Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Bill may be placed in House on 2 Sept
SNS, KOLKATA, 26 AUG: The state government is likely to move the Bill on Gorkhaland Territorial Administration for Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong sub-divisions on 2 September, state parliamentary affairs minister Mr Partha Chatterjee said today.
The “historic” tripartite agreement on the formation of the GTA was signed on 18 July at Pintail village, Darjeeling, in the presence of Union home minister Mr P Chidambaram, chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee and Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha chief Mr Bimal Gurung.
Mr Chatterjee said: “We have already received the Centre's nod on GTA and want to place the Bill in this session. If the Bill is not passed in this session and we will have to wait for the winter session. That will delay the election to GTA and the administrative functioning in the Hills will be stalled.'' Asked about the reports of the committee constituted to examine whether the parts of the Terai and Dooars will be included in the GTA, Mr Chatterjee said the committee's findings would be placed within six months from the date of signing the agreement, but the Bill could not be delayed.
अधिकारको निम्ति लेप्चाहरूले अब आत्मदाह गर्ने
मनोज वोगटी, कालिमन्युज, कालेबुङ, 26 अगस्त। आफ्नो अधिकारको निम्ति लेप्चाहरूले अहिले त केवल धर्ना दिने काम मात्र गरिरहेको छ। यसको अर्थ हो लेप्चाहरूले गणतान्त्रिक पद्धतिमा सरकारलाई आफ्नो दाबीहरूप्रति ध्यानाकर्षण गराउनु। तर लेप्चाहरूले आप्नो अधिकारको दाबी गर्न शुरू गर्ने वित्तिकै ममताको सरकारले उनीहरूलाई दबाउन प्रशासनिक चलखेल पनि शुरू गरिरहेको छ।
यता लेप्चाहरूको आन्दोलन जति दबाउँछ उति सक्रिय हुने देखिएको छ। बङ्गाल सरकारको दमननीतिप्रति लेप्चाहरू दिनोदिन रुष्ट बनिरहेको छ। हिजो कोलकाताको सुवोध मल्लिक स्क्वायर, राइटर्स अनि विधानसभा परिसरमा आफ्नो न्यायसंगत दाबीहरू लिएर धर्ना गर्ने 300 प्रतिनिधिहरू मध्ये 90 प्रतिनिधिहरूलाई प्रेसिडेन्सी जेलमा थुनेपछि उनीहरूको उन्मुक्तिको निम्ति जिल्लाभरि लेप्चाहरूले विक्षोभ प्रदर्शन गरेका थिए। यसैक्रममा लेप्चाहरूले आज पेन डाउनको कार्यक्रम घोषणा गरेका थिए, जसलाई सरकारी कार्यालयहरूमा रहेका लेप्चाहरूले आज अक्षरस् पालन गरे। लेप्चा डेभलोपमेन्ट काउन्सिल तथा बोर्ड, राज्य सभा र विधानसभामा लेप्चा प्रतिनिधिहरू अनि प्राथमिकदेखि विश्वविद्यालयसम्म लेप्चा भाषामा पठनपाठन, यी तीनवटा मागमा लेप्चाहरूले आन्दोलन गरिरहेका छन्।
यता जीटीएमा हस्ताक्षर गरियो अनि जीटीएभित्र पहाडका आदिवासी लेप्चाहरूको संरक्षणको निम्ति कुनै पनि सहुलियत राखिएन। यद्दपि लेप्चाहरूले केन्द्र अनि राज्य सरकारलाई बारम्बार चढाएको ज्ञापनमा भविष्यमा कुनै पनि राजनैतिक तथा अन्य मुद्दा छिनाफाना हुँदा यस अञ्चलको प्राचीन रैथाने जातिको हैसियतले लेप्चाहरू पनि निपटारा कार्वाईमा सामेल हुनुपर्छ-भनेर अर्जी चढाएका हुन्। लेप्चाहरूको यो अर्जीलाई अहिलेसम्म न त राज्य सरकार न केन्द्र सरकार न त क्षेत्रीय राजनैतिक दलले नै महत्व दियो।
लेप्चाहरू अनुसार यसपल्टको राजनैतिक छिनाफानाबाट पनि लेप्चाहरूलाई बाहिर राखिएपछि लेप्चाहरूले आफ्नै क्षेत्रमा असुरक्षित अनुभव गरिरहेका छन्। आफ्नै भाषा, संस्कृति, परम्परायुक्त निश्चित प्राचीन रैथाने लेप्चाहरूले अहिलेसम्म पनि सरकारले कुनै महत्व नदिएपछि आफ्नो जाति, भाषा, संस्कृति र परम्पराहरूको संरक्षणको निम्ति संविधानले दिएको अधिकार माग्न बाध्य परेको लेप्चाहरूको भनाई छ।
इण्डिजिनस लेप्चा ट्राइबल फोरममा महासचिव पावल सिमिकसित बुझ्न चहॉंदा तिनले भने, ममता व्यानर्जीले जङ्गल महलको समस्या सामाधान गर्दै सोह्र सय सौताली भाषाका शिक्षकहरू नियुक्त गर्न सक्छन्, गोर्खाहरूको निम्ति जीटीए दिन सक्छन् भने पहाडका प्राचीन जातिको अधिकार किन दिन सक्दैनन्? हाम्रो दाबीमा जबसम्म मुख्यमन्त्रीको हस्तक्षेप र आश्वासन हुँदैन तबसम्म लेप्चाहरूले आन्दोलन गर्ने छन्। तिनी अनुसार लेप्चाहरूले 2009 देखि नै लेप्चा डेभलोपमेन्ट काउन्सिल तथा बोर्डको माग गर्दै आइरहेको भए पनि सरकारले अनदेखा गरिरहेको छ। तिनले भने, हामीलाई अनदेखा गर्नु हाम्रो दाबीलाई कुल्चिनु हो। हामी अधिकारको निम्ति जे पनि गर्न तयार छौं। तिनले अहिले लेप्चाहरूले आन्दोलनको तयारी गरिरहेको पनि जनाए। तिनले भने, अब लेप्चाहरूले आमरण अनशन जस्तो गणतान्त्रिक आन्दोलन गर्नेछन्। यसले पनि नभए आत्मदाहको कार्यक्रम शुरू हुनेछ।
अर्कोतिर थाहा लागे अनुसार जिल्लामा लेप्चाहरू मोठ जनसंख्याको 20 प्रतिशत छन्। लेप्चाहरूको मोठ 40 हजार ऐकर जमीन छ तर सरकारले मात्र होइन पहाडका राजनैतिक दलहरूले समेत अल्पसख्यक रहेको ठानेर उनीहरूको मागलाई अन्देखा गरिरहेको छ। प्राचीन जाति रहेको हिसाबमा उनीहरूले आफ्नो अधिकारको दाबी गर्नु न्याय सङ्गत छ तर उनीहरूको पक्षमा अहिलेसम्म अन्य कुनै पनि समुदाय बोलेका छैनन्।
लेप्चाहरूले जनसंख्याको अनुपातमा जीटीएमा पनि आरक्षण हुनुपर्ने दाबी पनि गरिरहेका छन्। अर्कोतिर मोर्चा अध्यक्ष विमल गुरूङले सबै जातिलाई जीटीएमा समेट्ने प्रतिबद्धता देखाइरहेका छन् तर कागजमा भने लेप्चाहरूको निम्ति कुनै सहुलियत उल्लेख छैन। केवल मौखिक आश्वासनलाई पनि महत्व नदिने लेप्चाहरूले बताइरहेका छन्। सूत्र अनुसार लेप्चाहरू आफ्नो अधिकारको निम्ति युनओको ढोका पनि ढकढकाउन सक्छन् किन भने युएनओले प्रचीन जातिको संरक्षणको निम्ति विभिन्न देशहरू सित सम्झौता गरेको छ, जसमा भारतले पनि हस्ताक्षर गरेको छ।
सन्तोषको जमानत रद्द- छत्रेहरूको मुक्ति हुने आशामा परिवार मनोज वोगटी, कालिमन्युज, कालेबुङ, 26 अगस्त। कालेबुङ स्टोभ बम विस्फोटकाण्डमा पक्रा परेका छत्रे सुब्बाको छोरा सन्तोष सुब्बाको आज पनि जमानत हुन सकेन। सन्तोषविरूद्ध दर्ता भएको पॉंचवटा मुद्दाहरूमध्ये तीनवटा गैर जमानती मुद्दा भएकोले आज कालेबुङ कोर्टले तिनको जमानत रद्द गरिदियो। सन्तोषलाई फेरि 15 दिनको निम्ति संशोधनगृहमा पठाइएको छ। आगामी 9 सितम्बरको दिन पुनः तिनलाई न्यायलयमा उभ्याइनेछ। सन्तोषका अधिवक्ताले बताए अनुसार सन्तोषले अहिलेनै जनामत पाउने सम्भावना थोरै छ। सन्तोषको जमानतको निम्ति अर्जी चढाइएको भए पनि न्यालयले जमानत नदिएको अधिवक्ताले बताएका छन्। यता सन्तोष सुब्बाले मामिलाबारे केही बताउन चाहेनन्।
यद्धपि तिनले मीडियालाई आफ्नो टिप्पणी राख्न लिखित वयान ल्याएका थिए, तर कानूनी असुविधा अनि अधिवक्ताको परामर्शको कारण तिनले लेखौट मीडियालाई दिन सकेनन्। तिनले आफ्नोबारे भन्दा धेर आफ्नो पिताको चिन्ता गरेको पनि देखियो। सन्तोषले पिताको उन्मुक्तिलाई लिएर परिवार आशावादी रहेको बताए। 30 अगस्तको दिन छत्रे सुब्बाहरूको सुनवाई छ। कानूनीरूपले 30 तारिक पनि छत्रेहरूको उन्मुक्ति सम्भव नरहेको बन्दी मुक्ति कमिटीले अघिबाट नै बताइसकेको छ। जबसम्म छत्रे सुब्बाहरूलाई राजनैतिक बन्दीको मर्यादा दिँदैन तबसम्म उनीहरूको उन्मुक्ति हुनसक्ने सम्भावना थोरै छ।
सन्तोषले भने, हामी आशावादी छौं कि बाबा अनि उनका साथीहरूलार्ई यसपल्ट मुक्त गरिनेछ। तिनले यसदिन परिवार पक्षपनि न्यालयमा पुग्ने जनाएका छन्। यहॉंको मोटर स्ट्याण्डमा गत 26 जुलाईको विहान उत्तर बङ्गाल परिवहन निगमको बसलाई स्टोफ बमले उड़ाउने प्रयास गरिएको थियो। त्यसको लगत्तैपछि यूएलए नामक भूमिगत भनिने सङ्गठनले घटनाको जिम्मेवारी लिएपछि प्रशासनको टाउको दुखाइ शुरू भएको थियो। त्यसै समयदेखि प्रशासनले घटनालाई सजिलोसित लिएन। फोरेन्सिक दल, सीआइडी अनि पुलिस प्रशासनका उच्च अधिकारीहरूसमेत घटनास्थलमा आएर निरीक्षण गरिसकेका छन्। छानबिनपछि नै 31 जुलाईको दिन रेली रोड़बाट सन्तोषलाई पक्राउ गरिएको थियो। पुलिस सूत्रद्वारा पाइएको जानकारी अनुसार सन्तोषलाई युएलएको चीफ एम.थेगिमको शंका गरेर पक्राउ गरिएको हो। पुलिससूत्रले सन्तोषबाट मोबाइल सीम पनि प्राप्त गरेको अघिबाट नै छनक दिइसकेको छ। के शंका गरिएको छ भने सन्तोषबाट प्राप्त गरिएको सीम एम. थेगिमले प्रयोग गर्ने सीम हो। तर यस मामिलामा पुलिस प्रशासनले खुलेर अहिलेसम्म केही बताएको छैन। 27 जुलाईको अघिल्लो दिन स्टोभ बम पड्किनु अनि घटनाको जिम्मेवार युएलएले लिनु अनि युएलएले जीटीएको विरोध गर्दै सार्वभौम राष्ट्रको दाबी गर्नुले मामिलाले गम्भीररूप लिएको थियो।
जमीन दिलाउने भनेर लाखौं रुपियॉं ठग्ने खान चम्पटसन्तोषले भने, हामी आशावादी छौं कि बाबा अनि उनका साथीहरूलार्ई यसपल्ट मुक्त गरिनेछ। तिनले यसदिन परिवार पक्षपनि न्यालयमा पुग्ने जनाएका छन्। यहॉंको मोटर स्ट्याण्डमा गत 26 जुलाईको विहान उत्तर बङ्गाल परिवहन निगमको बसलाई स्टोफ बमले उड़ाउने प्रयास गरिएको थियो। त्यसको लगत्तैपछि यूएलए नामक भूमिगत भनिने सङ्गठनले घटनाको जिम्मेवारी लिएपछि प्रशासनको टाउको दुखाइ शुरू भएको थियो। त्यसै समयदेखि प्रशासनले घटनालाई सजिलोसित लिएन। फोरेन्सिक दल, सीआइडी अनि पुलिस प्रशासनका उच्च अधिकारीहरूसमेत घटनास्थलमा आएर निरीक्षण गरिसकेका छन्। छानबिनपछि नै 31 जुलाईको दिन रेली रोड़बाट सन्तोषलाई पक्राउ गरिएको थियो। पुलिस सूत्रद्वारा पाइएको जानकारी अनुसार सन्तोषलाई युएलएको चीफ एम.थेगिमको शंका गरेर पक्राउ गरिएको हो। पुलिससूत्रले सन्तोषबाट मोबाइल सीम पनि प्राप्त गरेको अघिबाट नै छनक दिइसकेको छ। के शंका गरिएको छ भने सन्तोषबाट प्राप्त गरिएको सीम एम. थेगिमले प्रयोग गर्ने सीम हो। तर यस मामिलामा पुलिस प्रशासनले खुलेर अहिलेसम्म केही बताएको छैन। 27 जुलाईको अघिल्लो दिन स्टोभ बम पड्किनु अनि घटनाको जिम्मेवार युएलएले लिनु अनि युएलएले जीटीएको विरोध गर्दै सार्वभौम राष्ट्रको दाबी गर्नुले मामिलाले गम्भीररूप लिएको थियो।
मनोज वोगटी, कालिमन्युज, कालेबुङ, 26 अगस्त। ठगारहरूको केन्द्र बनेको कालेबुङमा फेरि एउटा ठग काण्ड प्रकाशमा आएको छ। भर्खर नै मार्केटिङ कम्पनीहरूले लाखौं रुपियॉं कालेबुङबासीबाट ठगेका थिए। अहिलेसम्म नै करोडौ रुपियॉं कालेबुङबाट ठगेर चम्पट हानेको अनगन्ती घटनाहरू देखिएको छ भने त्यसमा नै जमीन दिने बहानामा लाखौं रुपियॉं ठगेको नयॉं घटना जोडिएको छ। सालुगढामा आफ्नो जमीन रहेको अनि त्यहॉं जमीन किन्न चहानेहरू बटुलेर लाखौं रुपियॉं उठाएर एक ठगार चम्पट हानेको कुरा जमीन किन्न रुपियॉं दिनेहरूले त्यसबेला मात्र थाहा पाए जति बेला बसिरहेको घरबाट परिवारसितै ठगार हराए। पाल्देन खान नाम गरेका व्यक्ति मुर्गीहट्टामा एकवर्षदेखि बस्दै आइरहेका थिए, त्यस अघि तिनी कालेबुङमा नै तर अन्यत्र बस्ने गर्थे। सालुगढाका पाल्देन खानको आमा, स्वास्नी अनि तीन सन्तान पनि सँगै बस्थे। कुनै काम नगर्ने खानले मुर्गीहट्टाका तीनजना व्यक्तिलाई सालुगढामा आफ्नो जमीन रहेको अनि पैसाको खॉंचोको कारण बेच्न चाहेको बताए।
