PLUNGED TO DEATH Double whammy for Darjeeling

PLUNGED TO DEATH
Double whammy for Darjeeling

A BRIDGE collapse doesn’t bear comparison to an earthquake. However limited the scale of the tragedy, Darjeeling has suffered a double whammy in the span of a few weeks. With the casualty toll in the footbridge collapse across the Little Rangit river mounting to 32, the tragedy is no less heart-rending to the members of the bereaved families. Many more are battling grievous injuries in hospital, and the Chief Minister in course of her visit to the accident site has advanced a timely directive to the district administration, specifically to utilise the Rs 16-crore fund allotted recently to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. Yet it is a commentary on the decrepit state of public health that the state hospital’s CT scanner is defunct.
Well might the district administration be inclined to attribute the footbridge collapse to overenthusiastic visitors to the GJMM’s fair and cultural festival across the river. Any such event will draw crowds, more so in a district town. Implicit, therefore, is the failure of crowd management. The bridge was said to be sturdy enough to hold 20 people; alas, this was only a fraction of the 150 visitors who were jostling to cross over when it gave way. The victims fell into the Little Rangit; some may even have been swept away by its swirling current. Prima facie, it is the strategy of crowd management that failed in Darjeeling last Saturday.
It is pointless to claim in the manner of a block official that “things were fine during the day, but it seems the crowd was unmanageable in the evening”. The short point must be that any carnival ~ it is particularly colourful in the Hills ~ draws crowds in the evening. Was the police deployment adequate? Conceding that it was, it has palpably failed to restrict the numbers. It couldn’t have been unaware of the load capacity of the bridge. There obviously was no check as 150 people positioned themselves at 6.30 p.m. ~ in fading light. The military authorities have confirmed that it was too overcrowded to bear the weight of people. This administration is heir to years of neglect compounded by the near paralysis of governance in the Hills in recent times. While the collapse occurred in October 2011, it was scripted over years.

Editorial

The Statesman 

25 Oct 2011

Mamata visits injured patients, collapse toll rises to 32

Mamata visits injured patients, collapse toll rises to 32

23 October 2011
statesman news service
SILIGURI, 23 OCT: Chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee, during her visit to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) today, asked the authorities concerned to bear all medical expenses required for the injured patients admitted here.
A total of 19 patients, including five women and a 10-year-old boy, were admitted to NBMCH after a hanging foot-bridge collapsed at Bijanbari in Darjeeling yesterday evening. The incident has claimed 32 lives so far.  Of the 19 patients, Dipesh Mailani succumbed to his injuries at NBMCH, said medical superintendent Dr Saibal Gupta. According to Dr Gupta, two to three patients are in a critical condition and they require neurosurgery, which is not available at NBMCH.
Miss Banerjee, on her way to the Hills, met the injured and their relatives at NBMCH today and asked the hospital authorities to procure all medical assistance, which are not available here, from private health centres. She has also asked them to provide food and shelter for the relatives of the patients at NBMCH.
Miss Banerjee asked the authorities concerned to properly utilise the recently-allotted funds worth Rs 16 crore for NBMCH for better patient care services. Dr Gupta said: “We wanted to inform the chief minister about several problems, including the CT scan machine, which is still not functioning. But we could not tell her due to lack of time and overcrowding on the hospital premises.”
“In the absence of CT scan, we had to arrange for MRI, which is available here, for some critical patients and called specialists for required neurosurgery from outside. Two patients require neurosurgery but we do not have the facility here. We have decided to shift one critical patient to a private nursing home,” Dr Gupta said.
“A 10-year-old boy is under ‘conservation management’ at the medical college. We are yet to decide whether we should refer him to other medical institution,” he added.
The NBMCH authorities have made a separate arrangement to provide food and accommodation for relatives of the patients from today, following the chief minister’s instructions.

Owners disown pets

Owners disown pets

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 17 OCT: The fate of two German spitz (see sns photo) pet dogs is hanging in uncertainty. Reportedly, their owners drove them out of home. At present two sub-adult dogs, one of them seriously injured after a motorbike accident, are under the care of a group of animal lovers in Ward No. 14 under Siliguri Municipal Corporation since 13 October.
The injured dog, suffering from paralysis after the accident, is undergoing treatment. A veterinary doctor Mr Ruhul Amin is attending the two dogs in association with local animal lovers. According to a veterinary doctor, the injured dog would take at least one-and-half month to recover.
Though animal lovers have planned to rehabilitate the two ill-fated dogs by handing them over to some dog-lovers, who are interested to adopt them, they are facing different problems.
A senior member of an animal lovers’ association, Mr Shyama Choudhury said: “Some persons are interested to adopt the fit male German spitz but no one interested is to take responsibility of the injured dog. Interestingly, when we decided to hand healthy spitz over to others, we could not do so. It is not willing to go anywhere without his injured friend. So we have decided we would hand them over to someone who would adopt both of them”. The healthy dog was guarding the injured dog on roadside following the accident. Local councillor Ms Gouri Datta came to know about the matter and informed the local animal lovers' association. At present, a local lover, Mr Bhaben Barman is looking after the two dogs.
Mr Shyama Choudhury said: “Some parents buy puppies following their children’s requests but drive them out when they observe that children are spending more time with the pets ignoring their studies.”

