Economist doubts pact

SILIGURI, 23 JULY: Eminent economist from north Bengal, Dr Manas Dasgupta, today asked whether the GJMM general secretary, Mr Roshan Giri, had the right to sign the tripartite Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) pact.
Addressing a convention on GTA, organised by the Darjeeling district Left Front in Siliguri this evening, Dr Dasgupta said: “Is Mr Roshan Giri Indian? Has he rights to sign the pact? Mr Giri has three birth certificates. It was learnt that he was born in Nepal, in Myanmar and then in Assam. Which is correct? Can he sign the pact when a murder charge is framed against him? Is the pact valid?”
Dr Dasgupta requested the former state urban development minister, Mr Asok Bhattacharya, to raise the question about Mr Giri’s original birth certificate and revoke the pact. Mr Asok Bhattacharya said: “The pact is unclear, contradictory and it was signed undemocratically keeping the people in the dark. After signing the pact several problems have already cropped up in different regions.”
“Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has bought peace by allotting fund of Rs 200 crore per year. Miss Banerjee has a tacit political relation with the GJMM and to please them she had agreed to add their proposals, including the name of the new body ~ GTA ~ to the draft, which was settled through several tripartite talks during the tenure of the LF. The CM has called an all political party meeting to change the name of the state. But she did not call an all-party meeting on the issue of Gorkhaland,” Mr Bhattacharya said. The LF would organise a convention on this issue across the state, including in Kolkata, soon, he added. sns

Ideology takes a back seat for CMO in north Bengal

SILIGURI, 21 JULY: Power equations change party strategies and the ruling party's apparent volte-face on certain issues is a pointer in that direction. Although the Trinamul Congress had earlier charged the CPI-M with destroying the greenery of Chandmoni Tea Estate to build a township, the Darjeeling district magistrate, Mr PMK Gandhi, today asked the land and land reforms department to acquire five acres close to the Uttarayan township for setting up a secretariat of the chief minister in north Bengal.
The chief minister and Trinamul Congress supremo, Miss Mamata Banerjee, during her recent visit to Siliguri, herself selected the site for her office.
The chief minister, on her way to the Sukna forest bungalow from Bagdogra airport on 17 July, was so enamoured with the scenic beauty of the deserted tea plantation, popularly known as Chandmoni Khal, beside National Highway-31, that she decided to set up her secretariat there.
Protests had erupted in the area in June 2002 after CPI-M leaders, including former state urban development minister Mr Asok Bhattacharya, took the initiative to set up a ‘satellite township’ on the tea estate with the help of private partners. Two labourers were killed in police firing during one such protest. The district magistrate today said that a preliminary inquiry had revealed that Chandmoni Tea Estate owns the land.
“Following the chief minister’s instruction, we have already put up a board mentioning the chief minister’s secretariat and branch secretariat, north Bengal development department. Today, I have asked the land and land reforms department to begin an inquiry to know the status of the land so that we can begin the process of acquiring land,” said Mr Gandhi.
The north Bengal development affairs minister, Mr Gautam Deb, was in a tearing hurry to earmark a plot for the office before the chief minister’s visit. “I tried hard to select a suitable land for the chief minister’s secretariat but failed to get one in Siliguri town. At the last moment I decided to inform didi (Miss Banerjee) to consider the plot close to Uttarayan at Matigara. After a quick glance didi selected the plot for her office,” said Mr Deb.
Before selecting the land, Mr Deb approached the Darjeeling SP to provide a plot earmarked for a police camp, adjacent to Chandmoni Tea Estate but the latter seemed hesitant on grounds of security, instead suggesting an alternative plot at the tea estate. sns

