Kalimpong, Sept. 5: A Gorkha Janmukti Morcha youth leader was arrested from his Gumbahatta house here last night in connection with a number of arson cases and vandalism that had taken place in Kalimpong over the past two-and-a-half years.
The arrest of Topden Bhutia, who has 10 warrants against him, has come three days before the next round of tripartite talks on Darjeeling. He has been remanded in judicial custody by a local court for 14 days, police said.
Political observers here said Bhutia’s arrest before the talks could be a ploy of the state government to push the Morcha on the backfoot. “Remember, even Nicokle Tamang (the on-the-run accused in the Madan Tamang killing) was arrested a day before the last round of talks. These arrests are nothing but pressure tactics,” said an observer.
Bhutia was allegedly involved in vandalising GNLF leader Maurice Kalikotey’s house in 2008 and arson at the Motor Stand here when a mob set fire to buses and seriously injured a policeman on February 4.
Suva Pradhan, the Morcha’s Kalimpong unit secretary, however, said: “We are confident that we will be able to secure his release within a day or two.” He said the arrest would not have any negative impact on the ongoing tripartite talks on Darjeeling.
Source: The Telegraph
Morcha youth leader held - ‘Arrest a pressure tactic’
at 9:24 PM Labels: gorkha janmukti morcha, kalimpong newsKalimpong, May 7: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s four frontal organisations today enforced a five-hour pen-down strike in the subdivisional office here to protest the shifting of a library science course from Kalimpong Janata College to Siliguri.
Representatives of the four organisations — the Janmukti Secondary Teachers’ Organisation, Gorkha Primary Teachers’ Organisation, Janmukti Karmachari Sangathan and the Janmukti Asthai Karmachari Sangathan — reached the subdivisional office before 10am to enforce the strike.
Since the agitating organisations had issued a prior notice on the strike, the employees had not turned up for duty. When The Telegraph visited the office in the afternoon, it wore a deserted look.
Hari Dahal, the Kalimpong unit secretary of the JSTO, said the organisations have called for an hour-long chakka jam in town from 11am tomorrow and on Sunday. “We will continue with our protest till the director of library services rolls back his order to shift the college from here to Siliguri,” he added.
A delegation of the four organisations met Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh, who is in town, last night and apprised him of the developments. “Mr Singh gave us a patient hearing and said he would take up the matter with the appropriate authorities,” said Dahal.
The directorate of library services had decided to shift the 16th batch of the library science course from Janata College to the additional district library in Siliguri citing the “present administrative turmoil in Darjeeling”.
A letter sent by the director of library services to the secretary of the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad and the district library officer of Jalpaiguri reads: “The government has decided that one training course may be organised at additional district library, Siliguri instead of Kalimpong People’s (Janata) College, due to the present administrative turmoil in Darjeeling.”
Even though the opening paragraph talks only about shifting one course (library science), the subsequent content of the letter says “the courses” may be organised in Siliguri “until and unless the situation of DGHC area of Darjeeling becomes normal”.
Source: The Telegraph
Repair cry in Tagore heritage home in Kalimpong
at 8:33 PM Labels: kalimpong news, rabindra nath tagore kalimpongKalimpong, April 16: Had Rabindranath Tagore been alive, he might have been moved to pen an elegy on the approaching death of the bungalow from where he had recited his poem, Janmodin (Birthday), live on the national radio more than 70 years ago.
Almost four weeks short of another anniversary of the recitation (that took place in 1938), it is difficult to imagine that Gauripur House on Hill Top used to be one of the favourite summer destinations of the Nobel Laureate.
The two-storied bungalow, owned by B.K. Roychowdhury of Calcutta, is on a scenic hill, near here, and is surrounded by lots of greenery.
Tagore had visited the bungalow three-four times and stayed as a guest of the Roychowdhurys.
However, the building is in need of serious repair.