नारद विश्वकर्मा, राधेश्याम शर्मा अनि गौतम रामलाई जमीन किन्नमा सहमतिमा ल्याएपछि उनीहरूलाई पाल्देन खानले सालुगढा जमीन देखाउन पनि लगे। सबैले जमीन पनि हेरे अनि जमीन किन्न पक्कापक्की भयो। कागजपत्र पनि बनाइयो, यसको निम्ति अधिवक्ता पनि खानले नै ठीक पारेका थिए। नारदको 60 हजार, राधेश्यामको 60 हजार अनि गौतमको 1 लाख 30 हजार पाल्देन खानले लगे। तर अचानक तिनी बस्दै गरेको भाडाको घरबाट अन्यत्र सर्ने भनेर निस्किए। त्यसबेला सोही जमीनको निम्ति अन्य दुइजनाबाट पनि पाल्देन खानले मोठ 1 लाख 70 हजार लगेको थाहा पाएपछि खानको खोजी शुरू भयो। तर खानले त्यसबेलासम्म कालेबुङबाट चम्पट हानिसकेका थिए। मोठ छ जनाको गरी 6 लाख उठाएर खानले सुइटाप कसिसकेका थिए। नारद विश्वकर्माले भने,हामी सालुगढा गयौं र सोधखोज गर्यौं। त्यसबेला पो थाहा लाग्यो जुन जमीन हामीले किनेका थियौं त्यो खानको थिएन। अझ के पनि थाहा पायौं भने हाम्रो कागजपत्र बनाउने अधिवक्ता पनि नक्कली रहेछन्। हामीलाई जमीन देखाउन जॉंदा त्यहॉं विल्डिङ बनिरहेको थियो, काम गर्नेलाई सोद्दा खानको घर भन्थे। त्यो पनि होइन रहेछ। खानको विल्डिङ भन्ने काम गर्ने केटो पनि नक्कली रहेछन्। त्यसैबेला तिनले आफ्नो दाजुको घर भनेर एक व्यक्तिको लगेका थिए, त्यहॉं खोज्दा तिनको दाजु पनि नक्कली रहेछन्। जमीनदेखि लिएर सबै नक्कली रहेको थाहा पाएपछि हामीले ठगिएको पत्तो पायौं।
पाल्देन खान सबैसित मिल्ने अनि राम्रो स्वभाव रहेकोले तिनी ठग होलान भनेर कसैले पनि सोंचेका थिएनन्। अर्कोतिर तिनी परिवारसित बस्थे। नानीहरू अनि आमा र स्वास्नी समेत रहेकोले कानले यसरी ठग्ला भनेर कसैले सोंचेनन्। खानले सबैलाई सालुगढामा मोठ 13 कट्ठा जमीन रहेको बताएका थिए। नारदले भने, हामीलाई देखाएको जमीन अरुकै रहेछन्। कागजपत्र पनि नक्कली बनाइएको रहेछ। ठगिनेहरूले बताए अनुसार खान लरतरो ठगार होइनन्। जुन नेटवर्क तीनले 6 लाख ठग्ने कार्यमा देखाएका छन्, यसले खानले जमीन बेच्ने मामिलामा केवल यी छ जनालाई मात्र ठगेको होइन, अरू धेरैलाई यसरी नै ठगेको हुनुपर्ने अनि तिनले कालेबुङबाट लाखौं ठगेको हुनसक्ने सबैले अनुमान लगाइरहेका छन्। जमीनदेखि, कागजसम्म अनि अधिवक्तादेखि आफन्तसम्म नै नक्कली रहनुले ठगारहरूको नेटवर्क नक्कै ठूलो रहेको हुनसक्ने कुरालाई इङ्गित गरेको छ। ठगिनेहरूले अहिले खानलाई खोज्ने क्रम जारी राखेका छन् भने थानामा प्राथमिकी दर्ता गरिहालेका छैनन्। खान कालेबुङबाट परिवारसहित हराएको पॉंचदिन पुगिसकेको छ भने ठगिनेहरुले कतै भेटिन्छ कि भनेर आशा गर्दै खोजिरहेका छन्। नारद विश्वकर्माले बताए अनुसार पहिले खानले आफूलाई डीआईबीको मान्छे रहेको बताउँथे तर डीआईबी पनि नरहेको पत्तो पाइएको छ।
नारद विश्वकर्मा, राधेश्याम शर्मा अनि गौतम रामलाई जमीन किन्नमा सहमतिमा ल्याएपछि उनीहरूलाई पाल्देन खानले सालुगढा जमीन देखाउन पनि लगे। सबैले जमीन पनि हेरे अनि जमीन किन्न पक्कापक्की भयो। कागजपत्र पनि बनाइयो, यसको निम्ति अधिवक्ता पनि खानले नै ठीक पारेका थिए। नारदको 60 हजार, राधेश्यामको 60 हजार अनि गौतमको 1 लाख 30 हजार पाल्देन खानले लगे। तर अचानक तिनी बस्दै गरेको भाडाको घरबाट अन्यत्र सर्ने भनेर निस्किए। त्यसबेला सोही जमीनको निम्ति अन्य दुइजनाबाट पनि पाल्देन खानले मोठ 1 लाख 70 हजार लगेको थाहा पाएपछि खानको खोजी शुरू भयो। तर खानले त्यसबेलासम्म कालेबुङबाट चम्पट हानिसकेका थिए। मोठ छ जनाको गरी 6 लाख उठाएर खानले सुइटाप कसिसकेका थिए। नारद विश्वकर्माले भने,हामी सालुगढा गयौं र सोधखोज गर्यौं। त्यसबेला पो थाहा लाग्यो जुन जमीन हामीले किनेका थियौं त्यो खानको थिएन। अझ के पनि थाहा पायौं भने हाम्रो कागजपत्र बनाउने अधिवक्ता पनि नक्कली रहेछन्। हामीलाई जमीन देखाउन जॉंदा त्यहॉं विल्डिङ बनिरहेको थियो, काम गर्नेलाई सोद्दा खानको घर भन्थे। त्यो पनि होइन रहेछ। खानको विल्डिङ भन्ने काम गर्ने केटो पनि नक्कली रहेछन्। त्यसैबेला तिनले आफ्नो दाजुको घर भनेर एक व्यक्तिको लगेका थिए, त्यहॉं खोज्दा तिनको दाजु पनि नक्कली रहेछन्। जमीनदेखि लिएर सबै नक्कली रहेको थाहा पाएपछि हामीले ठगिएको पत्तो पायौं।
पाल्देन खान सबैसित मिल्ने अनि राम्रो स्वभाव रहेकोले तिनी ठग होलान भनेर कसैले पनि सोंचेका थिएनन्। अर्कोतिर तिनी परिवारसित बस्थे। नानीहरू अनि आमा र स्वास्नी समेत रहेकोले कानले यसरी ठग्ला भनेर कसैले सोंचेनन्। खानले सबैलाई सालुगढामा मोठ 13 कट्ठा जमीन रहेको बताएका थिए। नारदले भने, हामीलाई देखाएको जमीन अरुकै रहेछन्। कागजपत्र पनि नक्कली बनाइएको रहेछ। ठगिनेहरूले बताए अनुसार खान लरतरो ठगार होइनन्। जुन नेटवर्क तीनले 6 लाख ठग्ने कार्यमा देखाएका छन्, यसले खानले जमीन बेच्ने मामिलामा केवल यी छ जनालाई मात्र ठगेको होइन, अरू धेरैलाई यसरी नै ठगेको हुनुपर्ने अनि तिनले कालेबुङबाट लाखौं ठगेको हुनसक्ने सबैले अनुमान लगाइरहेका छन्। जमीनदेखि, कागजसम्म अनि अधिवक्तादेखि आफन्तसम्म नै नक्कली रहनुले ठगारहरूको नेटवर्क नक्कै ठूलो रहेको हुनसक्ने कुरालाई इङ्गित गरेको छ। ठगिनेहरूले अहिले खानलाई खोज्ने क्रम जारी राखेका छन् भने थानामा प्राथमिकी दर्ता गरिहालेका छैनन्। खान कालेबुङबाट परिवारसहित हराएको पॉंचदिन पुगिसकेको छ भने ठगिनेहरुले कतै भेटिन्छ कि भनेर आशा गर्दै खोजिरहेका छन्। नारद विश्वकर्माले बताए अनुसार पहिले खानले आफूलाई डीआईबीको मान्छे रहेको बताउँथे तर डीआईबी पनि नरहेको पत्तो पाइएको छ।
स्टडी फोरमका सदस्यहरूले पायो गोर्खाल्याण्ड, जनताले पायो धोका -फोरम
मनोज वोगटी, कालिमन्युज, कालेबुङ, 26 अगस्त। साङ्गाठानिक विमर्ष र अन्तरक्रियाको निम्ति कालेबुङ आइपुगेका दार्जीलिङ डुवर्स फोरमका महासचिव प्रवीण गुरूङले एक भेटमा भारतवर्षका गोर्खाहरूले संवैधानिक र राजनैतिकरूपले चिन्हारीको सुरक्षाको निम्ति नै छुट्टैराज्य मागिरहेको भए पनि भट्टाचार्यको सरकारपछि फेरि व्यानर्जीको सरकारले पनि गोर्खाहरूलाई नै लगाएर त्यसलाई दबाएको बताए। ममता व्यानर्जीहरूलाई चिह्नारीको संकट हुनसक्छ र पश्चिम बङ्गाललाई हटाएर बङ्ग थप्नु हतार पर्छ भने गोर्खाहरूले चिन्हारीको निम्ति नै राज्यको दाबी गर्दा किन दबाउँछ त? भन्ने प्रश्न उठाउँदै तिनले भने, विमल गुरूङ जस्तो राजनैतिक असचेत र लोकल मानसिकता बोकेको नेतालाई देखाउने दॉंत बनाएर बुद्धिजीवी भनेर लेबल लगाइएका बङ्गालकै नोकरशाह र व्यक्तिगत महत्वाकांक्षी नेताहरूले मुद्दालाई पैसा र चौकीको निम्ति साट्ने जुन कर्तुत गरे यसको विरूद्ध अब युवाशक्ति सङ्गठित भइरहेको छ। ढिलो होस् तर युवाशक्तिले बौद्धिक परिस्थिति तयार पारेर फोरमले बङ्गालबाटको मुक्तिको निम्ति आन्दोलन गर्ने शक्ति सञ्चय गर्नेछ।
तिनले मोर्चाका नेताहरूलाई पद र पैसामा किनेर विमल गुरूङलाई पनि धोकामा राखेर जुन ऐतिहासिक भूल गर्यो, त्यसको परिणति अब देखिन शुरू भएको पनि बताउँदै भने, अघिबाट नै कानून विभागमा पठाएर सबै कुरा ठीकठाक रहेको भनिएको जीटीएको बील फेरि कानून विभागमा पुग्नुले मोर्चाको बुद्धिजीवीहरूको बुद्धि र दलाली स्पष्ट हुन्छ। वास्तवमा मुख्यमन्त्रीले आफै हस्तक्षेप गर्ने प्रशासन पहाडमा स्थापित गरेको उचित हुनेथियो किन भने पहाडमा फेरि दोस्रो घिसिङ जन्मिन पाउने थिएन।
तिनले अझ भने, सम्झौता नाटक मात्र थियो अब सम्झौतापत्रमा भएका अधिकारहरू छॉंटेर मोर्चाको योग्यता अनुसारको दागोपाप मात्र थमाउने चलखेल केन्द्रियस्तरमा भइरहेको छ। तिनले खरसाङमा भएको गोरामुमोमाथि गोजमुमोको आक्रमणले पनि मोर्चाको मानसिकता र घिसिङे प्रवृति स्पष्ट देखिने बताए। तिनले भने, के गोजमुमोबाहेक अरू कुनै पनि दलले राजनीति गर्न पाउँदैन? यसको उत्तर पाउँदैन हुन्छ भने उनीहरू गणतन्त्रका हत्यारा हुन्, यस्ता हत्याराको स्थापना ममता व्यनर्जी र विमल गुरूङले गरेका हुन्। इतिहासका दोषीहरूलाई समयले माफ गर्नेछैन।
जनतालाई अत्याचार गर्न र एकक्षत्र तानाशाह बुद्धदेवले घिसिङ अनि ममताले विमल जन्माएर गोर्खाहरूको मूल मुद्दा दबाउने काम भएको कुरा जनतालाई बुझाउन फोरमले शीघ्र्र नै जनसभाको आयोजना दार्जीलिङमा गर्ने बताउँदै तिनले भने, गणतन्त्रका हत्यारा सरकार र मोर्चाको आन्द्राभुँडी गॉंसिएकोले हाम्रो कार्यक्रममा बाधा हुनसक्छ। तरै पनि हामी जनतालाई कुरा राखेर नै छोड्नेछौं। सरकार बद्लिए पनि बङ्गालमा गोर्खालाई दमन गर्ने नीति नबद्लिएको अनि पार्टी बद्लिए पनि पहाडमा तानाशाह नबद्लिएको बताउँदै भने, अत्याचार धेर भयो भने पड्किन्छ।
जीटीएको विरूद्ध बङ्गालबाट मुक्तिको निम्ति जनता एक हुन अब समय लाग्नेछैन। तिनले मोर्चाले अहिलेसम्म जति पनि ज्यानमालको क्षति गरेको छ, त्यसका दोषीहरूलाई कानूनी कार्वाही गर्नुपर्ने माग पनि राखेका छन्। तिनले भने, नत्र हामी उचित ठाउँमा निवेदन गर्नेछौं। हाइकोर्टमा पीआईएल गर्नेछौं। विमल गुरूङले जीटीएलाई गोर्खाल्याण्ड भन्दा पनि राम्रो बताइरहेको सन्दर्भमा तिनले विमल गुरूङबाट आइरहेको केहीदिनको टिप्पणीले नै तिनले जीटीए थापेको पैसाको निम्ति मात्र रहेको स्पष्ट भएको बताउँदै विमल गुरूङले पैसाको निम्ति बार्गेनिङ शुरू गरेको बताए।
जीटीएले जनतालाई फाइदा नहुने तर स्टडीफोरमका नेताहरूको निम्ति भने पुरै बन्दोबस्त भइरहेको बताउँदै तिनले भने, फोरमका तीनजना प्रतिनिधि त विधायक बनिहाले, एकजना बङ्गालको प्राइमेरी स्कूल बोर्डको दार्जीलिङ जिल्लाको चेयरम्यान छन्। अब रहेकालाई स्कूल सर्विस कमिशन, पव्लिक कमिशन अनि नेपाली एकाडेमी ठिक्क छ। एकजना सिन्कोनाको डाइरेक्टरको पदको निम्ति तयार छन्। एकजना बङ्गाल र जीटीएको कोअर्डिनेटर छन्, यता कन्ट्राक्टरहरू प्रसस्तै, नेताहरूको निम्ति कमिशन छ तर जनतालाई के छ धोकाबाहेक? तिनले 3,720 जना अस्थायी कर्मचारीहरूलाई वामफ्रण्ट सरकारले स्थायी गर्ने भएको थियो, ममता र जीटीएले के गर्यो? भन्ने प्रश्न उठाउँदै अलगराज्यले नै सबै समस्याको समाधान गर्ने बताए।
सिक्किम विधानसभामा विवादीत विधेयक फिर्ता
प्रवीण खालिंग, कालिमन्युज, गान्तोक, 26 अगस्त। सिक्किमको प्रजातन्त्रको इतिहासमा पहिलो पल्ट विधानसभामा प्रस्तुत हुनसाथै चर्को विवादको घेरोमा परेको सिक्किम जन व्यवस्था विचलन निषेध एंव नियन्त्रन विधेयक 2011 लाई राज्य सरकारले सदनमा आधिकारीक रूपमा फिर्ता गऱ्यो। सिक्किम विधान सभाको बजेट सत्रको दोस्रो भाग निम्ति बसेको सदनमा अध्यक्ष के टी ग्याल्छेनले प्रोसिडिंग रूल्स 104 लाई प्रयोग गर्दै गत 11 अगस्तको दिन मुख्यमन्त्री तथा गृह विभागका प्रभारी मन्त्री पवन चामलिङले पेश गरेको विधेयक फिर्ता लिने घोषणा गर्दै सदनका सदस्यहरूलाई समर्थनमा हात उठाउने आग्रह गरेपछि मुख्यमन्त्री लगायत सदनमा उपस्थित अन्य 30 जना सदस्यले हात उठाएर विधेयक फिर्ता गर्ने सहमति जनाए।