Final solution for Hills is Gorkhaland: Gurung

DARJEELING, 21 JULY: The Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) president, Mr Bimal Gurung, today said at Chowrasta in Darjeeling that the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), the recently-established autonomous hill body, is just a test for the hill people. The final solution for the hills, he said, would be Gorkhaland.
He said that the GTA will carry out its functions in such an efficient manner that the Central and state governments will be obliged to grant statehood status to the hills. “We have a tough task ahead of us, as the Union home minister Mr P Chidambaram has said, we need to build the hills brick by brick and bring all round development, so we must ensure that the GTA functions in an efficient manner that will serve as an example to the rest of the nation. Nevertheless, this is just a test for us. We must pass this test so that the government thinks of granting us statehood status.” He said he will not be part of the governing body and that the post of chairman will be occupied by someone who is capable of leading the body. Mr Gurung assured his supporters, gathered at Chowrasta to celebrate the creation of the GTA, and chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee's assertions that the state of West Bengal would not be divided was the result of political pressure.
The GJMM general secretary Mr Rosahn Giri read out the important sections of the agreement signed at Pintail Village, Siliguri on 18 July. Comparing the GTA with the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), in place between 1988 and 2005, Mr Giri emphasised that the new body has been bestowed with 59 departments, while the DGHC was granted control of only 14 departments.  He also pointed out that that the new body will receive Rs 200 crore per annum as part of a special package. sns

No GTA poll until area addition: Gurung

No GTA poll until area addition: Gurung

manas ranjan banerjee
PINTAIL VILLAGE  (SUKNA)/KOLKATA, 19 JULY: In an apparent move to put pressure on the Mamata Banerjee government, the GJMM president, Mr Bimal Gurung, today made it clear that there would be no Gorkhaland Territorial Administration election until some Gorkha-majority areas in the Terai-Dooars region are included in the autonomous council. 
Addressing a GJMM's rally at Pintail Village, Mr Gurung said that his party would go for the GTA election after making sure that the additional areas in the Treai-Dooars are included in the council's territorial jurisdiction. “Make no mistake that we would not allow elections until our demand is met,” he said, amidst thunderous applause from GJMM followers who have assembled in thousands to listen to the leader after the signing-ceremony involving the GTA that was held yesterday. 
The well-timed move is likely to upset the state government, as the chief minister looks euphoric, claiming that the long lingering impasse has been resolved within less than three months since the new government assumed the reins of the state. 
“An impression is being deliberately created that the GTA would comprise only the three Hill sub-divisions. This is mischievous propaganda. The GTA is by no means an exclusive Gorkha body. It is rather an inclusive instrument involving the interests of all the backward communities in north Bengal like the Adivasis, Mech, Rava and the like. We agreed to the proposed set up after ensuring that the state government would constitute a high-powered committee to look into our territorial expansion demand. There is no question of going back at this critical juncture,” he said.
Alluding to Mamata Banerjee's categorical rejection of the Gorkhaland demand during yesterday's signing ceremony, Mr Gurung said that she had been under tremendous pressure from the parochial elements within her community. “She would have given us the statehood had the matter been left exclusively to herself. We know that a section of our workers are upset with the chief minister's anti-Gorkhaland affirmation. She deserves our support and sympathy in view of her predicament. The chauvinistic elements have already started crying wolf,” the GJMM president said.
Reiterating that the statehood demand is very much on their agenda, he said that they would keep begging for it from the chief minister whom he addressed as ‘mother.
The chief secretary, Mr Samar Ghosh, however, said: “The agreement says that the election to GTA would be held on the basis of the existing territorial jurisdiction of the present Darjeeling Gorkha Autonomous Hill Council. The question of territorial expansion of GTA is not linked with the holding of elections.”