Thick foliage has grown all over the house, the windows are broken, and the interiors are in a bad shape too.
Even the unmetalled approach road, which is part of the property, had seen better years. Wild growths have all but hidden most of the stretch.
“We had requested the government to take over the house and convert it into a museum on many occasions, but to no avail,” said M.K. Bhattacharya, a professor of political science at Kalimpong College.
Biswanath Paul, principal of a cooperative training centre that ran from the ground floor of the bungalow from the fifties to the late nineties, said he had approached the former chairman of the DGHC, Subash Ghisingh, with a request to acquire and preserve the building as a heritage property, but without much success.
“The bungalow can be revived as a heritage home (read hotel). It should get a good number of visitors,” Paul said over the phone from Siliguri.
There is no dearth of tourists to the place even now. It is a must-see, especially for the Bengalis.
“Tourists keep coming here frequently. Most of them go back with bitter-sweet memories of the place,” said Sangita Sharma, who lives with her husband on the first floor of the bungalow.
Her family has been the caretakers of the building for three generations now.
Sangita’s 80-year-old mother Krishna, who lives in a house just below the compound of the bungalow, recalled meeting Tagore as a child.
“I remember him as an old man with a khadal (wooden slippers). I was very young then. We were scared of going near the bungalow,” Krishna said.
Whatever could have been the reasons for little Krishna’s fear all those years ago, for people like Bhattacharya, Paul and his wife Bani, a retired professor of Sanskrit of Kalimpong College, the fear is that their efforts to preserve the place might never bear fruit.
Source: The Telegraph
Kalimpong, April 11: The water scarcity in Kalimpong has forced villagers to ration water to suppliers pumping it out from springs and restaurants to restrict their sales.
The hill subdivision has received little rain since October 15. The commercial supply of water to Kalimpong — after collecting it from springs and jhoras in the nearby Upper Dungra — had been stopped for two days following a feud between the villagers and drivers of water-carrying jeeps.
The main grouse of the people was that the commercial pumping from the springs was affecting the local people’s source of water, especially at a time the water sources were fast drying up.
Most of the residents in the town depend on these springs to meet their daily requirements. The suppliers charge between Rs 150 and Rs 200 for 1,000 litres of water.
“The jeeps resumed supplying water from today after we worked out an amicable solution with the Dungra residents. Henceforth, a jeep will be allowed to carry water from the three springs in the village not more than six times a day. Commercial establishments will also have to make do with restricted supply of water. If water has to be supplied from sources located much away from the town, the prices will go up,” said Dorji Tshering Bhutia, the president of the Chalak Mahasangh, affiliated to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.
Restaurant owners are worried that if the water scarcity persists for some more time, they may have to wind up business. “I require 2,000 litres of water a day to run my hotel. If there is a shortage of supply, my business will be severely hampered,” said Kumar Gurung, the owner of Shikhar Restaurant.
Some hotels have already restricted sales. “I had to shut down my restaurant yesterday, as there was no water. The hotel is open today, but limited food items have been prepared as I could manage to get only 1,000 litres of water,” said Manohar Chourasia, the owner of Hotel Aditya.
Source: The Telegraph
Rival censures closure during census
at 9:59 PM Labels: bats club kalimpong, darjeeling news, gnlf c, kalimpong newsKalimpong, April 8: GNLF (C) president D.K. Pradhan today said the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s indefinite shutdown of subdivisional and block offices in the hills could not have been so ill-timed for the Gorkhas when an important exercise like the census held once in 10 years was going on.
Pradhan told The Telegraph that the Morcha was committing the same mistake the GNLF had made 10 years back when it had called strikes around the same time the enumeration exercise was being conducted. “Census is very important for every Indian citizen, and instead of creating disruption, we should all be lending our hands to ensure smooth and proper conduct of the exercise,” he said.