आज सदनमा राज्यका विपक्षी पार्टी र गैर राजनैतिक संस्थाहरूले माग गरेअनुसार विधेयक फिर्ता लिइने क्रममा मुख्यमन्त्रीले सिक्किमे जानतालाई माफी भने मागेनन् न तर विधेयकबारे कुनै चर्चा अथवा बहस नै भयो। यद्यपी राज्य सरकारले यो विवादीत विधेयकलाई फिर्ता लिएर राज्यवासी जनताको आवाजलाई सम्मान गरेरको देखियो।
ज्ञात रहोस् गत 11 अगस्तको दिन विधानसभामा सदनका नेता तथा मुख्यमन्त्री पवन चामलिङले कथित कालो बील प्रस्तुत गरेपछि राज्यको राजनैतिक उतप्त बडेको थियो। राज्यका विपक्षी पार्टीहरू यसलाई हतियारको रूपमा प्रयोग गर्दै विरोधको निम्ति सडकमा ओर्लेर सरकारलाई घेरेका थिए। जसमा सबैभन्दा पहिले सिक्किम हिमाली राज्य परिषद पार्टीले विरोधको निम्ति अघि आएर पश्चिम सिक्किमको गेरेथाङमा मुख्यमन्त्रीको पुत्ला दहन गरेको थियो। यसैगरि लगातार विरोध गर्दै सडकमा उत्रिएर 14 अगस्तको दिन राजाधानी के सिसा गोलाइमा खुल्ला रूपमा कालो बीलको विऱोध गर्दै 8 जना सिहिराप कार्यकर्ताले मुख्यन्त्रीको पुत्ला जलाउँदै 20 मिनटसम्म राष्ट्रिय राजमार्ग जाम गरेको थियो। यसैगरि माकपा, एसएनपीपी, सिक्किम प्रदेश कंग्रेस, भाजपा, सिक्किम लिबरेशन पार्टीले संयुक्त बयान जारी गर्दै एकै मञ्चबाट बीलको विरोध गर्दै राज्यपाल र राष्ट्रपतिसम्मालाई गुहार लगाएका थिए।
अर्कोतिर 15 अगस्तको दिन राज्यपाल बीपी सिंह ने राज्य सरकारलाई यो बील फिर्ता लिने एक लाइनको सुझाउ मिडिया मार्फत जारी गरे पछि राज्य सरकारको सूचना तथा जनसंपर्क विभागले 16 अगस्तको प्रेस वक्तव्य जारी गर्दै विधेयक फिर्ता लिइए घोषणा गरेको थियो। यद्यपी बीलको विरोधमा लागातार आन्दोलन भने जारी थियो। यसैक्रमा सिक्किम नागरिक अधिकार सुरक्षा संगठन, सिक्किम (नास) 17 अगस्तको दिन गठन भएपछि 24 अगस्तको दिन विराट प्रतिवाद जुलुस आयोजन गरेर कथित कालो बीलको खेस्रा जलाएर विरोध जनाए। यसका साथै राज्यको जनताको जिब्रो काट्ने कार्य गरिएको दावी गर्दै मुख्यमन्त्रीले जनताको समक्ष माफि माग्नु पर्ने माग राखेको थियो। सरकारले विधेयक फिर्ता लिए पनि माफी माग्ने मागलाई भने पुरा गरेन।
विधेयकको व्याख्यान 3 माथि आपत्ती रहेको थियो। जसमा कालो झण्डा उठाउन, जुलुस, भोक हड्ताल, ऱ्याली प्रदर्शन आदि गरेर साम्प्रदायिक सद्भावना विथोल्ने तथा जात-जातिमा विद्वेष सिर्जना गर्ने विरोधहरूमाथि प्रतिबन्ध लगाउने बताइएको छ। जसलाई राज्यका विपक्षी दल र नागरिक समाजले प्रजातन्त्रको घाँटी निमोठ्ने प्रयास बताउँदै आन्दोलमा शुरु गरेका थिए।
बील फिर्ताबारे सिक्किमको विपक्षी र नागरिक समाजको मन्तव्य - पुनः जनविरोधी विधेयक ल्याउसक्छ जनता सतर्क हुनुपर्छःविपक्षी
प्रवीण खालिंग, कालिमन्युज, गान्तोक, 26 अगस्त। सिक्किम सरकारद्वारा राज्यव्यापी आन्दोलन र दबाउ सिर्जना भएपछि 11 अगस्तको दिन सदनमा पेश गरिएको विवादास्पद विधेयक सिक्किम जन व्यवस्था विचलन निषेध एंव नियन्त्रन विधेयक 2011 लाई शुक्रबार फिर्ता लिए पनि राज्यका विपक्षी समुहले सरकारको निर्णयलाई स्वागत जनाउको साटो निकट भविष्यमा पुनः यस्तै विधेयक पारित गरेर जनताको जिब्रो काट्न सक्ने अड्कल काट्दै सतर्क बस्नुपर्ने बताएको छ। यसैगरि सरकारले विधानसभामा विधेयक फिर्ता लिनुको हर्क मनाउनु भन्दा भविष्यमा पुनः प्रजातन्त्र विरोधी कानुन बनिन सक्ने तथा राज्य सरकारले सिक्किम जनतालाई कुन स्तरमा राख्न चहान्छ भन्ने यो विधेयक ल्याएर सरकारले स्पष्ट पारि सकेको मन्तव्य जाहेर गरेका छन्।
1997 को इम्प्लोइमेन्ट एक्सचेन्ज जस्तो सुटुकै यो विधेयक पास गर्नसक्छः प्रदेश कंग्रेस
सिक्किम प्रदेश कंग्रेसका कार्यवाहक अध्यक्ष कुङ्गा निमा लेप्चाले सिक्किम जन व्यवस्था विचलन निषेध एंव नियन्त्रन विधेयक 2011 लाई सरकाले फिर्ता लिनु जनताको ऐतिहासिक जित बताएका छन्। यद्यपी तिनले यो विधेयक फिर्ता लिएर सदनमा फेरि आउन सक्दैन भन्ने कुरामा विश्वास गर्न नसकिने बताउँदै यस भन्दा पहिले पनि सरकारले जनतालाई धोका दिएको बताउँदै भने, 1997 मा इम्प्लोइमेन्ट एक्सचेज लागु गर्न अघि जनआन्दोलन हुँदा फिर्ता लिएको भए पनि पछि सुटुक्कै लगाएको थियो। यसरी नै यो विधेयकबारे पनि जनता सतर्क हुनु पर्छ। तिनले भने हामी यसमा राजनैतिक फायदा लिन चहाँदैनौं तर यो जित जनताको ऐतिहासिक जित हो,जनताको प्रजातान्त्रीक अधिकार खोस्ने सक्दो प्रयास गरेको थियो तर जनताको अघि हार भयो,तिनले भने।
सरकारको जनताप्रतिको नियतको स्पष्ट भइसकेको छः भाजपा
भारतीय जनता पार्टीका राज्य अध्यक्ष पदम बहादुर छेत्रीले सदनबाट सिक्किम जन व्यवस्था विचलन निषेध एंव नियन्त्रन विधेयक 2011 फिर्ता गरिएकोमा स्वागत गर्ने स्थिति नरहेको बताउँदै भने, पवन चामलिङले विधानसभामा विधेयक फिर्ता गर्नु ठूलो कुरो होइन्। यसलाई फेरि पनि जनताको आवाज दवाउन प्रस्तुत गर्न सक्छ त्यसकारण सिक्किमे जनता ढुक्क भएर बस्नु हुँदैन। यसपाली विधानसभामा जुन जनविरोधी विधेयक पेश गऱ्यो त्यसैले एसडीएफ सरकारको सिक्किमे जनता प्रतिको नियत स्पष्ट भएको छ। जनता राजनैतिक दल, राज्यपाल र केन्द्र सरकारको दवाउमा मात्र एसडीएफ सरकारले वाध्य भएर यो विधेयक फिर्ता गर्न कर लागेको हो।
फेरि अर्को रूपमा विधेयक आउँदा रोक्न सक्ने जनता तयार हुनुपर्छः माकपा
यसैगरि मार्क्सवादी कम्युनिष्ट पार्टी (माकपा)-का सिक्किम राज्य समिति सदस्य अञ्जन उपाध्याय सबै भन्दा पहिला विपक्षी दल र राष्ट्रिय स्तरमै मिडिया र सिक्किमे आम जनताको विरोधमा पवन चामलिङले यो विधेयक फिर्ता लिन कर लागेको हो। तर सिक्किम प्रजातान्त्रीक मोर्चाले स्थगीत भनेर घोषणा गरेको त्यो सिक्किम जनताको आवाजलाई लत्याउने स्पष्ट झल्कीएको हुनाले यसको विरूद्धमा सिक्किमे जनता सदैव तैनाथ बस्नको साथ साथै मोर्चा सरकारले यही बीललाई अर्को स्वरूपमा प्रयास गर्ने उद्देश्यलाई रोक्न फेरि पनि तयार बस्नु पर्छ र सफल हुनुपर्छ।
सत्ताधारी दलले एक पल्ट तानाशाही मनोवृत्ति देखाएपछि कुनै पनि क्षण उ आफ्नो त्यही स्वरूप देखाउन तयार रहेको हुन्छ। त्यसैले गर्दा राज्यवासीले आगामी दिनमा अत्यन्त सजगतासाथ यस्तो प्रवृत्ति विरूद्ध कडा निगरानी राख्नु पर्छ।
सरकारले आफ्नो गल्ती स्वीकार गऱ्योः एसएलपी
सिक्किम लिबरेशन पार्टी (एसएलपी) का प्रमुख संयोजक डुकनाथ नेपालले विधानसभामा विधेयक फिर्ता लिनु भनेको सरकाले गल्ती स्वीकार गऱ्यो। तिनले अझ भने सिक्किमे जनता र सबै विपक्षी दलको संयुक्त रूपमा उठाएको आवाजको प्रतिफल स्वरूप सरकार झुक्न बाध्य भयो। यसैगरि सरकारको निम्ति भविष्यमा शिक्षा पनि हो किन भने जनविरोधीको कुरो प्रजातन्त्रमा चल्दैन भन्ने प्रमाणित भएकोछ।
जनताको जीत होः सिहिराप
सिक्किम हिमाली राज्य परिषद पार्टी (सिहिराप) का अध्यक्ष डॉ. ए डी सुब्बाले सिक्किम जन व्यवस्था विचलन निषेध एंव नियन्त्रन विधेयक 2011 सदनले फिर्ता लिएकोमा जनताको जीत बताएका छन्। तिनले भने हाम्रो कार्यकर्ताले जे जति गरे त्यो जनताको पक्षमा विरोध गरेका हुन। जनता सडकमा उत्रिएर विरोध दर्ता गरेर नै आज ऐतिहासिक जित भएको छ।
सरकार गलत थियो र नै सरकारले फिर्ता लिनु पऱ्योःनास
सिक्किम जन व्यवस्था विचलन निषेध एंव नियन्त्रन विधेयक 2011को विरोधमा गत 24 अगस्तको दिन बिराट प्रतिवाद जुलुस निकालेर सरकारको खुल्ला विरोध गर्ने गैर राजनैतिक संगठन नागरिक अधिकार सुरक्षा संगठन सिक्किम (नास) का प्रमुख संयोजक एमएन दाहालले सरकारले ल्याएको विधेयक गलत थियो र नै हामीले विरोध गरेका थियौं। हामीले भनेका थियौं यदी सरकारले जनपक्षीय विधेयक ल्याएको छ भने विधानसभामा परित गरेर देखाओस तर सकेन किन भने त्यो गलत थियो र नै सरकारले फिर्ता लिन कर लाग्यो। तिनले भने, तर एसडीएफका प्रवक्ता भीम दाहालले गत 23 तारिकको दिनभरि स्थानीय मिडियामा लगातार कालो बील सेतो छ भनेर प्रचार गऱ्यो तर आज सरकारले फिर्ता लिनु परेको कारण त्यो नराम्रो थियो र नै फिर्ता लियो।
तिनले अझ भने,यो जित जनताको न्यायाको जित हो, हामी आशा गर्छौ भविष्यमा जनताको अधिकारमाथि हक अधिकार कुल्चिने प्रयास गरेर जनविरोधी कानुन बनिनेछैन्। तिनले अझ भने, जनताको विरोधमा हामीले होइन सरकारले नै षड्यन्त्र गरेको थियो भन्ने कुरो पुष्टि भएको छ। यस्तो एकोहोरे सोच राख्ने चरित्र भएको सरकारले निश्चय नै निरंकुशतालाई जन्म दिन्छ त्यसकारण जनताले यसको विरोध गर्न सधैं तत्पर हुनुपर्छ।
कसैले विरोध नगरि विधेयक फिर्ता भयोः एसएनपीपी
सिक्किमको विधानसभामा पुनः एकपल्ट जनविरोधी विधायक पेश भएर फिर्ता लिइँदा पनि कुनै प्रकारको विरोध दर्ता नगरिक फिर्ता हुनु दूर्भाग्य पूर्ण हो भन्दै सिक्किम नेशनल पिपल्स पार्टी (एसएनपीपी) का अध्यक्ष विराज आधिकारीले सदनका एक्लो विद्रोही नेताको रूपमा स्थापित पीएस तामांगले पनि आफ्नो विरोध दर्ता नगरेर आउँने भविष्यको निम्ति इतिहास लेखेर जान नसकेको बताए। यसैगरि तिनले जनताको जित बताउदै पहिले जस्तै कुनै विरोध विना नै विधेयक फिर्ता लिने परम्परा दोहोरिएको बताए। तिनले भने, जनतामा आफूले विधेयकको विरोध गरेको भएपनि सदनमा विधायक तामांगले विरोध दर्ता गरेर इतिहास रच्नु पर्ने थियो। सदनमा कुनै कडा प्रतिवाद नभइ विधेयक फिर्ता भयो।
अब सिक्किमे महिलाहरू आधी आकाश र धरतीको मालिक
सदनमा महिलाको निम्ति 50 प्रतिशत आरक्षण विधेयक पारीत
प्रवीण खालिंग, कालिमन्युज, गान्तोक, 26 अगस्त। सिक्किमका महिलाहरूलाई सक्दो सशक्तिकरण गर्ने राज्य सरकारको नीतिलाई कार्यरूपमा परिणत गर्दै विधनसभामा सिक्किम पञ्चायत ऐन संसोधन गरेर पञ्चायतमा महिलाहरूको निम्ति 50 प्रतिशत आसन आरक्षण गर्ने विधेयकलाई सदनले ध्वानी मतले समर्थन गरेपछि सदनले मोहर लगाइगदिएको छ। अब सिक्किमको 165 ग्राम पञ्चायत एकाईको 905 वार्ड मध्ये 452-53 वार्डमा महिला पञ्चायत सदस्य निर्वाचित हुनेछ। यसै गरि सिक्किमको जिल्ला पञ्चायतमा पनि महिलाहरूको सहभागिता 50 प्रतिशत हुनेछ। सिक्किमा जिल्ला पञ्चायतको 95 पद रहेको छ। विधानसभामा ग्रामीण प्रबन्धन तथा विकास विभागका मन्त्री सीबी कार्की द्वारा 11 अगस्तको दिन सदनमा पेश गरेको सिक्किम पञ्चायत ऐन (संसोधन) विधेयकलाई शुक्रबार सदनले ध्वानीमतले पारित गरेर मोहर लगायो। कुनै वहस विनै सदनमा बील पारित गरियो।
अर्कोतिर सदनको करवाही शुरु भएको लगभघ 15 मिनट भित्रै एक विधेयक फिर्ता गरियो भने 5 वटा संसोधित विधयेक पारित गरियो। यसैगरि एउटा संसोधित विधेयक पारित गरियो। आज सदनमा पारित भएको विधेयकहरूमा सिक्किमको विधायक, विधानसभा अध्यक्ष, उपाध्यक्ष आदिको वेतन वृद्धिको सन्दर्भमा राखिएको विधेयक, सिक्किम आवकारी ऐन (संसोधित) विधेयक पारित गरियो। जस अन्तर्गत अब उसो राज्यको मदिरा पसलहरूले 18 वर्ष भन्दा कम उमेरका युवाहरूलाई मदिरा बेच विखन गर्न नपाइने प्रावाधान राखेको छ। यदी यसो गरिएको खण्डमा जरिमाना, कारावास सहीत लाइसेन्स रद्द गरिने प्रवाधान रहेको छ। यसैगरि मुख्यमन्त्रीले गत 11 अगस्तको दिन पेश गरेको सिक्किम लोक अदालय (संसोधित) विधेयक र परिवहन मंत्री टीटी भोटियाले राखेको सिक्किम मोटर भेकल ट्याक्सेसन (संसोधित) विधेयक पनि पारित गरियो।