Chandmoni site for CM’s Siliguri office

Chandmoni site for CM’s Siliguri office

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 17 JULY: The chief minister, Miss Mamata Banerjee, was so delighted with the scenic beauty of the deserted Chandmoni Tea Plantation beside National Highway 31 that she decided to set up the chief minister's secretariat or mini-secretariat in the area adjoining Uttarayan, a housing complex near the tea garden.
On her way to Sukna forest bungalow today, Miss Banerjee suddenly stopped her convoy in front of Uttarayan, which was set up at the Chandmoni Tea Plantation in the Matigara police station area in Siliguri. Miss Banerjee then called the district magistrate Mr PMK Gandhi and asked him to earmark a five-acre plot and put up a hoarding tomorrow mentioning "site for chief minister's secretariat".
Asked about her decision to set up the office, Miss Banerjee later said: “This is a nice place. We have decided to set up the chief minister's secretariat here. I have asked the district magistrate to begin procurement of land.”
On her way to the forest bungalow, Miss Banerjee first stopped in front of the Army cantonment and held an informal meeting on the road to chalk out her programme with Trinamul and Congress leaders, including north Bengal development affairs minister Mr Gautam Deb, Siliguri MLA Dr Rudranath Bhattacharya, another MLA from Cooch Behar, Mr Rabindranath Ghosh, Siliguri mayor Ms Gangotri Datta and Siliguri municipal corporation chairperson Mr Nantu Paul.
Although Miss Banerjee was scheduled to hold a meeting with top administrative officials, she suddenly decided to visit Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary. Even though there was a prohibitory order over entering the forest after 5 p.m., Miss Banerjee started her journey for the 1/4 Gulma camp watchtower where an elephant was badly injured after it was hit by a speeding train.
“We held a meeting with the forest officials over the present scenario of the forests,” Miss Banerjee told reporters.
However, after 6 p.m. the chief minister asked everybody, including the journalists who were following her, to leave the forest.
The chief minister also stopped at Gorkha-dominated Khoirani forest village and interacted with the villagers. A senior forest official said she had asked forest officials to provide basic amenities to the villagers.

Spate of bandhs from 15-19 July in N Bengal

Siliguri, 14 July: Several organisations, active in the Terai and the Dooars of north Bengal, have called for back-to-back separate bandhs from 15-19 July in protest against proposed Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), a tripartite treaty proposed to be signed this week-end. While eight organisations, including Amra Bangali, Terai-Dooars Nagarik Manch called a 24-hour shutdown in the region tomorrow, the Adibasi Vikash Parisad again called a 48-hour bandh in the Terai and Dooars on 16 and 17 July.
To complicate matters, the Bangla-o-Bangla Bhasa Bachaon Committee also pitched in by giving a two-day bandh call on 18-19 July in protest against the proposed GTA. The police and administration were worried over the spate of bandhs as chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee was expected to visit Darjeeling Hills on  18-19 July to sign the GTA treaty though support base of the organisations having called the bandh was confined to same particular pockets. Inspector General of Police (North Bengal) (in-charge), Mr DT Lepcha told reporters that police would take appropriate measures if there was any move to disturb the peace. Former minister and senior CPI(M) leader, Mr  Ashok Bhattacharya, said that though Marxists had opposed the bandh call, it would have been better had the decision on GTA been taken after discussion with all parties and communities of Terai-Dooars.
A leader of Adibasi Vikash Parishad, Mr Tej Kumar Toppo, alleged that the nine-member assessment committee formed by the state government to examine the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) demand to include 196 'moujas' of Terai and Dooars did not include even a singe Adivasi member though the community was the majority in the region. pti