Pradhan said at a time when the Gorkhas across the country were demanding a separate state for themselves to protect their identity and culture, it was even more important to ensure that no member of the community was left out of the head count. “Isn’t it surprising that the last census put the total number of Gorkhas in the country at about 28 lakh when we all, including the Morcha and the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisang, claimed that the figure was 1 crore?” he asked.
The Morcha began its shutdown yesterday ostensibly to stop the collection of taxes as well as to protest the alleged tardy progress in the implementation of the 100-days’ work scheme in the hills. But observers say the shutdown is part of the Morcha’s tactics to build up pressure on both the state and central governments to yield ground on the territorial jurisdiction of the interim set-up.
The GNLF (C) president, however, said both the reasons the Morcha had cited for the closure did not hold much water. “Which taxes is the Morcha talking about when it has not allowed the people to pay even their telephone and electricity bills. The slow progress in the implementation of the 100-days’ work is not because of official lethargy, but because of the unwarranted interference by anti-social elements at every stage of the scheme,” he alleged.
Pradhan said the shutdown could not be part of the Morcha tactics to extract concessions from the governments during negotiations on its demand to include Gorkha-dominated areas in the Dooars in the interim set-up.
“The Morcha is closing down the SDO and BDO offices in the hills, not in the portions of the plains which it wants included in the new arrangement. If they are serious and sincere on the demand, they should shut down the offices in the plains also,” he said.
Source: The Telegraph
Kalimpong, March 28: The Janmukti Secondary Teachers’ Organisation has called for changes in the rules for the recruitment of teachers to the three schools wholly run by the government in the hills.
In a memorandum faxed to education minister Partha Dey today, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-affiliated union said in the absence of permanent teachers in Darjeeling Government High School, Kalimpong Government High School and Saradeshwari Government High School in Darjeeling, ad hoc teachers had been appointed with the approval of the DGHC.
“Since the ad hoc teachers have put in years of service, we would like to request the (education) department to safeguard their interests as much as possible by incorporating appropriate changes (in the recruitment rules),” said the memorandum.
Bhisan Roka, the JSTO spokesperson, said a delegation of the union had been told by the state Public Service Commission (PSC) officials that they conducted recruitment according to the rules notified by the education department and they could be altered only by the state government.
The JSTO said there was a backlog of 45 vacant posts in the three schools.
“During our meeting with the minister and senior officials of the education department on March 16, we were given to understand that the appointments in government schools fell within the purview of the PSC. Now that the matter has been clarified by the PSC, we hope the government will take note of our concerns and accommodate them while notifying the recruitment rules,” said Roka.
In government-aided schools, appointments are carried out by the School Service Commission. Roka also demanded that teachers from the hills be appointed the heads of the three institutions.
Source: The Telegraph
Hill kid archers aim high - Paril leads way to the bull’s eye
at 8:36 PM Labels: darjeeling news, kalimpong news, paril lepchaKalimpong, March 23: Twenty-two students from different schools of Kalimpong are learning new skills in archery from Paril Lepcha at a training centre here.
The 17-year-old Paril was the first to put Kalimpong on the archery map of the country by her consistent performances in various age-group competitions both at the state and national-levels over the past five years.
The session at the Gorkha Archery Training Centre is on an extended run primarily because of the overwhelming response of the children. The programme that began on March 2 was originally planned to be a fortnight long, but the centre decided to extend it by another 15 days to enable the students to absorb the finer points of the sport. The archery is fast gaining in popularity among the youngsters in the Kalimpong subdivision.
“The sports and youth affairs department of the DGHC had agreed to sponsor the 15-day programme, but we decided to extend it at our own expense. The kids were very keen on having an extended run at the centre,” said Chujang Lepcha, the co-ordinator of the centre.
Though the trainees are using the traditional bamboo bows, they are being taught about modern rules of the game. “They are being given about two hours of intensive training on week days, and for a much longer duration at the weekends,” said Chujang.