यसैगरि सदनमा पेश गर्न अघि नै चारधामा मन्दिर विधेयक पर्यटन मन्त्री भीम ढुंगेलले फिर्ता लिए भने शहरी विकास मन्त्री डीबी थापाले सिक्किम नगर निगम (संसोधित) विधेयक पेश गरे। उक्त विधेयकमाथि आगामी 29 अगस्तको दिन मतदान तथा बहस हुनेछ।
Cash in office or dry taps, says union - Darjeeling civic staff threaten to shut down emergency services
VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, Darjeeling, Aug. 26: The employees’ union at the Darjeeling municipality has threatened to shut down emergency services like conservancy and water supply if the old system of depositing taxes at the civic body is not revived.
The Darjeeling Municipality Employees’ Union, which claims to be an apolitical body, has been on a pen-down strike since August 4 to protest the new system under which residents have to deposit property tax with the Union Bank of India.
The employees are demanding that the citizens be allowed to pay the tax in the civic office as in the past.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which had maintained silence so long, today said it would try to broker peace between both the sides.
“We have decided to discuss the impasse at the municipality with our party leaders tomorrow. We hope a solution will emerge soon,” said Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri.
Allan Chhetri, the president of the union, said: “We have not heard a word from the district administration and we see no solution in sight. We are now seriously contemplating shutting down emergency services like conservancy and the water-works department as last resort. Our strike is causing inconvenience to the general public but we would like to appeal to them to bear with us as our demand is for the public’s convenience.”
District magistrate Mohan Gandhi held a meeting with the employees two days ago but no solution could be worked out.
“The district magistrate spoke on the lines of the subdivisional officer (who is also the chairperson of the board of administrators of the municipality). We have already rejected that proposal,” said Chhetri.
The union alleged that the decision to shift the payment of property taxes to the bank was taken without consulting employees. “Paying taxes at the bank would cause inconvenience to the general public as they have to scuttle between the bank and the office if there is a mismatch in records,” said Chhetri. “Sixteen employees responsible for collecting the tax are without work in the civic office now.”
The SDO had said he had introduced the new system to keep pace with time. The official believes such a move would slowly help introduce Net-banking in the town to enable the people to pay all bills from home.
Given the staunch stand taken by the unions, observers believe the administration might revert to the old system and let an elected body take further decision.
“After all, elections to the municipality are likely to take place soon now that the political problem has been settled in the hills. The administration will most likely avoid confrontation with the employees on small issues like this and leave the matter to the new elected body to take a call,” said an observer.
Tea tragedy on record - Figures on fingertips, Partha lists garden woes
TT, Calcutta, Aug. 26: A death-a-day human tragedy, economic perils and administrative apathy that are striking at the root of Bengal’s tea industry were given a statistical face today in the Assembly as figure after grim figure tumbled out.
Starting with the grimm, est, industries minister Partha Chatterjee said 3,500 people died in the last one decade in north Bengal tea gardens because of malnutrition, putting on government record the nearly one-death-a-day figure known by all but admitted by none.
Neither the administration nor the visiting health staff in the previous Left Front government had admitted that the workers in the closed gardens of the Dooars and Terai were suffering from malnutrition, a symptom not associated with square meals but with starvation.
In response to a question, Chatterjee said: “This is on record, 3,500 garden labourers have died of malnutrition in the last decade. It has been quoted in the Supreme Court.”
An industries department official said the apex court got the figure after social activist Anuradha Talwar carried out an on-the-spot survey in the closed tea gardens in north Bengal after instructions from the court in 2003.
“We are trying to improve and intervene in areas where it is practically possible…, starting from assuring payment of wages to the improvement of tea quality. We have to shift from mass production to producing tea of distinction, of which we have a history that we are proud of,” he said.
Chatterjee said tea production in the state has increased by 19 per cent in the last decade but export has come down as quality has been hit, a charge that planters denied.
In 2001, Bengal’s tea production was 192 million kg while in 2011, it had grown to 228 million kg, the minister said. “There had been a 19 per cent increase in the state’s production in the last decade, while the country's production over the same period had increased by 14 per cent,” he added. “Exports, however, had come down over this period because of a fall in the quality of tea,” the minister told the House.
Chatterjee’s observation on quality comes at a time when the industry has been trying to grapple with workers’ shutdowns and strikes for revision of wages.
The minister also said an eight-year-old recommendation that the government and the planters share the social cost of the workers would be looked into.
Planters in north Bengal said Chatterjee’s remark on quality influencing export must have been on CTC tea, which is grown in the foothills or the Dooars and the Terai. “For, the demand for Darjeeling tea has been consistent in the international market,” said K.K. Mintri, a planter from Siliguri.
Mintri, however, said the export of CTC tea has come down because of higher prices that Indian manufacturers are forced to demand from international buyers as a result of the higher cost of production.
“CTC tea has good competition from countries like Vietnam and Kenya which produce similar tea and can afford to sell at lesser prices,” Mintri said. The planter said buyers for CTC are mostly from Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Russia, unlike Darjeeling tea, which is exported to European countries and the US.
U.B. Das, the principal adviser to the Indian Tea Planters’ Association, claimed that other countries could produce tea at lower cost because the fringe benefits and wages provided to workers there were less than what was given here.
“The only way to slash prices in international market is to bring down the cost of production. This will not be possible unless the state and the Centre shoulder some of the responsibilities,” he said. The workers here get a daily wage of Rs 67 and benefits like PF, gratuity housing, ration, free medical aid and education facilities for children.
The trade wing of Chatterjee’s party, Trinamul, which has been trying to curb bandhs in gardens, has demanded Rs 130, the same amount paid under the 100-days central job scheme. The rural job scheme has been often blamed by planters for absenteeism among workers.
Asked by Congress’s Alipurduar MLA D.P. Roy if an inter-ministerial committee recommendation in 2003 to the government to share the social cost of workers with the planters had been considered, the minister replied it was still pending. “But steps are being taken — a separate secretariat is being set up in north Bengal, and experts are being consulted. The situation will change soon,” he said.
Sikkim scraps public order bill
TT, Gangtok, Aug. 26: The Sikkim Democratic Front-government today quietly withdrew the disputed bill that sought to ban hunger strikes and bandhs on the pretext of preserving public order.
Speaker K.T. Gyaltsen announced that a notice of motion for withdrawal of the Sikkim Prevention and Control of Disturbance of Public Order Bill had been received from the government on August 14.
The motion was put to vote and passed instantaneously following which the Speaker announced the bill as withdrawn.
Chief minister Pawan Chamling, who had tabled the Public Order bill on August 11, also joined the “ayes” for its withdrawal. The bill was to have been put to vote today in the Assembly where all 32 MLAs belong to the SDF. The Opposition parties had been protesting vociferously against the “black bill”, which also seeks to ban squatting, sloganeering and waving of black flags — anything with the potential to “harm public order”.