Trinamul to hit street to fight strikes Minister promises normal life

Trinamul to hit street to fight strikes Minister promises normal life

OUR CORRESPONDENT/ The Telegraph

Siliguri, July 14: Trinamul Congress workers will be out on the streets for the next five days starting tomorrow to oppose the shutdowns called by the various outfits in the Dooars and the Terai that are against the hill agreement, minister Gautam Deb said today. In another protest against strikes, lawyers Moumita Pal and Pritam Ghosh filed a suit in the court of the Siliguri civil judge (junior division) here today, seeking judicial intervention to restrain three organisations and a political party from observing shutdowns on July 15, 18 and 19. According to the advocates’ lawyer, Sunil Sarkar, Bangla Morcha, Rashtriya Shiv Sena, Bangla O Bangla Bhasha Banchao Committee and Amra Bangali have been named in the suit. Judge Prabir Mahapatra has ordered a hearing tomorrow. North Bengal development minister Deb, who is also the core committee chairperson of the region for Trinamul, said he would accompany party MLAs and workers to ensure that the bandh was not enforced. “We will be out on the streets, keeping a strong watch to help people lead normal life. We will inform the administration wherever we find that their intervention is needed,” he said. In the evening, Deb held a meeting with police and the civil administration. He also met owners and employees of private buses and other means of transport, requesting them to run their vehicles. “Government buses will be there and police and civil administration will run control rooms that will monitor the situation,” Deb said after the meeting. “I will be at new Jalpaiguri station tomorrow morning to see that tourists and passengers are not inconvenienced. I have assured private transport owners of safety. They in turn have agreed to run their vehicles. “The presence of our MLAs and municipal councillors would instill confidence in the common people. If the need arises, they can draw the attention of the police and the administration,” he added. The bandh enforcers are opposed to the formation of a new administrative set-up for the hills, the agreement on which was earlier expected to be signed in Darjeeling on July 18. Eight forums based in Siliguri and the Terai and the Dooars have jointly called a 24-hour north Bengal strike tomorrow to protest the state’s decision to form the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad has called a 48-hour strike in the Terai and the Dooars from July 16 to protest the formation of a committee by the state to look into the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s demand to bring certain mouzas of the plains under the GTA. The Bhasha Banchao Committee has called a two-day strike on July 18 and 19 to protest the formation of the GTA. “A number of organisations that hardly have any presence (in the Dooars and the Terai) are trying to destabilise the region in collaboration with the CPM,” Deb told a news conference at the Siliguri Journalists’ Club earlier in the day. The Darjeeling district CPM has also opposed the strikes but said the state should place the hill agreement in the Assembly for discussion. “If the government refuses to divulge the details, we would have no option but to file applications under the right to information,” CPM state committee member and former minister Asok Bhattacharya said today.

SJDA to probe into ‘forcible occupation’ of land by Rlys

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 12 JULY: The Siliguri-Jalpaiguri Development Authority (SJDA) chairman, Dr Rudranath Bhattacharya, has decided to initiate an inquiry into the alleged ‘forcible occupation’ of land by the Northeast Frontier Railway at Sowdingi under Rajganj police station in Jalpaiguri. The land was later was given to the SJDA for developmental projects. Former SJDA chairman Mr Asok Bhattacharya set up a Tea Park and a Tea Port there.
The matter came to light following a complaint lodged with the Prime Minister's Office by one of the victims, Mr Sunil Banerjee. He alleged that the NFR had forcefully acquired about 750 bighas of recorded public lands.
The PMO had received the complaint on 6 April, 2010. Mr Banerjee had sent a similar letter to the PMO on 2 April this year demanding prompt action.
The Central Vigilance Commission acknowledged that the grievance had been duly examined and the matter had been forwarded to Mr AK Maitra Advisor  [Vigilance] Railway Board for necessary action. The letter was issued on 18 August, 2010.
Mr Banerjee said: “The NFR forcibly occupied 750 bighas of land in total  (700 bighas on 27.10.1960 and 50 bighas of land on 06.11.2000) and consequently many people were rendered homeless. The railway authority announced that the above land was illegally and forcibly occupied by the people and hence by evicting the people the railway authorities re-established their possession."
"I have received a letter from the railway authorities recently where the question of returning the land was tactfully avoided,” he added.
"I met the former SJDA chairman and I have sent an appeal to the new SJDA chairman. I had discussed the matter with Mr Gautam Deb, north Bengal development affairs minister. He told me that he would look into the matter. But nothing has been done yet,” Mr Banerjee added. 
Mr Asok Bhattacharya said: “Mr Banerjee came to me after the Assembly elections results were announced. I could not do anything for him. He was claiming that the NF Railway authority had grabbed their lands forcibly. The documents with him seemed to be valid. I requested him to meet the new SJDA chairman.”
Dr Rudranath Bhattacharya said: “I have decided to visit the Tea Park soon with land records following complaints from several corners. We would inquire into the alleged land scam there in the interest of the common people who have been deprived. We need to examine land records to identify original owners of the land”