The focus at the camp is more on shooting, though the children are being put through basic physical conditioning also. Paril said she was very impressed with the level of talent some of her trainees had. “These kids are very fast at grasping what we teach them. If they are given proper training with modern equipment, they can really go far,” she said.
Three of the trainees had participated in the recently held state-level sub-junior archery competition in Calcutta. Of the trio, Chom Tshering Lepcha, a student of Scottish University’s Mission Institution, has been selected to represent Bengal at the national-level competition beginning at Aurangabad in Maharashtra tomorrow. The other young archers said they, too, wanted to participate in the state and national-level competitions.
“Paril is my inspiration. I want to follow in her footsteps. I have learned a lot from the camp,” said Leezong Lepcha, a student of Saptashree Gyanpith who had also taken part in the Calcutta meet.
Like Chom and Leezong, the other 20 trainees are also under the age of 17.
Source: The Telegraph
Kalimpong, March 22: The Kalimpong municipality is facing acute water shortage because of a prolonged dry season and although the civic body has charted contingency plans to tackle the scarcity, most measures seem to be long term and are not expected to be of immediate help.
As there has been no rainfall since October 15, rivers have dried up and the municipality and the water works department of the DGHC are depending on small streams to meet the water demand.
“As much as 60 per cent water has dried up in the Neora Khola, Relli Khola and the Thukchuk Khola because of lack of winter rain,” said Anil Chhetri, the executive engineer of PHE (water works), which supplies water to the municipality area.
The Neora, Relli and the Thukchuk are the three main sources of water in the town. “To solve the scarcity, we have started pumping water from the jhoras. However, the water we draw from the jhoras (streams) is not enough to meet the demand,” said Chhetri.
Seeking the co-operation of the people to tide over the crisis, the executive engineer said it would help if the consumers ensured that there was no leakage of water from faulty pipes. “Many consumers use poor substitutes of galvanised iron pipes, resulting in colossal leakage of water. In our estimate, as much as 70 lakh litres of water are lost a year because of faulty pipelines,” said Chhetri.
The water works department supplies water to 5,000-odd households in the municipality area for about 30 minutes on alternate days. However, nowadays the residents are being provided with water for half an hour once in three days.
“We will be doing a few things to augment the water supply in the town: the second reservoir at Deola will be repaired and new pipelines with a thickness of 10-12 inches will be laid from the Neora to the reservoirs,” said Chhetri.
Till that happens, the residents will have to continue making their own arrangements for water. In fact, even during the best of times, the residents pay Rs 150 to Rs 200 to buy 1,000 litres of water from the market. “I am buying water at Rs 170 per 1,000 litre. Even that is difficult to get because of the increase in demand,” said Nilesh Khadka, a resident of BL Dixit Road.
Amyas Tshering, the subdivisional officer of Kalimpong, said the civic body was working on a contingency plan to tackle the situation. “Like in Darjeeling, we are thinking of supplying water to residents on vehicles. The department concerned has already talked to the DGHC in this regard.”
From The Telegraph
A question in today’s Madhyamik examination kicked off a controversy with teachers here slamming the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education for being insensitive to hill sentiments.
The question in the Second Language (English) paper read: “Suppose one of your friends will come to Kolkata for the first time and spend a few days in the city. Write a letter to her/him (in not more than 120 words) about the important places of Kolkata that she/he may like to visit.”
“How will a student in the hills or any other area in Bengal, who has never visited the city, write about the place. In any case, the English paper is supposed to test the language skill of a student and not his or her general knowledge,” said Bhisan Roka, the spokesperson for the Janmukti Secondary Teachers’ Organisation’s Kalimpong unit. MORE...
Father Josef Hofstetter of St. Augustine's School dies
at 7:28 PM Labels: josef hofstetter, kalimpong, kalimpong newsKalimpong, Jan. 27: Former principal of St Augustine's School, Father Josef Hofstetter died at a hospital in Saint Maurice, Switzerland yesterday. He was 89 years old.