Governor Balmiki Prasad Singh had also “advised the state government to withdraw the bill”.The Opposition parties, which alleged that the bill had been introduced with the aim to suppress any democratic forms of protests in Sikkim, hailed the withdrawal as a “victory of the people”.
“It is a historic victory for the people. However, we cannot be confident that such bills will not be brought into the Assembly again and hence, the people need to remain alert,” said Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee acting president Kunga Nima Lepcha.
The BJP warned the people against being complacent. “It is a not a big issue that the SDF government has withdrawn the bill. It could again try to suppress the voices of the people with another bill. The people should not remain complacent,” said state BJP president Padam Chettri.
The Nagarik Adikhar Suraksha Sangathan Sikkim, which claims to be an apolitical forum, said the “bill was wrong”. “This is a victory of the people… the government was compelled to withdraw it despite face-saving statements given by SDF spokespersons,” said NASSS chief coordinator MN Dahal.
The NASSS had taken out a huge protest rally on Wednesday in Gangtok to demand its withdrawal in the Assembly.
The Assembly today passed the Sikkim Panchayat (Amendment) Bill which seeks to ensure 50 per cent reservation for women in gram panchayats and territorial constituencies of the zilla panchayats in Sikkim.
Smuggler killed in forest raid
TT, Alipurduar, Aug. 26: A suspected timber smuggler was killed and two forest staff members were injured in an encounter between a patrol team and a gang at Moraghat this morning.
Around 1.30am, a team of five foresters on patrol spotted some smugglers felling a tree at compartment I of north Moraghat. The area is under Jalpaiguri division.
When the foresters challenged the smugglers, the gang surrounded them. “The patrol team fired one round in the air to disperse the gang but instead of going away, the smugglers threatened our staff,” Kalyan Das, the divisional forest officer of Jalpaiguri, said. He added that the 20-25 member gang attacked the guards with daggers, arrows and stones.
In the scuffle two forest staffs were injured. They have been admitted to the Birpara State General Hospital. “The foresters had to fire one more round in the air for their own safety,” said Das. He added that the patrol team spotted an injured member of the gang and took him to the Dhupguri rural hospital where the doctors pronounced him brought dead. “We suspect that he died in the firing,” said the DFO.
Corruption And Its Discontents
Niranjan Ramakrishnan, Countercurrents.org, KalimNews, 26 August, 2011:
Hazare ke Khwaishen aisi ki har Khwaish ho-hum nikale
Bahut nikale unke demands phir bhi kam nikale
(with apologies to Mirza Ghalib)
Judging from the New York Times and the Washington Post, urban India is abuzz with the idea of banishing corruption. Photographs of peaceful marchers filling a giant overpass have made front-page news. Anna Hazare, whose arrest and fast have ignited the stir in cities all across India and amongst Indian groups abroad, is now a well-known figure. The fast, meetings, and protests are being billed as nothing less than a second Freedom Movement.
That last accreditation is in perfect pitch with an intelligentsia cut adrift from any sense of proportion, as befitting one that till only the other day was capable of considering Manmohan Singh a more significant reformer than Mahatma Gandhi.
Amid all the din it is easy to forget the lofty purpose of the Second Freedom Movement. It is for the appointment of an ombudsman and a subsidiary bureaucracy to oversee allegations of corruption amongst government officials. One may just as soon label a demand for Web access to one's income tax records as the second Declaration of Independence.
Owing perhaps to his experiences as a lawyer, Gandhi did not view some new law as the panacea to every social, economic or political problem. He pinned a lot more importance on the renewal of the human being. Gandhi believed that the quality of any country ultimately depends on the quality of its people. His abhorrence of legal cleverness as a means to fixing human problems is best illustrated by EF Schumacher in his classic, Small Is Beautiful,
" Gandhi used to talk disparagingly of 'dreaming of systems so perfect that no-one will need to be good'. "
That corruption is the scourge of daily existence in India as in few other countries may be entirely true. Ordinary people in everyday life have to pay bribes all the way from getting a driver's license to obtaining a housing permit. Certainly many of these are paid to government officials, big and small. The same government officials have to bribe others in their capacity as applicants. Corruption is many things to many people.
What Anna Hazare and his acolytes seem to forget is that corruption is not limited to the government. They also appear to believe that the appointment of eminent Indians to some overseeing council would somehow ensure moral chastity. If credentials alone, or even a personal reputation for incorruptibility, were such strong safeguards, the administration of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should be a showcase for civics textbooks on model governance. Instead, it is considered the fount of malpractice and graft on a gargantuan scale, with many reckoning it presides over the most corrupt dispensation in independent India's history.
Neither the protesters nor the government want to address the issue of corruption in India in its deeper essence. Is it an obscenity only when a government official receives a bribe? What about corruption of the conscience? For instance, is it corruption when someone can build a 60 story skyscraper for a personal residence in a country where millions of children go to bed malnourished? Gandhi again,
"Every palace that one sees in India is a demonstration, not of her riches, but of the insolence of power that riches give to the few, who owe them to the miserably requited labours of the millions of the paupers of India."
Even though there seems to be a palpable correlation between the size and scope of scams in India and Manmohan Singh's neoliberal initiatives starting in the early 90s, Anna Hazare and his wise counselors don’t seem to want to see it. And amidst all his ineptitude in dealing with this latest crisis, practically the first words out of the Prime Minister’s mouth were to caution that it would be wrong to connect corruption with economic liberalization.
As veteran journalist Alexander Cockburn is fond of saying, "never believe anything until it is officially denied".
In 1991, Manmohan Singh, finance Minister in a minority government, kicked off a 'liberalization' program laying the foundation for a two decade neoliberal spree. It has turned some 250 million Indian citizens into celebrated ‘consumers’, but distorted any measure of what Professor Amartya Sen would call ‘social choice'. In this new order, what is good for consumerism and high living is alone good for India, whatever its cost by way of farmer suicides, uprooting of entire villages, pollution of the water table, or handing over of India's agricultural future to the GMO boys at Monsanto and elsewhere. The lone measure of success in this Eastern Wild-West is something called growth rate; the ethos it has spawned would both amaze and gratify Gordon "Greed Is Good" Gecko.
Gandhi's diagnosis and cure for India's corruption epidemic would probably involve a lot more pain and sacrifice than a few marches. He might point out that in a milieu where leaders openly promote moneymaking as the most important virtue, and an elite esteems itself by the extent of its ostentation, corruption would only find a conducive habitat. He would reject recourse to some bill, not for some technical shortcomings, but perhaps saying that reliance on such measures would "diminish the moral height" of Indians, just as his khadi movement urged Indians to boycott foreign cloth and adopt the rougher and costlier homespun, instead of a fast outside the Viceroy’s palace pleading for a ban on English mill imports.
The fervid and often uncivil jousting between "civil society" on the one side and the gentleman Prime Minister’s cabinet on the other, poring over fine points of an anticorruption bill while taking care never to mention the 800 pound gorilla parked in the middle of the room, reminded me of something I had read long ago.
“One of the greatest of the Bengali novelists of the 20th century, Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, has summed up the underlying principle of Hindu behavior in a neat, if cynical, epigram. He makes a woman who had a low-caste paramour boast that although she lived 20 years with him she had not for a single day allowed him to enter her kitchen.”- Nirad Chaudhuri, Autobiography of an Unknown Indian
(Niranjan Ramakrishnan is a writer living in the United States. He can be reached at njn_2003@yahoo.com)
Some Thoughts On Corruption
Mukul Dube,Mainstream weekly, KalimNews, 26 August, 2011: A friend (another grouchy old man like me) says that it is impossible to wipe out corruption in India. He says that we Indians always want things out of turn, we want things and privileges to which we are not entitled, that we are unwilling to wait for others or with them. He gives the example of a queue at a post office, which is never straight and orderly because no one wants to wait his turn and so tries to jump ahead. Another example is the car driver who is not content to stay behind the vehicle in front but will always try to sneak past it from this side or that, even when that blocks other traffic.
Another friend holds that corruption is, in India, a way of life, something that has been around for centuries or longer. My own experience at age 9 bears this out. I was witness to money changing hands for the grant of what was no more than an ordinary right. This puzzled me and I sought an explanation. The only answer I got centred around the word “dastoor”. Its meaning was that bribes had always been given and would always be given: and the ordinary people should just go on giving them without raising irrelevant and unseemly questions.
Later, in my 20s, I saw that villagers in western U.P. knew exactly what they would have to spend to get what they wanted from the sarkari persons in charge: not privileges but actions which were the duty of the officials. In the same way, the touts at the Tilak Marg Regional Transport Office in Delhi could rattle off from memory the current “rate chart” for different services. The official rate chart was painted on a large board, but that was of no value to someone going for a driver’s licence or a duplicate registration certificate.
For decades we have had the myth of the “trickle down effect”, which says that if the rich make money, some of that will go down to the poor. This is of course a justification for not having arrangements to ensure that the moneyed and privileged do not feast overmuch on the labour of the toiling people.
In absolute terms, the poor do gain as a result of this “trickling down”. It can be asked, however, if their gain bears any relation to what is gained by the rich and powerful. Today’s India gives a clear answer. While the middle class can have modern motor vehicles and consumer durables comparable to those in the West, the labourer or the mill worker or the artisan still cannot afford a cheap bicycle, only partly because even the cheapest bicycles are no longer cheap. Nor can the tailor who mends my clothes afford the hundreds of rupees now needed to treat his child’s simple viral fever: to him the many luxurious new hospitals that people crow about are as irrelevant as fancy hotels where tea and a samosa would mean two days’ wages.
It is said by supporters of the Lokpal project that all will benefit if corruption is checked: the salary earner and the halvai and (to be “politically correct”) the safai karmachari too. A silly dream which cannot ever be permitted by the crowning vileness of Indian society: the caste system and, in particular, the idea of untouchability.
The reality today is that Dalits must pay the same bribes as everyone else, but they must also purchase a temporary exemption from dalithood, a one-time licence to not be discriminated against. Even if the bribes are removed, they will continue to be required to pay for the right to be treated as human beings. I speak here only of equality under the State. The larger and more fundamental matter of equality in society cannot easily be bought, and for the foreseeable future the Dalits will continue to be discriminated against, to be exploited, to have atrocities perpetrated upon them.
I agree with those who hold that the underlying inhumanity is the worst form of corruption, which no Lokpal can dent even slightly. Our societal arrangements are corrupt at the core: no other evil in the whole world even comes close.
The Constitution of India is not perfect, but there is no denying that it has done much good for “low” castes and for religious and other minorities. If nothing else, it has protected them from the many bad things that could have happened to them. There are many who see in the present Jan Lokpal proposals a threat to that document, which has formed the basis of India’s admittedly faulty society and democracy since Independence. They fear, and I think with justification, that the even the limited benefits of protective discrimination will be taken away from them.
The talk we have heard of “licence-permit raj” is one expression of the view that it is the bureaucracy that is the root of corruption in India. The size and powers of officialdom have been growing constantly (I am reminded of the old joke that this will not stop until every Indian is, from infancy, a sarkari afsar). It is difficult to see how corruption, if indeed it is a product of bureaucracy, can be banished by adding yet another arm to that already very bloated structure. Simple logic tells us that more officials can only mean more bribery.
Given that Shri A. Raja, Shri Kalmadi and a few others are in prison because of the existing laws, it would seem rational to ask not for a gigantic separate mechanism but only for the laws we already have to be implemented rigorously. This will probably need amendments and further legislation: but it will be far less damaging than the setting up of an edifice with an unheard of concentration of powers that will place it above Parliament itself. There is truth in the adage that two workers cannot at once use the same hammer on the same piece of wood.
No discussion of corruption in India can at this time be complete without speaking of Shri Kisan Baburao Hazare. Here is an extract from Mukul Sharma's widely read article on him: "A belief system of force and punishment, liberal use of Hindu religious symbols, strict rules and codes, evocation of nationalism and ultra-nationalism, ‘pure’ morality and caste hierarchies, with a marginalisation of women, Muslims and Dalits, form the core of his village regeneration" (http://kafila.org/2011/04/12/the-making-of-anna-hazare/).
Despite Hazare's denials in the face of Congress accusations, there has been a connection between him and the RSS. Here is a report on Swayamsevak Narendra Damodardas Modi: "Even as he thanked activist Anna Hazare for having praised his rural development activities in the state, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi claimed it was the RSS that had first educated him about Hazare’s work in villages" (http://www.hindustantimes.com/Heard-of-Hazare-through-RSS-Modi/Article1-684107.aspx). The RSS is not known for praising people whom it does not support totally: and those are usually members of its "family". Apparently it praised Hazare constantly, for Modi wrote to him, "national leaders of the RSS who came to attend our meetings invariably discussed your rural development activities..." (ibid.).
I cannot resist the temptation to reproduce Hazare's denial of any association with the RSS, a marvel of juvenile Gandhian-military psychiatry. "Social activist Anna Hazare on Saturday slammed the Congress for alleging that his agitation was backed by the BJP and the RSS. 'People who are saying such things should be sent to mental hospital', he said" (http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2375617.ece).
Some say that the Hindutva brigade is "riding piggy-back" on the Anna Wave, while others say that it is guiding the wave from behind the scenes. I see no reason why both should not be correct. I see no reason why Hazare should not be described as essentially a mascot. That he seems to be having a grand time is neither here nor there.