Mamata asks N Bengal officials to handle things with velvet gloves

Mamata asks N Bengal officials to handle things with velvet gloves

13 October 2011

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 13 OCT: A seemingly worried chief minister, Miss Mamata Banerjee, today asked the administrative and police officials of both the Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts to deal with the sensitive situation with utmost care and circumspection in view of the volatility prevailing over the GJMM demand for land from the Terai-Dooars region in reference to the territorial jurisdiction of the Gorkhaland Administrative Tribunal, an official said. 
It has been learnt that the chief minister held a meeting with the senior north Bengal-based civil and police officials, particularly with those from the two districts, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri, on the law and order situation at the NHPC office premises on the outskirts of Siliguri.
“The chief minister looked a bit worried with both the GJMM and the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad doggedly clinging to their respective stances regarding the GTA land issue. She asked us all to ensure peace and inter-ethnic amity in view of the situation remaining volatile. She insisted that under no circumstances the administration would allow the peace to be disturbed,” said the senior administrative official.
It has also been learnt that the chief minister’s Dooars trip had failed to break the ice involving the relation between the Gorkhas and the Adivasis inhabiting the Terai-Dooars area for generations. “It seems that the chief minister has realised that the land issue would remain a bone of contention in time to come and the situation might take a turn for the worse any time in view of the mutual antipathy and suspicion prevailing,” the official said.
In order to fulfil her electoral commitment, Chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee will lay the foundation stone for the construction of 1,400 meters long Nayagram-Vasraghat bridge over the Subarnarekha river during her Junglemahal trip on Saturday. 
The project will require Rs 118.44 crore. The state irrigation department has also planned to set up a barrage on one side (upstream) of the bridge. Once the bridge is constructed, road connectivity among Nayagram, Gopiballavpur and people living in bordering Midnapore and Orissa will get an upgrade. It was a longstanding demand of the local people who travel almost 111 km to reach Kharagpur. If the bridge comes up, the distance will reduce by 69 km. The bridge will also improve the inter-state transport. 

Mamata refuses to meet Bharati Tamang

Mamata refuses to meet Bharati Tamang

11 October 2011

SILIGURI, 11 OCT: The chief minister, Miss Mamata Banerjee, refused to meet the All India Gorkha League president, Mrs Bharati Tamang, today despite several attempts by the leadership of the oldest Hill-based party. “I felt humiliated and it is difficult for me to express my feelings in words,” Mrs Tamang said.  
It has been learnt from AIGL leaders that Mrs Tamang sought an appointment with the chief minister today through the Darjeeling district magistrate, Mr Saumitra Mohan.
Notably, Mrs Tamang, the widow of the slain AIGL president, Madan Tamang, has been seeking an appointment with Miss Banerjee since she became the chief minister in May this year. “I have been trying tirelessly to meet the chief minister to seek justice for the daylight assassination of my husband. The CBI probe seems to have got stuck at a point perhaps owing to political intervention from the highest levels. I went to Kolkata around two months back and sought an appointment with the chief minister. But the same indifference befell me. But I am determined to carry on with my struggle for justice, come what may. I would not rest till the criminals involved in the murder are brought to justice,” she asserted.  
She said that the Darjeeling district magistrate had told her that the chief minister was too pre-occupied to talk to her. “Is this democracy? The chief minister has no time to talk to the president of the principal Opposition party in the Hills while staying in Darjeeling. This smacks of bad manners and the trend is dangerous for participatory democracy,” she said.  
Taking strong exception to the development, the senior CPI-M leader and Rajya Sabha MP from the Darjeeling Hills, Mr Saman Pathak, said that the present government’s undemocratic style of functioning had been exposed. “The ruthless face of the chief minister has emerged from the façade of democratic pretension. The refusal to meet the leader of the oldest political party in the Hills amounts to gagging the democratic voice of dissent. To appease a particular party while keeping the Opposition at bay would perpetuate anarchy in the politically restive Hills,” the Marxist leader said.  
Echoing the Marxist sentiment, a senior leader of the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists, Mr Taramoni Rai, said that the chief minister had been hobnobbing with those accused in the Madan Tamang murder case. sns

Mamata should visit plantations

‘Mamata should visit plantations’