Anti-Gorkhaland outfit convenes 48-hour bandh

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 12 JULY: The anti-Gorkhaland outfit, the Bangla O Bangla Bhasha Banchao Committee has convened a 48-hour statewide bandh beginning on 18 July to protest against the proposed tripartite settlement to be signed in all probability on 19 July in Darjeeling. “Any settlement short of addressing the foreign national issue involved in the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty is unacceptable to us,” said the outfit president, Dr Mukunda Majumder (see photo).
Notably, eight anti-Gorkhaland organisations have convened a 24-hour north Bengal bandh on 15 July on the same issue.
It has been learnt that the chief minister, Miss Mamata Banerjee would arrive in Darjeeling on 18 July. She is expected to come by train through New Jalpaiguri station.  
However, the Trinamul Congress and the CPI-M have taken strong exception to the spells of shutdowns in the region.
Expressing anguish, the north Bengal development minister, Mr Gautam Deb said that the outfits had convened the bandh at the behest of the Marxists.  “Everybody knows that these organisations act according to the whims of the Marxist satraps. They seem hell bent on disrupting the initiative being taken by the chief minister to resolve the long lingering political crisis in the Hills,” he said.
“I would ask the administration to take proper steps to maintain law and order during the spells of shutdowns,” he added.
The CPI-M has, however, brushing aside the Trinamul Congress allegations.  The former state urban development minister, Mr Asok Bhattacharya said that his party's stand on the bandh had remained consistent all through. “We had opposed the bandh when we were in power. Now when we are in the opposition our stand remains the same. Disrupting life in the name of agitation can never solve any problem,” he said.
Apparently unfazed by such criticism, Dr Majumder said that they would block the railway tracks near Mahananda Bridge in Siliguri in the morning of 18 July to prevent the chief minister from reaching the New Jalpaiguri station.

Asok concerned over nomenclature of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 12 JULY: The former state urban development minister and senior CPI-M leader, Mr Asok Bhattacharya, today expressed concern over the nomenclature of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. “I am particularly concerned over insertion of the term ‘administration’ instead of the conventional ‘council’ in the proposed nomenclature of the council being mooted for the restive Darjeeling Hills,” he said.
The former minister today made it clear that his party had found nothing to object to the inclusion of the term ‘Gorkhaland’ in the proposed nomenclature. “There are several such instances like the Bodoland Territorial Council in the Assam,” he said.
“I only said that the Centre should have taken into confidence all the political parties concerned before deciding to include the contentious term  ‘Gorkhaland’ in the nomenclature,” Mr Bhattacharya claimed.
“What we are really apprehensive about is the inclusion of the term ‘administration’ instead of the conventional term ‘council'. We have reasons to believe that it would prove a stepping-stone to the Union Territory status for the strategically important hill region in West Bengal. May be, the over-enthusiastic chief minister has been trapped,” he said.  
He further said that the GJMM had many options up its sleeve. “We would not be surprised if they start clamouring for UT status in the coming days, for, in their reckoning, UT status would prove an intermediary to the long-nourished statehood aspiration. Perhaps, to keep all options open, the hill-based party has insisted on keeping the proposed council under no constitutional obligation,” he said. 
 “The coming days would make it clear which of the two parties involved in the poker game has won at the expense of the other.’’
“Apparently, it seems, the sly GJMM think tank has beguiled the overzealous chief minister into a smug sense of self-satisfaction. The portents look perilous as far as the territorial integrity of the state is concerned,” Mr Bhattacharya said.