तिनले मोर्चाका नेताहरूलाई पद र पैसामा किनेर विमल गुरूङलाई पनि धोकामा राखेर जुन ऐतिहासिक भूल गर्यो, त्यसको परिणति अब देखिन शुरू भएको पनि बताउँदै भने, अघिबाट नै कानून विभागमा पठाएर सबै कुरा ठीकठाक रहेको भनिएको जीटीएको बील फेरि कानून विभागमा पुग्नुले मोर्चाको बुद्धिजीवीहरूको बुद्धि र दलाली स्पष्ट हुन्छ। वास्तवमा मुख्यमन्त्रीले आफै हस्तक्षेप गर्ने प्रशासन पहाडमा स्थापित गरेको उचित हुनेथियो किन भने पहाडमा फेरि दोस्रो घिसिङ जन्मिन पाउने थिएन।
तिनले अझ भने, सम्झौता नाटक मात्र थियो अब सम्झौतापत्रमा भएका अधिकारहरू छॉंटेर मोर्चाको योग्यता अनुसारको दागोपाप मात्र थमाउने चलखेल केन्द्रियस्तरमा भइरहेको छ। तिनले खरसाङमा भएको गोरामुमोमाथि गोजमुमोको आक्रमणले पनि मोर्चाको मानसिकता र घिसिङे प्रवृति स्पष्ट देखिने बताए। तिनले भने, के गोजमुमोबाहेक अरू कुनै पनि दलले राजनीति गर्न पाउँदैन? यसको उत्तर पाउँदैन हुन्छ भने उनीहरू गणतन्त्रका हत्यारा हुन्, यस्ता हत्याराको स्थापना ममता व्यनर्जी र विमल गुरूङले गरेका हुन्। इतिहासका दोषीहरूलाई समयले माफ गर्नेछैन।
जनतालाई अत्याचार गर्न र एकक्षत्र तानाशाह बुद्धदेवले घिसिङ अनि ममताले विमल जन्माएर गोर्खाहरूको मूल मुद्दा दबाउने काम भएको कुरा जनतालाई बुझाउन फोरमले शीघ्र्र नै जनसभाको आयोजना दार्जीलिङमा गर्ने बताउँदै तिनले भने, गणतन्त्रका हत्यारा सरकार र मोर्चाको आन्द्राभुँडी गॉंसिएकोले हाम्रो कार्यक्रममा बाधा हुनसक्छ। तरै पनि हामी जनतालाई कुरा राखेर नै छोड्नेछौं। सरकार बद्लिए पनि बङ्गालमा गोर्खालाई दमन गर्ने नीति नबद्लिएको अनि पार्टी बद्लिए पनि पहाडमा तानाशाह नबद्लिएको बताउँदै भने, अत्याचार धेर भयो भने पड्किन्छ।
जीटीएको विरूद्ध बङ्गालबाट मुक्तिको निम्ति जनता एक हुन अब समय लाग्नेछैन। तिनले मोर्चाले अहिलेसम्म जति पनि ज्यानमालको क्षति गरेको छ, त्यसका दोषीहरूलाई कानूनी कार्वाही गर्नुपर्ने माग पनि राखेका छन्। तिनले भने, नत्र हामी उचित ठाउँमा निवेदन गर्नेछौं। हाइकोर्टमा पीआईएल गर्नेछौं। विमल गुरूङले जीटीएलाई गोर्खाल्याण्ड भन्दा पनि राम्रो बताइरहेको सन्दर्भमा तिनले विमल गुरूङबाट आइरहेको केहीदिनको टिप्पणीले नै तिनले जीटीए थापेको पैसाको निम्ति मात्र रहेको स्पष्ट भएको बताउँदै विमल गुरूङले पैसाको निम्ति बार्गेनिङ शुरू गरेको बताए।
जीटीएले जनतालाई फाइदा नहुने तर स्टडीफोरमका नेताहरूको निम्ति भने पुरै बन्दोबस्त भइरहेको बताउँदै तिनले भने, फोरमका तीनजना प्रतिनिधि त विधायक बनिहाले, एकजना बङ्गालको प्राइमेरी स्कूल बोर्डको दार्जीलिङ जिल्लाको चेयरम्यान छन्। अब रहेकालाई स्कूल सर्विस कमिशन, पव्लिक कमिशन अनि नेपाली एकाडेमी ठिक्क छ। एकजना सिन्कोनाको डाइरेक्टरको पदको निम्ति तयार छन्। एकजना बङ्गाल र जीटीएको कोअर्डिनेटर छन्, यता कन्ट्राक्टरहरू प्रसस्तै, नेताहरूको निम्ति कमिशन छ तर जनतालाई के छ धोकाबाहेक? तिनले 3,720 जना अस्थायी कर्मचारीहरूलाई वामफ्रण्ट सरकारले स्थायी गर्ने भएको थियो, ममता र जीटीएले के गर्यो? भन्ने प्रश्न उठाउँदै अलगराज्यले नै सबै समस्याको समाधान गर्ने बताए।
सिक्किम विधानसभामा विवादीत विधेयक फिर्ता
प्रवीण खालिंग, कालिमन्युज, गान्तोक, 26 अगस्त। सिक्किमको प्रजातन्त्रको इतिहासमा पहिलो पल्ट विधानसभामा प्रस्तुत हुनसाथै चर्को विवादको घेरोमा परेको सिक्किम जन व्यवस्था विचलन निषेध एंव नियन्त्रन विधेयक 2011 लाई राज्य सरकारले सदनमा आधिकारीक रूपमा फिर्ता गऱ्यो। सिक्किम विधान सभाको बजेट सत्रको दोस्रो भाग निम्ति बसेको सदनमा अध्यक्ष के टी ग्याल्छेनले प्रोसिडिंग रूल्स 104 लाई प्रयोग गर्दै गत 11 अगस्तको दिन मुख्यमन्त्री तथा गृह विभागका प्रभारी मन्त्री पवन चामलिङले पेश गरेको विधेयक फिर्ता लिने घोषणा गर्दै सदनका सदस्यहरूलाई समर्थनमा हात उठाउने आग्रह गरेपछि मुख्यमन्त्री लगायत सदनमा उपस्थित अन्य 30 जना सदस्यले हात उठाएर विधेयक फिर्ता गर्ने सहमति जनाए।
आज सदनमा राज्यका विपक्षी पार्टी र गैर राजनैतिक संस्थाहरूले माग गरेअनुसार विधेयक फिर्ता लिइने क्रममा मुख्यमन्त्रीले सिक्किमे जानतालाई माफी भने मागेनन् न तर विधेयकबारे कुनै चर्चा अथवा बहस नै भयो। यद्यपी राज्य सरकारले यो विवादीत विधेयकलाई फिर्ता लिएर राज्यवासी जनताको आवाजलाई सम्मान गरेरको देखियो।
ज्ञात रहोस् गत 11 अगस्तको दिन विधानसभामा सदनका नेता तथा मुख्यमन्त्री पवन चामलिङले कथित कालो बील प्रस्तुत गरेपछि राज्यको राजनैतिक उतप्त बडेको थियो। राज्यका विपक्षी पार्टीहरू यसलाई हतियारको रूपमा प्रयोग गर्दै विरोधको निम्ति सडकमा ओर्लेर सरकारलाई घेरेका थिए। जसमा सबैभन्दा पहिले सिक्किम हिमाली राज्य परिषद पार्टीले विरोधको निम्ति अघि आएर पश्चिम सिक्किमको गेरेथाङमा मुख्यमन्त्रीको पुत्ला दहन गरेको थियो। यसैगरि लगातार विरोध गर्दै सडकमा उत्रिएर 14 अगस्तको दिन राजाधानी के सिसा गोलाइमा खुल्ला रूपमा कालो बीलको विऱोध गर्दै 8 जना सिहिराप कार्यकर्ताले मुख्यन्त्रीको पुत्ला जलाउँदै 20 मिनटसम्म राष्ट्रिय राजमार्ग जाम गरेको थियो। यसैगरि माकपा, एसएनपीपी, सिक्किम प्रदेश कंग्रेस, भाजपा, सिक्किम लिबरेशन पार्टीले संयुक्त बयान जारी गर्दै एकै मञ्चबाट बीलको विरोध गर्दै राज्यपाल र राष्ट्रपतिसम्मालाई गुहार लगाएका थिए।
अर्कोतिर 15 अगस्तको दिन राज्यपाल बीपी सिंह ने राज्य सरकारलाई यो बील फिर्ता लिने एक लाइनको सुझाउ मिडिया मार्फत जारी गरे पछि राज्य सरकारको सूचना तथा जनसंपर्क विभागले 16 अगस्तको प्रेस वक्तव्य जारी गर्दै विधेयक फिर्ता लिइए घोषणा गरेको थियो। यद्यपी बीलको विरोधमा लागातार आन्दोलन भने जारी थियो। यसैक्रमा सिक्किम नागरिक अधिकार सुरक्षा संगठन, सिक्किम (नास) 17 अगस्तको दिन गठन भएपछि 24 अगस्तको दिन विराट प्रतिवाद जुलुस आयोजन गरेर कथित कालो बीलको खेस्रा जलाएर विरोध जनाए। यसका साथै राज्यको जनताको जिब्रो काट्ने कार्य गरिएको दावी गर्दै मुख्यमन्त्रीले जनताको समक्ष माफि माग्नु पर्ने माग राखेको थियो। सरकारले विधेयक फिर्ता लिए पनि माफी माग्ने मागलाई भने पुरा गरेन।
विधेयकको व्याख्यान 3 माथि आपत्ती रहेको थियो। जसमा कालो झण्डा उठाउन, जुलुस, भोक हड्ताल, ऱ्याली प्रदर्शन आदि गरेर साम्प्रदायिक सद्भावना विथोल्ने तथा जात-जातिमा विद्वेष सिर्जना गर्ने विरोधहरूमाथि प्रतिबन्ध लगाउने बताइएको छ। जसलाई राज्यका विपक्षी दल र नागरिक समाजले प्रजातन्त्रको घाँटी निमोठ्ने प्रयास बताउँदै आन्दोलमा शुरु गरेका थिए।
बील फिर्ताबारे सिक्किमको विपक्षी र नागरिक समाजको मन्तव्य - पुनः जनविरोधी विधेयक ल्याउसक्छ जनता सतर्क हुनुपर्छःविपक्षी
प्रवीण खालिंग, कालिमन्युज, गान्तोक, 26 अगस्त। सिक्किम सरकारद्वारा राज्यव्यापी आन्दोलन र दबाउ सिर्जना भएपछि 11 अगस्तको दिन सदनमा पेश गरिएको विवादास्पद विधेयक सिक्किम जन व्यवस्था विचलन निषेध एंव नियन्त्रन विधेयक 2011 लाई शुक्रबार फिर्ता लिए पनि राज्यका विपक्षी समुहले सरकारको निर्णयलाई स्वागत जनाउको साटो निकट भविष्यमा पुनः यस्तै विधेयक पारित गरेर जनताको जिब्रो काट्न सक्ने अड्कल काट्दै सतर्क बस्नुपर्ने बताएको छ। यसैगरि सरकारले विधानसभामा विधेयक फिर्ता लिनुको हर्क मनाउनु भन्दा भविष्यमा पुनः प्रजातन्त्र विरोधी कानुन बनिन सक्ने तथा राज्य सरकारले सिक्किम जनतालाई कुन स्तरमा राख्न चहान्छ भन्ने यो विधेयक ल्याएर सरकारले स्पष्ट पारि सकेको मन्तव्य जाहेर गरेका छन्।
1997 को इम्प्लोइमेन्ट एक्सचेन्ज जस्तो सुटुकै यो विधेयक पास गर्नसक्छः प्रदेश कंग्रेस
सिक्किम प्रदेश कंग्रेसका कार्यवाहक अध्यक्ष कुङ्गा निमा लेप्चाले सिक्किम जन व्यवस्था विचलन निषेध एंव नियन्त्रन विधेयक 2011 लाई सरकाले फिर्ता लिनु जनताको ऐतिहासिक जित बताएका छन्। यद्यपी तिनले यो विधेयक फिर्ता लिएर सदनमा फेरि आउन सक्दैन भन्ने कुरामा विश्वास गर्न नसकिने बताउँदै यस भन्दा पहिले पनि सरकारले जनतालाई धोका दिएको बताउँदै भने, 1997 मा इम्प्लोइमेन्ट एक्सचेज लागु गर्न अघि जनआन्दोलन हुँदा फिर्ता लिएको भए पनि पछि सुटुक्कै लगाएको थियो। यसरी नै यो विधेयकबारे पनि जनता सतर्क हुनु पर्छ। तिनले भने हामी यसमा राजनैतिक फायदा लिन चहाँदैनौं तर यो जित जनताको ऐतिहासिक जित हो,जनताको प्रजातान्त्रीक अधिकार खोस्ने सक्दो प्रयास गरेको थियो तर जनताको अघि हार भयो,तिनले भने।
सरकारको जनताप्रतिको नियतको स्पष्ट भइसकेको छः भाजपा
भारतीय जनता पार्टीका राज्य अध्यक्ष पदम बहादुर छेत्रीले सदनबाट सिक्किम जन व्यवस्था विचलन निषेध एंव नियन्त्रन विधेयक 2011 फिर्ता गरिएकोमा स्वागत गर्ने स्थिति नरहेको बताउँदै भने, पवन चामलिङले विधानसभामा विधेयक फिर्ता गर्नु ठूलो कुरो होइन्। यसलाई फेरि पनि जनताको आवाज दवाउन प्रस्तुत गर्न सक्छ त्यसकारण सिक्किमे जनता ढुक्क भएर बस्नु हुँदैन। यसपाली विधानसभामा जुन जनविरोधी विधेयक पेश गऱ्यो त्यसैले एसडीएफ सरकारको सिक्किमे जनता प्रतिको नियत स्पष्ट भएको छ। जनता राजनैतिक दल, राज्यपाल र केन्द्र सरकारको दवाउमा मात्र एसडीएफ सरकारले वाध्य भएर यो विधेयक फिर्ता गर्न कर लागेको हो।
फेरि अर्को रूपमा विधेयक आउँदा रोक्न सक्ने जनता तयार हुनुपर्छः माकपा
यसैगरि मार्क्सवादी कम्युनिष्ट पार्टी (माकपा)-का सिक्किम राज्य समिति सदस्य अञ्जन उपाध्याय सबै भन्दा पहिला विपक्षी दल र राष्ट्रिय स्तरमै मिडिया र सिक्किमे आम जनताको विरोधमा पवन चामलिङले यो विधेयक फिर्ता लिन कर लागेको हो। तर सिक्किम प्रजातान्त्रीक मोर्चाले स्थगीत भनेर घोषणा गरेको त्यो सिक्किम जनताको आवाजलाई लत्याउने स्पष्ट झल्कीएको हुनाले यसको विरूद्धमा सिक्किमे जनता सदैव तैनाथ बस्नको साथ साथै मोर्चा सरकारले यही बीललाई अर्को स्वरूपमा प्रयास गर्ने उद्देश्यलाई रोक्न फेरि पनि तयार बस्नु पर्छ र सफल हुनुपर्छ।
सत्ताधारी दलले एक पल्ट तानाशाही मनोवृत्ति देखाएपछि कुनै पनि क्षण उ आफ्नो त्यही स्वरूप देखाउन तयार रहेको हुन्छ। त्यसैले गर्दा राज्यवासीले आगामी दिनमा अत्यन्त सजगतासाथ यस्तो प्रवृत्ति विरूद्ध कडा निगरानी राख्नु पर्छ।
सरकारले आफ्नो गल्ती स्वीकार गऱ्योः एसएलपी
सिक्किम लिबरेशन पार्टी (एसएलपी) का प्रमुख संयोजक डुकनाथ नेपालले विधानसभामा विधेयक फिर्ता लिनु भनेको सरकाले गल्ती स्वीकार गऱ्यो। तिनले अझ भने सिक्किमे जनता र सबै विपक्षी दलको संयुक्त रूपमा उठाएको आवाजको प्रतिफल स्वरूप सरकार झुक्न बाध्य भयो। यसैगरि सरकारको निम्ति भविष्यमा शिक्षा पनि हो किन भने जनविरोधीको कुरो प्रजातन्त्रमा चल्दैन भन्ने प्रमाणित भएकोछ।
जनताको जीत होः सिहिराप
सिक्किम हिमाली राज्य परिषद पार्टी (सिहिराप) का अध्यक्ष डॉ. ए डी सुब्बाले सिक्किम जन व्यवस्था विचलन निषेध एंव नियन्त्रन विधेयक 2011 सदनले फिर्ता लिएकोमा जनताको जीत बताएका छन्। तिनले भने हाम्रो कार्यकर्ताले जे जति गरे त्यो जनताको पक्षमा विरोध गरेका हुन। जनता सडकमा उत्रिएर विरोध दर्ता गरेर नै आज ऐतिहासिक जित भएको छ।
सरकार गलत थियो र नै सरकारले फिर्ता लिनु पऱ्योःनास
सिक्किम जन व्यवस्था विचलन निषेध एंव नियन्त्रन विधेयक 2011को विरोधमा गत 24 अगस्तको दिन बिराट प्रतिवाद जुलुस निकालेर सरकारको खुल्ला विरोध गर्ने गैर राजनैतिक संगठन नागरिक अधिकार सुरक्षा संगठन सिक्किम (नास) का प्रमुख संयोजक एमएन दाहालले सरकारले ल्याएको विधेयक गलत थियो र नै हामीले विरोध गरेका थियौं। हामीले भनेका थियौं यदी सरकारले जनपक्षीय विधेयक ल्याएको छ भने विधानसभामा परित गरेर देखाओस तर सकेन किन भने त्यो गलत थियो र नै सरकारले फिर्ता लिन कर लाग्यो। तिनले भने, तर एसडीएफका प्रवक्ता भीम दाहालले गत 23 तारिकको दिनभरि स्थानीय मिडियामा लगातार कालो बील सेतो छ भनेर प्रचार गऱ्यो तर आज सरकारले फिर्ता लिनु परेको कारण त्यो नराम्रो थियो र नै फिर्ता लियो।
तिनले अझ भने,यो जित जनताको न्यायाको जित हो, हामी आशा गर्छौ भविष्यमा जनताको अधिकारमाथि हक अधिकार कुल्चिने प्रयास गरेर जनविरोधी कानुन बनिनेछैन्। तिनले अझ भने, जनताको विरोधमा हामीले होइन सरकारले नै षड्यन्त्र गरेको थियो भन्ने कुरो पुष्टि भएको छ। यस्तो एकोहोरे सोच राख्ने चरित्र भएको सरकारले निश्चय नै निरंकुशतालाई जन्म दिन्छ त्यसकारण जनताले यसको विरोध गर्न सधैं तत्पर हुनुपर्छ।