11 October 2011

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 11 OCT: The veteran trade union leader associated with the coordination committee of tea plantations workers’ unions in north Bengal, Mr Chitta Dey, believes that chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee should travel around tea plantations to know the exact situation in the tea belt where the workers are being deprived of their legitimate claims.
Reacting to Miss Banerjee’s interaction with tea workers in plantations on her way to the Hills yesterday, Mr Dey said: “If she wants to know the real situation, she should conduct a survey to know the plight of thousands of tea workers. We can make arrangements for that.”
Mr Dey said the state government had not been able to hike tea workers’ wages despite several tripartite meetings held this year due to rigidity of planters.
“Though the state labour commissioner has called another tripartite meeting in Kolkata on 13 October, I don’t think the state would be able to persuade them to accept the demands of the trade unions,” Mr Dey said, adding, “the dialogue would put an end to the demand of hiking tea workers’ wages from Rs 67 to over Rs 90 a day from the first year.”
“The chief minister should know that a permanent worker in Darjeeling Hills is receiving Rs 90 a day. But the workers in the Terai and the Dooars are still receiving Rs 67. She should know how the Labour Act is being violated in the tea belt,” said Mr Dey.
“Tea planters have been claiming that they spend at least Rs 123 a day for a tea worker providing ration and other facilities. But in practice the planters are paying only Rs 89 for a permanent tea worker,” he added.
According to him, the food supplies are not fit for human consumption, system of rationing is irregular in many tea plantations, tea workers do not have pucca quarters in many tea plantations, they live under tarpaulin sheets, and over 54 per cent women workers suffer from several diseases, including gastro-enteritis due to lack of purified drinking water supply but there is no proper dispensary under the guidance of registered doctor in many tea plantations.
“Miss Banerjee should know that the planters have not yet recruited 5,000 more workers following an agreement signed in 1999 during the tenure of former chief minister late Jyoti Basu,” he added.
The Trinamul Congress-backed trade union AITTUC Jalpaiguri district president, Mr Joachim Buxla, who was also a former RSP leader and MP, said: “The chief minister has planned to visit this region to study the present situation and to bring overall development, including in the tea belt.”
“I think that tea workers’ wages would be settled through negotiation with planters. We demanded Rs 130 for a permanent tea worker a day. The matter would be finalised if the planters agree to pay at least Rs 92 for a permanent tea worker a day,” Mr Buxla said.

GJMM not happy with post-quake response

GJMM not happy with post-quake response

5 October 2011

manas ranjan banerjee
SILIGURI, 5 OCT: The GJMM leadership appear disappointed with the ‘enigmatic’ role being played by the Mamata Banerjee (in photo) government since the earthquake struck the Darjeeling Hills in the evening of 18 September. 
“The common people’s expectation from the new government seems to have dashed against the rock-walls of frustration. Save for verbosity, the state government has so far done nothing for the hapless people across the Hills whose houses were flattened or damaged during the trembler. The indifference to their plight has brought home the point that nothing has changed except the colour of the government,” said the GJMM spokesperson and Kalimpong MLA, Dr Harka Bahadur Chhetri. 
He said that the level of frustration among the common people kept growing. “The situation may come to a pass when the foundation of goodwill on which the GTA is based might crumble to the ground. Our president, Mr Bimal Gurung (in photo), has echoed the collective frustration several times during the party meetings, saying that it would have been better to carry on with the statehood stir instead of having settled for the tripartite agreement,” the senior GJMM leader said.
“The Centre and the state government have been playing the game of passing the buck to each other instead of announcing assistance for the wretched people who have been grappling with the woes wrought by the quake. We are finding it difficult to explain the state government’s insensitivity to the common people. This is embarrassing to the point of being politically dangerous,” Dr Chhetri said.   
“The state government’s role has remained enigmatic since the calamity struck the Hills. The ministers kept streaming into the Hills and indulging in flamboyant assurances. Yet the net result is a big zero. The state has not taken up the matter with the Centre in earnest. It is proving difficult for us to differentiate the insensitive Marxists from those who have taken up the reins after assuring to provide a people’s friendly government,” the MLA said.

