobs of something that “looked like chewing gum” would suffice to deceive the finance minister of India and his most trusted civil servants.
The only thing more amusing than this Pink Panther-style spy story is the cover-up. The official line, now that government is being forced to clean up an embarrassing mess, is that nothing much happened. No one, however, is saying that nothing was attempted, even if the master sleuth of this particular operation was an outstanding bumble bee.
Maturity beyond question
Pranab Mukherjee has more experience in high office than most of the cabinet put together. He is not prone to seasonal hysteria. His maturity is beyond question; his supporters still cannot understand why he should do the bulk of the work but not be appointed prime minister. If he took as deliberate a step as placing his complaint on the record with a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he did so after the most careful consideration. He had his office swept by technologists hired by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, which reports to him, rather than the Intelligence Bureau, which reports to Chidambaram. His letter went ten months ago. It is unsurprising that the Prime Minister’s Office chose silence as its first and last line of defence. The Congress, when it was forced to utter a word or two, went into its default position, which is treating everything unpleasant as an RSS conspiracy. The one exception was senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who believes that a formal probe has become essential.
Digvijay Singh is right. This government is coming apart at the seams. Individual ambition is tearing apart the fabric of governance. The voter can see what Delhi can’t, that the emperors have no clothes.
There comes a point where a joke refuses to amuse. We are near that tipping point. Manmohan Singh, himself a bit ragged now, has one last visit left to the tailors: the Cabinet reshuffle he has long promised but never quite delivered. He can no longer afford to stitch a few buttons; he needs a whole new wardrobe -- and one which can survive the acidic wear and tear of whatever time is left in his political destiny.
Free ambulances for carrying pregnant women in Hills
SNS, DARJEELING, 1 JULY: To facilitate free transportation of pregnant women for delivery, 23 ambulances have been deployed in the Hills. The service has been started from today across the three sub-divisions of the Hills, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong.
The Red Cross Society, a non-governmental organisation of Darjeeling has been handed the task of district control unit (DCU). Members of the organisation have been assigned to take phone calls 24/7 from across the hills and cater to the need, accordingly.
The ambulances have been arranged under the Matri Yan scheme of the government. Seven more vehicles will be deployed in the days to come. “One ambulance has been allotted for the district hospitals in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong, eight ambulances for the primary health centres located across the eight blocks in the Hills and 18 ambulances for primary health centres located in the rural areas of the hills,” said Ms Priya Darshani Rai, programme co-coordinator, Sadar Hospital, Darjeeling.
However, today too many calls were not received, said one of the member's of the Red Cross Society. "The scheme guarantees free and assured transport from home and charges of any kind will not be levied on the pregnant women and sick new born baby up to 28 days of birth,” a hospital official said.
"Officials who are in charge of looking after the programme should ensure that it is carried out properly. Since drivers have to ferry pregnant women and new born babies from long distance area, the officials should ensure the safety of the patient, phone calls should also be received round the clock,” said a local, Mr Rajesh Rai, who was in Sadar Hospital today with her wife for her delivery. The toll free number, where one can call is 102.
KalimNews
Headlines: Democratic front will meet on 10th July for a united programme to oppose the interim setup.
Center gants more package to Darjeeling.
KP Gautam a veteran journalist and photojournalist Chinlop Fudong felicitated by Sahitya Utthan Samity of Kalimpong on the occasion of Rev Ganga Prasad Pradhan Jayanti.
Kalimpong Municipality shuts down illegal fish stalls.
Fruits coated with carbide and wax for artificial ripening were seized by Kalimpong municipality.
The bugging of pranab mukherjee’s office
The chewing gum war
M J Akbar: Collateral damage is surely the most unhappy consequence of this tragic business called war.
There you are, quietly preparing the day’s propaganda sheet in yet another existentialist confrontation between George Bush and Saddam Hussein, or Barack Obama and Mullah Omar, or Pranab Mukherjee and P Chidambaram, and wham! From out of the night-blue a drone demolishes your ego so completely that you cannot recognise your self-esteem from the debris of your self-respect.
Spare a thought, friends, for the Congress spokespersons who were ordered last week to keep quiet at the peak of the raging civil war between the home minister and finance minister of India. There is little more devastating to the pride of a spokesperson than being told not to speak, particularly when heavy artillery and napalm are cascading through the battlefields of media.
The serious historian will, doubtless, record the range of emotions and arguments that have coursed through the War of the Chewing Gum. This is perhaps not the most serious conflict of 2011, but it is pepping up to become its most hilarious. There is enough bathos to daunt the muse of that poet-prince of satire, Alexander Pope. But jollity should not blind us to the serious questions that must be answered in the cause of national security as well as prestige. What, for instance, is Pakistan’s preeminent security establishment, ISI, thinking of Indian capabilities now that they are sure that the mightiest of all surveillance battles is being fought through that most useless invention in the history of mankind, that device of teenage mastication, chewing gum?
We belong to an age in which superpowers can pick, with heavyweight computers, any conversation that travels through the world’s airwaves, and then transcribe and decode it before breakfast. Even at the low end of the market, a ruthlessly chivalrous spy like James Bond would not be caught, dead or alive, with either chewing, or its first cousin bubble gum. That sleuths working on behalf of the home minister of rising India used this supremely silly blob of virtual rubber as a principal weapon is worrying confirmation that where security is concerned India is merely a fourth rate power.
Experts, either shocked or gleeful, have flooded the internet with deep-background analysis. It seems that there are two kinds of bugs. Permanent ones need to be planted inside walls, but that can only be done while the building is being constructed. Since the walls of India’s finance ministry were built before Lord Irwin became viceroy in 1930, that was clearly not a feasible option. Temporary, or opportunist, bugs can be scattered into the enemy quarters through the help of a fifth columnist, who then removes them after the requirement is over. Some clever chap thought little blobs of something that “looked like chewing gum” would suffice to deceive the finance minister of India and his most trusted civil servants.
The only thing more amusing than this Pink Panther-style spy story is the cover-up. The official line, now that government is being forced to clean up an embarrassing mess, is that nothing much happened. No one, however, is saying that nothing was attempted, even if the master sleuth of this particular operation was an outstanding bumble bee.
Maturity beyond question
Pranab Mukherjee has more experience in high office than most of the cabinet put together. He is not prone to seasonal hysteria. His maturity is beyond question; his supporters still cannot understand why he should do the bulk of the work but not be appointed prime minister. If he took as deliberate a step as placing his complaint on the record with a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he did so after the most careful consideration. He had his office swept by technologists hired by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, which reports to him, rather than the Intelligence Bureau, which reports to Chidambaram. His letter went ten months ago. It is unsurprising that the Prime Minister’s Office chose silence as its first and last line of defence. The Congress, when it was forced to utter a word or two, went into its default position, which is treating everything unpleasant as an RSS conspiracy. The one exception was senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who believes that a formal probe has become essential.
Digvijay Singh is right. This government is coming apart at the seams. Individual ambition is tearing apart the fabric of governance. The voter can see what Delhi can’t, that the emperors have no clothes.
There comes a point where a joke refuses to amuse. We are near that tipping point. Manmohan Singh, himself a bit ragged now, has one last visit left to the tailors: the Cabinet reshuffle he has long promised but never quite delivered. He can no longer afford to stitch a few buttons; he needs a whole new wardrobe -- and one which can survive the acidic wear and tear of whatever time is left in his political destiny.
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