कसैले विरोध नगरि विधेयक फिर्ता भयोः एसएनपीपी
सिक्किमको विधानसभामा पुनः एकपल्ट जनविरोधी विधायक पेश भएर फिर्ता लिइँदा पनि कुनै प्रकारको विरोध दर्ता नगरिक फिर्ता हुनु दूर्भाग्य पूर्ण हो भन्दै सिक्किम नेशनल पिपल्स पार्टी (एसएनपीपी) का अध्यक्ष विराज आधिकारीले सदनका एक्लो विद्रोही नेताको रूपमा स्थापित पीएस तामांगले पनि आफ्नो विरोध दर्ता नगरेर आउँने भविष्यको निम्ति इतिहास लेखेर जान नसकेको बताए। यसैगरि तिनले जनताको जित बताउदै पहिले जस्तै कुनै विरोध विना नै विधेयक फिर्ता लिने परम्परा दोहोरिएको बताए। तिनले भने, जनतामा आफूले विधेयकको विरोध गरेको भएपनि सदनमा विधायक तामांगले विरोध दर्ता गरेर इतिहास रच्नु पर्ने थियो। सदनमा कुनै कडा प्रतिवाद नभइ विधेयक फिर्ता भयो।
अब सिक्किमे महिलाहरू आधी आकाश र धरतीको मालिक
सदनमा महिलाको निम्ति 50 प्रतिशत आरक्षण विधेयक पारीत
प्रवीण खालिंग, कालिमन्युज, गान्तोक, 26 अगस्त। सिक्किमका महिलाहरूलाई सक्दो सशक्तिकरण गर्ने राज्य सरकारको नीतिलाई कार्यरूपमा परिणत गर्दै विधनसभामा सिक्किम पञ्चायत ऐन संसोधन गरेर पञ्चायतमा महिलाहरूको निम्ति 50 प्रतिशत आसन आरक्षण गर्ने विधेयकलाई सदनले ध्वानी मतले समर्थन गरेपछि सदनले मोहर लगाइगदिएको छ। अब सिक्किमको 165 ग्राम पञ्चायत एकाईको 905 वार्ड मध्ये 452-53 वार्डमा महिला पञ्चायत सदस्य निर्वाचित हुनेछ। यसै गरि सिक्किमको जिल्ला पञ्चायतमा पनि महिलाहरूको सहभागिता 50 प्रतिशत हुनेछ। सिक्किमा जिल्ला पञ्चायतको 95 पद रहेको छ। विधानसभामा ग्रामीण प्रबन्धन तथा विकास विभागका मन्त्री सीबी कार्की द्वारा 11 अगस्तको दिन सदनमा पेश गरेको सिक्किम पञ्चायत ऐन (संसोधन) विधेयकलाई शुक्रबार सदनले ध्वानीमतले पारित गरेर मोहर लगायो। कुनै वहस विनै सदनमा बील पारित गरियो।
अर्कोतिर सदनको करवाही शुरु भएको लगभघ 15 मिनट भित्रै एक विधेयक फिर्ता गरियो भने 5 वटा संसोधित विधयेक पारित गरियो। यसैगरि एउटा संसोधित विधेयक पारित गरियो। आज सदनमा पारित भएको विधेयकहरूमा सिक्किमको विधायक, विधानसभा अध्यक्ष, उपाध्यक्ष आदिको वेतन वृद्धिको सन्दर्भमा राखिएको विधेयक, सिक्किम आवकारी ऐन (संसोधित) विधेयक पारित गरियो। जस अन्तर्गत अब उसो राज्यको मदिरा पसलहरूले 18 वर्ष भन्दा कम उमेरका युवाहरूलाई मदिरा बेच विखन गर्न नपाइने प्रावाधान राखेको छ। यदी यसो गरिएको खण्डमा जरिमाना, कारावास सहीत लाइसेन्स रद्द गरिने प्रवाधान रहेको छ। यसैगरि मुख्यमन्त्रीले गत 11 अगस्तको दिन पेश गरेको सिक्किम लोक अदालय (संसोधित) विधेयक र परिवहन मंत्री टीटी भोटियाले राखेको सिक्किम मोटर भेकल ट्याक्सेसन (संसोधित) विधेयक पनि पारित गरियो।
यसैगरि सदनमा पेश गर्न अघि नै चारधामा मन्दिर विधेयक पर्यटन मन्त्री भीम ढुंगेलले फिर्ता लिए भने शहरी विकास मन्त्री डीबी थापाले सिक्किम नगर निगम (संसोधित) विधेयक पेश गरे। उक्त विधेयकमाथि आगामी 29 अगस्तको दिन मतदान तथा बहस हुनेछ।
Cash in office or dry taps, says union - Darjeeling civic staff threaten to shut down emergency services
VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, Darjeeling, Aug. 26: The employees’ union at the Darjeeling municipality has threatened to shut down emergency services like conservancy and water supply if the old system of depositing taxes at the civic body is not revived.
The Darjeeling Municipality Employees’ Union, which claims to be an apolitical body, has been on a pen-down strike since August 4 to protest the new system under which residents have to deposit property tax with the Union Bank of India.
The employees are demanding that the citizens be allowed to pay the tax in the civic office as in the past.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which had maintained silence so long, today said it would try to broker peace between both the sides.
“We have decided to discuss the impasse at the municipality with our party leaders tomorrow. We hope a solution will emerge soon,” said Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri.
Allan Chhetri, the president of the union, said: “We have not heard a word from the district administration and we see no solution in sight. We are now seriously contemplating shutting down emergency services like conservancy and the water-works department as last resort. Our strike is causing inconvenience to the general public but we would like to appeal to them to bear with us as our demand is for the public’s convenience.”
District magistrate Mohan Gandhi held a meeting with the employees two days ago but no solution could be worked out.
“The district magistrate spoke on the lines of the subdivisional officer (who is also the chairperson of the board of administrators of the municipality). We have already rejected that proposal,” said Chhetri.
The union alleged that the decision to shift the payment of property taxes to the bank was taken without consulting employees. “Paying taxes at the bank would cause inconvenience to the general public as they have to scuttle between the bank and the office if there is a mismatch in records,” said Chhetri. “Sixteen employees responsible for collecting the tax are without work in the civic office now.”
The SDO had said he had introduced the new system to keep pace with time. The official believes such a move would slowly help introduce Net-banking in the town to enable the people to pay all bills from home.
Given the staunch stand taken by the unions, observers believe the administration might revert to the old system and let an elected body take further decision.
“After all, elections to the municipality are likely to take place soon now that the political problem has been settled in the hills. The administration will most likely avoid confrontation with the employees on small issues like this and leave the matter to the new elected body to take a call,” said an observer.
Tea tragedy on record - Figures on fingertips, Partha lists garden woes
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| Commerce and industries minister Partha Chatterjee |
Starting with the grimm, est, industries minister Partha Chatterjee said 3,500 people died in the last one decade in north Bengal tea gardens because of malnutrition, putting on government record the nearly one-death-a-day figure known by all but admitted by none.
Neither the administration nor the visiting health staff in the previous Left Front government had admitted that the workers in the closed gardens of the Dooars and Terai were suffering from malnutrition, a symptom not associated with square meals but with starvation.
In response to a question, Chatterjee said: “This is on record, 3,500 garden labourers have died of malnutrition in the last decade. It has been quoted in the Supreme Court.”
An industries department official said the apex court got the figure after social activist Anuradha Talwar carried out an on-the-spot survey in the closed tea gardens in north Bengal after instructions from the court in 2003.
“We are trying to improve and intervene in areas where it is practically possible…, starting from assuring payment of wages to the improvement of tea quality. We have to shift from mass production to producing tea of distinction, of which we have a history that we are proud of,” he said.
Chatterjee said tea production in the state has increased by 19 per cent in the last decade but export has come down as quality has been hit, a charge that planters denied.
In 2001, Bengal’s tea production was 192 million kg while in 2011, it had grown to 228 million kg, the minister said. “There had been a 19 per cent increase in the state’s production in the last decade, while the country's production over the same period had increased by 14 per cent,” he added. “Exports, however, had come down over this period because of a fall in the quality of tea,” the minister told the House.
Chatterjee’s observation on quality comes at a time when the industry has been trying to grapple with workers’ shutdowns and strikes for revision of wages.
The minister also said an eight-year-old recommendation that the government and the planters share the social cost of the workers would be looked into.
Planters in north Bengal said Chatterjee’s remark on quality influencing export must have been on CTC tea, which is grown in the foothills or the Dooars and the Terai. “For, the demand for Darjeeling tea has been consistent in the international market,” said K.K. Mintri, a planter from Siliguri.
Mintri, however, said the export of CTC tea has come down because of higher prices that Indian manufacturers are forced to demand from international buyers as a result of the higher cost of production.
“CTC tea has good competition from countries like Vietnam and Kenya which produce similar tea and can afford to sell at lesser prices,” Mintri said. The planter said buyers for CTC are mostly from Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Russia, unlike Darjeeling tea, which is exported to European countries and the US.
U.B. Das, the principal adviser to the Indian Tea Planters’ Association, claimed that other countries could produce tea at lower cost because the fringe benefits and wages provided to workers there were less than what was given here.
“The only way to slash prices in international market is to bring down the cost of production. This will not be possible unless the state and the Centre shoulder some of the responsibilities,” he said. The workers here get a daily wage of Rs 67 and benefits like PF, gratuity housing, ration, free medical aid and education facilities for children.
The trade wing of Chatterjee’s party, Trinamul, which has been trying to curb bandhs in gardens, has demanded Rs 130, the same amount paid under the 100-days central job scheme. The rural job scheme has been often blamed by planters for absenteeism among workers.
Asked by Congress’s Alipurduar MLA D.P. Roy if an inter-ministerial committee recommendation in 2003 to the government to share the social cost of workers with the planters had been considered, the minister replied it was still pending. “But steps are being taken — a separate secretariat is being set up in north Bengal, and experts are being consulted. The situation will change soon,” he said.