Cong-Trinamul board in Siliguri

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 9 JULY: After a long spell of speculative murkiness interspersed with occasional vituperative bickering, the Congress and the Trinamul Congress finally formed the Siliguri Municipal Corporation Board jointly today. The incumbent mayor and a senior Congress leader, Ms Gangotri Datta, was re-elected for the post while the controversial Trinamul Congress councillor, Mr Ranjan Shil Sharma, was elected deputy mayor.  
Notably, Ms Datta resigned from her post and dissolved the mayor-in-council on 27 June to pave the way for the formation of a joint civic board. The Siliguri Municipal Corporation election was held in October 2009. The Congress and Tirnamul Congress alliance won 30 out of 47 wards. The Congress won 15 wards on its own while its alliance partner managed victory in 14 wards. The Left Front having won 17 wards was ousted from power.
The Trinamul strength rose to 15 after the Independent councillor, Mr Ranjan Sil Sharma, joined the party a few days after the election. Mr Sil Sharma was suspended from the Trinamul Congress following the infamous spitting incident involving the former Siliguri district inspector of schools. With uncertainty continuing over the post of mayor with the allies having stuck into a 15-ward tie, the Congress opted to seek support from the Left Front in having its member elected mayor. With the Left Front having obliged, Ms Datta was elected mayor. Angry with the development, the Trinamul Congress distanced itself from the board and refused to join the mayor-in-council despite repeated prodding from the Congress.
With the long-standing impasse having been resolved today, a beaming Ms Datta said that the election was unanimous and smooth. The north Bengal development minister, Mr Gautam Deb, said his party was happy. “The new board would complete its term glitch-free and would fulfil the collective expectations of the people,” he added.
However, the leader of the Opposition in the Corporation and the CPI-M leader, Mr Nurul Islam, has sounded sceptic over the stability of the joint board. “I am doubtful, given the inherent incompatibility involving the two camps,” he said.

ABAVP members to meet Chidambaram

ABAVP members to meet Chidambaram

5 July 2011

SILIGURI, 5 JULY: The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad leaders will meet the Union home minister, Mr P Chidambaram, tentatively in the second week of July in New Delhi, in protest against state government's decision to form a high powered committee looking for jurisdiction of the proposed Gorkha Autonomous Authority.
The ABAVP leaders have taken the decision following the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha president, Mr Bimal Gurung's recent statements in rallies held at Jiagaon and Kalchini in the Dooars on Sunday and Monday.
The ABAVP state president, Mr Birsha Tirkey, said: “We would meet the Union home minister, Mr P Chidambaram, to demand Sixth Schedule status for the Terai-Dooars region. We would also request the Union home minister to reconsider the state's decision to extend the present jurisdiction of the DGHC from (our) scheduled land in the Terai and the Dooars.” sns

NBU V-C threatens de-affiliation of BEd colleges

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 5 JULY: The North Bengal University vice-chancellor, Mr Arunabha Basumajumdar, today threatened to de-affiliate all the four private BEd colleges under the university if they did not renew their affiliations and start holding classes for the 2011-12 session.
The V-C told reporters during a Press meet here today that the colleges were playing havoc with the careers of the 332 students, who had applied for admissions, by not starting classes for the 2011-12 session. He said they would soon send a memorandum, signed by 56 newly-admitted students of the colleges, to the division Bench of Kolkata High Court, which is looking into the case of the dispute between the university and the self-financing colleges over the centralised system of admission to  B Ed courses. “We will urge the division bench to consider the future of the 332 students, which is at stake due to the dispute, before passing a verdict in the case,” he said.
Mr Basumajumdar, who dismissed the allegations of “highhandedness”, made by the private colleges against the university as “false and fabricated,” said that the process of admission in the self-financing BEd colleges under the university was absolutely legal and the representatives of all the private colleges were present at the meeting during which the resolution to adopt a centralised system of admission was taken. “The colleges are not following the NCTE guidelines since 2005. They have not applied for the mandatory annual renewal of affiliations since 2009. We decided to centralise the process of admission in the eight B Ed colleges under the university mainly to put a cap on tuition fees in these colleges because they charge exorbitantly. We will cancel their affiliations if they do not start holding classes for the new session immediately and follow the rules and regulations of the university,” he said.
The V-C also said that they had written to the authorities of all the four colleges urging them to start classes for the new session, but neither did they comply with the university's request nor did they give any reason for their decision to postpone classes.
Mr Basumajumdar assured that they would look into the issue of admission of students in the private B Ed colleges sympathetically and take suitable steps in the coming weeks to ensure that the students do not lose an academic year.
Mrs Nupur Das, secretary, under-graduate council, NBU, who was also present at the meet, denied that the university had issued a notification on 1 July, cancelling the admissions of 277 students of the colleges, whom the university's centralised B Ed cell had admitted in these institutions on 2, 4, 6 and 9 May on the basis of the counselling held on these dates. “We issued a notification urging only those students, who were planning to get admitted elsewhere to submit the payment receipt of their admission fee at the office of the secretary, under-graduate council and take back the cheques of their admission fee,” she said.
Meanwhile, over 50 newly-admitted students of the four private B Ed colleges served two separate memoranda to Mr Saurav Pahari, sub-divisional officer, Siliguri and the Siliguri MLA, Mr Rudranath Bhattacharya at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m, respectively demanding that all the 277 candidates, whose admissions were cancelled on 1 July, be readmitted along with the 155 candidates, whose names appeared in the second merit list on 13 May. Mr Kuntal Sinha, who led the agitators, told The Statesman that they would launch a large-scale agitation at the Vidyasagar College of Education in Phansidewa near Siliguri on 7 July to press for the start of classes there.