Minister seeks explanation for elephant’s death

5 October 2011

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 5 OCT: The state forest minister, Mr Hiten Barman, has asked the chief conservator of forest (wildlife), north Bengal, Mr Krishnamurti, to begin a probe into the death of an elephant that had been run over by a speeding train on last night, keeping in mind the lack of coordination between the joint monitoring team comprising the railways and forest officials.
Mr Barman today said that he suspected that there was lack of coordination between the railway and forest officials to monitor the movement of elephants when the train was entering the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary.
“I have asked the CCF, north Bengal, to immediately submit a report on the role of the monitoring committee. We need to know when the train started and whether the information was conveyed to the forest officials from the railway department or whether there was a communication gap between the two departments,” Mr Barman said.
A five-year-old female elephant was mowed down by a speeding train between Savoke and Gulma railway stations under Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary in Darjeeling district on the night of 3 October.
“We are planning to convene a meeting of the joint monitoring committee and review the situation,” Mr Barman said.
Mr Barman also affirmed that the Centre had allotted Rs 1.93 crore for the construction of a watchtower and lighting arrangement along the railway track, which cuts the elephant corridors in different wildlife sanctuaries. The fund is yet to transferred to the railway department, he said.
“The state forest department has received the allotted funds for the project and it has already informed the finance department to transfer the fund to railway department. The railway department would begin the 
work when the finance department hands the fund over to them,” he added.

Deepa threatens stir over AIIMS-type hospital

5 October 2011

statesman news service
RAIGANJ, 5 OCT: The Congress MP from Raiganj and state Congress secretary, Mrs Deepa Das Munshi, has threatened to launch a stir on the AIIMS issue across north Bengal after the Puja. 
“We would involve the people of the entire north Bengal in the movement. The stir would continue till the state government clears its stance vis-a-vis the proposed AIIMS-type health institution in Raiganj,” she said yesterday at her residence at Sri Colony in Kalyaganj. However, in the same breath, she said that if the chief minister 
invited them for discussion they would accept it. 
The Puja at the residence of the former Union minister, Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, at Kalyaganj, has remained confined to the bare rituals for the past three years. “We cannot go for ostentation as the senior Congress leader is still ailing. The Puja has become a mere ritual bereft of the gaiety previously associated with it. We hope he returns soon and the Pujas would get back its colour,” she said. 
Mr Das Munshi fell seriously ill during the Puja in 2008 and since he has remained confined within the hospital precincts. Now he is being treated at a health facility in New Delhi. 
Mrs Das Munshi said that the super-speciality hospital on the lines of the Delhi-based AIIMS was a dream nurtured by the ailing Congress leader. “He went out of his way to clear the decks for the institution which almost turned into an obsession with him. After he fell ill the Centre took initiatives on the matter and the project was approved by the Union Cabinet at a meeting in 2009. Accordingly, the land for housing the proposed institution was earmarked. But things seem to have got stuck at this point. The previous Left Front government kept sleeping when it came to acquiring lands and, more unfortunately, the present government is doing nothing, except for confounding confusion by sending conflicting signals from time to time,” she said.  
The Congress launched a mass signature campaign recently involving all the six districts of north Bengal to press for their demand. 
“The mass movement would be the next phase of the agitation,” she said, adding they would respond positively in case the state government invites them for consultation on the subject.

Citu leader murder case: Main accused arrested from Chopra

5 October 2011

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 5 OCT: Two months after  the murder of a Citu leader, Raj Kumar Yadav, Pradhan Nagar police arrested the main accused, Sanjit Yadav, from Chopra in North Dinajpur early today.
Sanjit, a resident of Bihar, was produced before a court today. He was remanded in police custody for further interrogation.
A group of criminals attacked Raj Kumar Yadav and his relative Surender Yadav at Siliguri Regulated Market on the night of 30 July. Surender died on the spot while bullet-ridden Raj Kumar succumbed to his injuries on 1 August in a hospital.
Police, based on Raj Kumar’s final statement, arrested two persons after the incident. But the main accused fled the area after the incident.
Primary investigations revealed that Surender Yadav, also a resident of Bihar and accused of several criminal cases in Bihar, was murdered due to past enmity. Surender committed criminal activities in Bihar and took shelter with Raj Kumar Yadav in Siliguri, police said.
Protesting against the murder of the Citu leader, the Left Front-backed trade unions had observed a 12-hour general strike demanding arrest of the main accused.
The Darjeeling police contacted Bihar police and informed all police stations concerned in the state to track Sanjit. Though police had been able to trace his whereabouts in Bihar, adjoining areas in north Bengal and even in Kolkata, they decided to keep a close watch on his movement.
The Siliguri additional SP, Mr Amit P Javalgi, said: “We came to know that he was residing at Chopra. We strategically decided on our move that let him feel comfortable living here.”
“When he came to his relative’s house at Chopra in North Dinajpur last night around 10 p.m. police had planned to intercept him. He was arrested around 1 a.m. from his relative’s house where he had taken shelter,” Mr Javalgi said.
The CPI-M state committee member, Mr Jibesh Sarkar, said: “We have been demanding that police should arrest the main accused to know the mastermind behind the murder of the Citu leader. When police have been able to nab him now they should start investigation to ascertain the motive behind the murder.”
“We suspect that anti-Citu trade union organisers conspired to end his life just to take control of the regulated market in Siliguri where Raj Kumar Yadav headed the trade union,” Mr Sarkar said.