Sikkim scraps public order bill
TT, Gangtok, Aug. 26: The Sikkim Democratic Front-government today quietly withdrew the disputed bill that sought to ban hunger strikes and bandhs on the pretext of preserving public order.
Speaker K.T. Gyaltsen announced that a notice of motion for withdrawal of the Sikkim Prevention and Control of Disturbance of Public Order Bill had been received from the government on August 14.
The motion was put to vote and passed instantaneously following which the Speaker announced the bill as withdrawn.
Chief minister Pawan Chamling, who had tabled the Public Order bill on August 11, also joined the “ayes” for its withdrawal. The bill was to have been put to vote today in the Assembly where all 32 MLAs belong to the SDF. The Opposition parties had been protesting vociferously against the “black bill”, which also seeks to ban squatting, sloganeering and waving of black flags — anything with the potential to “harm public order”.
Governor Balmiki Prasad Singh had also “advised the state government to withdraw the bill”.The Opposition parties, which alleged that the bill had been introduced with the aim to suppress any democratic forms of protests in Sikkim, hailed the withdrawal as a “victory of the people”.
“It is a historic victory for the people. However, we cannot be confident that such bills will not be brought into the Assembly again and hence, the people need to remain alert,” said Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee acting president Kunga Nima Lepcha.
The BJP warned the people against being complacent. “It is a not a big issue that the SDF government has withdrawn the bill. It could again try to suppress the voices of the people with another bill. The people should not remain complacent,” said state BJP president Padam Chettri.
The Nagarik Adikhar Suraksha Sangathan Sikkim, which claims to be an apolitical forum, said the “bill was wrong”. “This is a victory of the people… the government was compelled to withdraw it despite face-saving statements given by SDF spokespersons,” said NASSS chief coordinator MN Dahal.
The NASSS had taken out a huge protest rally on Wednesday in Gangtok to demand its withdrawal in the Assembly.
The Assembly today passed the Sikkim Panchayat (Amendment) Bill which seeks to ensure 50 per cent reservation for women in gram panchayats and territorial constituencies of the zilla panchayats in Sikkim.
Smuggler killed in forest raid
TT, Alipurduar, Aug. 26: A suspected timber smuggler was killed and two forest staff members were injured in an encounter between a patrol team and a gang at Moraghat this morning.
Around 1.30am, a team of five foresters on patrol spotted some smugglers felling a tree at compartment I of north Moraghat. The area is under Jalpaiguri division.
When the foresters challenged the smugglers, the gang surrounded them. “The patrol team fired one round in the air to disperse the gang but instead of going away, the smugglers threatened our staff,” Kalyan Das, the divisional forest officer of Jalpaiguri, said. He added that the 20-25 member gang attacked the guards with daggers, arrows and stones.
In the scuffle two forest staffs were injured. They have been admitted to the Birpara State General Hospital. “The foresters had to fire one more round in the air for their own safety,” said Das. He added that the patrol team spotted an injured member of the gang and took him to the Dhupguri rural hospital where the doctors pronounced him brought dead. “We suspect that he died in the firing,” said the DFO.
Corruption And Its Discontents
Niranjan Ramakrishnan, Countercurrents.org, KalimNews, 26 August, 2011:
Hazare ke Khwaishen aisi ki har Khwaish ho-hum nikale
Bahut nikale unke demands phir bhi kam nikale
(with apologies to Mirza Ghalib)
Judging from the New York Times and the Washington Post, urban India is abuzz with the idea of banishing corruption. Photographs of peaceful marchers filling a giant overpass have made front-page news. Anna Hazare, whose arrest and fast have ignited the stir in cities all across India and amongst Indian groups abroad, is now a well-known figure. The fast, meetings, and protests are being billed as nothing less than a second Freedom Movement.
That last accreditation is in perfect pitch with an intelligentsia cut adrift from any sense of proportion, as befitting one that till only the other day was capable of considering Manmohan Singh a more significant reformer than Mahatma Gandhi.
Amid all the din it is easy to forget the lofty purpose of the Second Freedom Movement. It is for the appointment of an ombudsman and a subsidiary bureaucracy to oversee allegations of corruption amongst government officials. One may just as soon label a demand for Web access to one's income tax records as the second Declaration of Independence.
Owing perhaps to his experiences as a lawyer, Gandhi did not view some new law as the panacea to every social, economic or political problem. He pinned a lot more importance on the renewal of the human being. Gandhi believed that the quality of any country ultimately depends on the quality of its people. His abhorrence of legal cleverness as a means to fixing human problems is best illustrated by EF Schumacher in his classic, Small Is Beautiful,
" Gandhi used to talk disparagingly of 'dreaming of systems so perfect that no-one will need to be good'. "
That corruption is the scourge of daily existence in India as in few other countries may be entirely true. Ordinary people in everyday life have to pay bribes all the way from getting a driver's license to obtaining a housing permit. Certainly many of these are paid to government officials, big and small. The same government officials have to bribe others in their capacity as applicants. Corruption is many things to many people.
What Anna Hazare and his acolytes seem to forget is that corruption is not limited to the government. They also appear to believe that the appointment of eminent Indians to some overseeing council would somehow ensure moral chastity. If credentials alone, or even a personal reputation for incorruptibility, were such strong safeguards, the administration of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should be a showcase for civics textbooks on model governance. Instead, it is considered the fount of malpractice and graft on a gargantuan scale, with many reckoning it presides over the most corrupt dispensation in independent India's history.
Neither the protesters nor the government want to address the issue of corruption in India in its deeper essence. Is it an obscenity only when a government official receives a bribe? What about corruption of the conscience? For instance, is it corruption when someone can build a 60 story skyscraper for a personal residence in a country where millions of children go to bed malnourished? Gandhi again,
"Every palace that one sees in India is a demonstration, not of her riches, but of the insolence of power that riches give to the few, who owe them to the miserably requited labours of the millions of the paupers of India."
Even though there seems to be a palpable correlation between the size and scope of scams in India and Manmohan Singh's neoliberal initiatives starting in the early 90s, Anna Hazare and his wise counselors don’t seem to want to see it. And amidst all his ineptitude in dealing with this latest crisis, practically the first words out of the Prime Minister’s mouth were to caution that it would be wrong to connect corruption with economic liberalization.
As veteran journalist Alexander Cockburn is fond of saying, "never believe anything until it is officially denied".
In 1991, Manmohan Singh, finance Minister in a minority government, kicked off a 'liberalization' program laying the foundation for a two decade neoliberal spree. It has turned some 250 million Indian citizens into celebrated ‘consumers’, but distorted any measure of what Professor Amartya Sen would call ‘social choice'. In this new order, what is good for consumerism and high living is alone good for India, whatever its cost by way of farmer suicides, uprooting of entire villages, pollution of the water table, or handing over of India's agricultural future to the GMO boys at Monsanto and elsewhere. The lone measure of success in this Eastern Wild-West is something called growth rate; the ethos it has spawned would both amaze and gratify Gordon "Greed Is Good" Gecko.
Gandhi's diagnosis and cure for India's corruption epidemic would probably involve a lot more pain and sacrifice than a few marches. He might point out that in a milieu where leaders openly promote moneymaking as the most important virtue, and an elite esteems itself by the extent of its ostentation, corruption would only find a conducive habitat. He would reject recourse to some bill, not for some technical shortcomings, but perhaps saying that reliance on such measures would "diminish the moral height" of Indians, just as his khadi movement urged Indians to boycott foreign cloth and adopt the rougher and costlier homespun, instead of a fast outside the Viceroy’s palace pleading for a ban on English mill imports.
The fervid and often uncivil jousting between "civil society" on the one side and the gentleman Prime Minister’s cabinet on the other, poring over fine points of an anticorruption bill while taking care never to mention the 800 pound gorilla parked in the middle of the room, reminded me of something I had read long ago.
“One of the greatest of the Bengali novelists of the 20th century, Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, has summed up the underlying principle of Hindu behavior in a neat, if cynical, epigram. He makes a woman who had a low-caste paramour boast that although she lived 20 years with him she had not for a single day allowed him to enter her kitchen.”- Nirad Chaudhuri, Autobiography of an Unknown Indian
(Niranjan Ramakrishnan is a writer living in the United States. He can be reached at njn_2003@yahoo.com)
Some Thoughts On Corruption
Mukul Dube,Mainstream weekly, KalimNews, 26 August, 2011: A friend (another grouchy old man like me) says that it is impossible to wipe out corruption in India. He says that we Indians always want things out of turn, we want things and privileges to which we are not entitled, that we are unwilling to wait for others or with them. He gives the example of a queue at a post office, which is never straight and orderly because no one wants to wait his turn and so tries to jump ahead. Another example is the car driver who is not content to stay behind the vehicle in front but will always try to sneak past it from this side or that, even when that blocks other traffic.
Another friend holds that corruption is, in India, a way of life, something that has been around for centuries or longer. My own experience at age 9 bears this out. I was witness to money changing hands for the grant of what was no more than an ordinary right. This puzzled me and I sought an explanation. The only answer I got centred around the word “dastoor”. Its meaning was that bribes had always been given and would always be given: and the ordinary people should just go on giving them without raising irrelevant and unseemly questions.
Later, in my 20s, I saw that villagers in western U.P. knew exactly what they would have to spend to get what they wanted from the sarkari persons in charge: not privileges but actions which were the duty of the officials. In the same way, the touts at the Tilak Marg Regional Transport Office in Delhi could rattle off from memory the current “rate chart” for different services. The official rate chart was painted on a large board, but that was of no value to someone going for a driver’s licence or a duplicate registration certificate.
For decades we have had the myth of the “trickle down effect”, which says that if the rich make money, some of that will go down to the poor. This is of course a justification for not having arrangements to ensure that the moneyed and privileged do not feast overmuch on the labour of the toiling people.
In absolute terms, the poor do gain as a result of this “trickling down”. It can be asked, however, if their gain bears any relation to what is gained by the rich and powerful. Today’s India gives a clear answer. While the middle class can have modern motor vehicles and consumer durables comparable to those in the West, the labourer or the mill worker or the artisan still cannot afford a cheap bicycle, only partly because even the cheapest bicycles are no longer cheap. Nor can the tailor who mends my clothes afford the hundreds of rupees now needed to treat his child’s simple viral fever: to him the many luxurious new hospitals that people crow about are as irrelevant as fancy hotels where tea and a samosa would mean two days’ wages.
It is said by supporters of the Lokpal project that all will benefit if corruption is checked: the salary earner and the halvai and (to be “politically correct”) the safai karmachari too. A silly dream which cannot ever be permitted by the crowning vileness of Indian society: the caste system and, in particular, the idea of untouchability.
The reality today is that Dalits must pay the same bribes as everyone else, but they must also purchase a temporary exemption from dalithood, a one-time licence to not be discriminated against. Even if the bribes are removed, they will continue to be required to pay for the right to be treated as human beings. I speak here only of equality under the State. The larger and more fundamental matter of equality in society cannot easily be bought, and for the foreseeable future the Dalits will continue to be discriminated against, to be exploited, to have atrocities perpetrated upon them.
I agree with those who hold that the underlying inhumanity is the worst form of corruption, which no Lokpal can dent even slightly. Our societal arrangements are corrupt at the core: no other evil in the whole world even comes close.
The Constitution of India is not perfect, but there is no denying that it has done much good for “low” castes and for religious and other minorities. If nothing else, it has protected them from the many bad things that could have happened to them. There are many who see in the present Jan Lokpal proposals a threat to that document, which has formed the basis of India’s admittedly faulty society and democracy since Independence. They fear, and I think with justification, that the even the limited benefits of protective discrimination will be taken away from them.
The talk we have heard of “licence-permit raj” is one expression of the view that it is the bureaucracy that is the root of corruption in India. The size and powers of officialdom have been growing constantly (I am reminded of the old joke that this will not stop until every Indian is, from infancy, a sarkari afsar). It is difficult to see how corruption, if indeed it is a product of bureaucracy, can be banished by adding yet another arm to that already very bloated structure. Simple logic tells us that more officials can only mean more bribery.
Given that Shri A. Raja, Shri Kalmadi and a few others are in prison because of the existing laws, it would seem rational to ask not for a gigantic separate mechanism but only for the laws we already have to be implemented rigorously. This will probably need amendments and further legislation: but it will be far less damaging than the setting up of an edifice with an unheard of concentration of powers that will place it above Parliament itself. There is truth in the adage that two workers cannot at once use the same hammer on the same piece of wood.
No discussion of corruption in India can at this time be complete without speaking of Shri Kisan Baburao Hazare. Here is an extract from Mukul Sharma's widely read article on him: "A belief system of force and punishment, liberal use of Hindu religious symbols, strict rules and codes, evocation of nationalism and ultra-nationalism, ‘pure’ morality and caste hierarchies, with a marginalisation of women, Muslims and Dalits, form the core of his village regeneration" (http://kafila.org/2011/04/12/the-making-of-anna-hazare/).
Despite Hazare's denials in the face of Congress accusations, there has been a connection between him and the RSS. Here is a report on Swayamsevak Narendra Damodardas Modi: "Even as he thanked activist Anna Hazare for having praised his rural development activities in the state, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi claimed it was the RSS that had first educated him about Hazare’s work in villages" (http://www.hindustantimes.com/Heard-of-Hazare-through-RSS-Modi/Article1-684107.aspx). The RSS is not known for praising people whom it does not support totally: and those are usually members of its "family". Apparently it praised Hazare constantly, for Modi wrote to him, "national leaders of the RSS who came to attend our meetings invariably discussed your rural development activities..." (ibid.).
I cannot resist the temptation to reproduce Hazare's denial of any association with the RSS, a marvel of juvenile Gandhian-military psychiatry. "Social activist Anna Hazare on Saturday slammed the Congress for alleging that his agitation was backed by the BJP and the RSS. 'People who are saying such things should be sent to mental hospital', he said" (http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2375617.ece).
Some say that the Hindutva brigade is "riding piggy-back" on the Anna Wave, while others say that it is guiding the wave from behind the scenes. I see no reason why both should not be correct. I see no reason why Hazare should not be described as essentially a mascot. That he seems to be having a grand time is neither here nor there.
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