Tax relief for Darjeeling?

KURSEONG, 1 JULY: For the Hills people who had long been in a dilemma over their unpaid taxes accumulating since the past three years due to the non-cooperation movement against the government, the decision of settlement of tax has come as a huge relief.
The GJMM assistant secretary, Mr Binay Tamang said all the various taxes which have not been paid so far will be settled when the three parties sit for the next tri-partite talks to sign the papers for a new autonomous authority  and once it is signed taxes will be paid henceforth. He added that all the unpaid taxes during the period of the non-cooperation agitation will not be paid. Mr Gurung had also earlier declared that all forms of taxes must be exempted by the government if a settlement is reached. He also demanded that all court cases be dropped which had been filed during the GJMM-led Gorkhaland agitation.
Notably during the agitation, the GJMM had started a non-cooperation movement against the government from April 2008 and electricity, vehicle, telephone, internet tax and other taxes started to be unpaid by the general public which has now reached into crores of rupees.
Presently the Hills people's main fears and anxieties are whether they will have to bear the burden of paying the accumulated taxes which would be very hard for many like electricity tax, telephone tax, internet tax and vehicle tax. sns

Elephant injured by train dies at Diana forest

SILIGURI, 1 JULY: A 35-year-old injured female elephant (see sns photo), hit by a speeding train on 25 June, died at Diana forest early today. The pachyderm was under going treatment under the supervision of an expert team since 26 June.
Two female elephants were critically injured when a speeding train hit a herd of nearly 60 elephants that came close to a rail track at the Red Bank tea plantation area in Jalpaiguri. Another 15-year-old injured elephant is under going treatment at Garumara National Park.
The state forest minister, Mr Hiten Barman, said he had instructed forest officials yesterday to form another expert committee comprising an expert from Assam to look after the injured elephant at Garumara. “I went to Garumara yesterday and saw the injured elephant in a critical condition. I have asked the forest officials to constitute an expert team of doctors for better treatment of the injured elephant. An expert from Assam would come here to examine the injured elephant,” Mr Barman said.
“The injured elephant has been administered adequate saline. Forest officials provided food and water but the elephant is still suffering from other problems,” he said.
The divisional forest officer, wildlife II, Ms Sumita Ghatak, said: “We predicted that the inured elephants might die because their backbone ware badly hit. Elephants cannot survive like this. The elephant was suffering from other problems in heart and lungs. Though we had been feeding it enough, still it was not adequate for the animal.”
“Another injured elephant is undergoing treatment at Garumara but even its days are numbered,” Ms Ghatak added. The forest officials conducted a post-mortem before cremating the dead elephant. sns Comments