A Jesuit priest, Father Hofstetter had been in Kalimpong for 46 years after he came to India on November 13, 1948. Apart from serving St Augustine's School in various capacities, he also worked as the headmaster of St George's School in Pedong. MORE...
Kalimpong, Nov. 25: The Kalimpong Municipality today formally set in motion the process of acquiring 8.25 acres of land at Lower Bhalukhop to construct a permanent waste management facility.
The land will be purchased at Rs 2 lakh per acre from the villagers. An adjoining wasteland, spread over 1.75 acres and owned by the state land and land reforms department, will also be acquired for the Rs 2.39-crore dumpyard.
The municipal authorities and villagers inked an agreement on the terms and conditions of the deal in the presence of Kalimpong subdivisional officer P.T. Sherpa.
According to the agreement, garbage collected from the town will be treated in a scientific manner so as to avoid causing any health hazard to the people living in the vicinity. Even the transportation of solid waste will be carried out in a scientific manner.
The agreement also states that the villagers will be given preferences in jobs arising in the facility. “Please understand that we agreed to sell our land in the larger interest of the residents of Kalimpong, but not at the cost of our safety,” said Binod Rai, a villager.
Chairman of the civic body Norden Lama said the sales deed would be signed in the next few days.
DARJEELING, Nov. 20: An Organic Training Institute will soon be established at Siche in Kalimpong to educate the people on organic production and farming rather than depending on tourism which is considered the backbone of the Darjeeling Hill economy.
The Government of India (Agricultural Department) has sanctioned a fund of approximately Rs 6 lakh for the purpose. “Land has been acquired for the project and work will soon begin under the supervision of the NHPC,” said Darjeeling MP, Mr Dawa Narbula claiming he had taken the initiative to get the project sanctioned.
The MP was speaking at the release of a book, Growth Prospects in Darjeeling: Constraints and Antidotes- a compilation of articles by district administrators which stresses on the need of alternative forms of livelihood in the Hills. “Darjeeling is a mine of wealth if we can make use of the natural resources at our disposal. Organic farming is one such alternative but the knowledge and expertise in the field is lacking,” said ADM (Dev) Mr P K Chettri, Editor of the book. A factory of handmade paper would also be set up in Lava, Mr Narbula further informed. Both the projects would be funded and overseen by the Centre.
Speaking on the Balasun Water Project, Mr Narbula alleged the Left-Front government was intentionally delaying the completion of the project. “The project was mooted in December 2005 and should have been completed by December this year but as the state government released the execution order more than a year later, the completion would be April 2010,” he alleged.
The Rs 48.16 crore project was enhanced to Rs 55 crore and a high level advisory committee was formed in May this year to oversee it.
Kalimpong, Nov. 19: The Kalimpong Horticulture Society (KHS) is looking at collaborating with the Agri-Horticultural Society of India to market plants produced by its members in eastern India.
The two parties have already held the first round of talks in this regard. If the deal comes through, the Calcutta-based Agri-Horticultural Society of India (AHSI) will allow the KHS to use its huge green house at Alipore. The AHSI, in turn, will have a steady stock of saleable plants throughout the year.
KHS president Miku Fonning said the details of the deal would have to be worked out before putting the final seal on it.
“Once the deal comes through, it will be a win-win situation for both the parties,” he added.
Kalimpong does business worth over Rs 2 crore every year in floriculture that includes domestic sales and exports. Fonning said plants like cactus and orchids, bulbous plants like gladiolus, amaryllis, and indoor houseplants like bromeliads, philodendron species, palms, and ferns that grow in Kalimpong could be marketed from the AHSI facility in Alipore.
“There is a great demand for cactus and orchids in Calcutta, which can easily be met by us,” he added.
A KHS team had participated in the AHSI-organised Indoor houseplant expo, 2008 held in Calcutta from November 13 to 16. Apart from selling some plants, the KHS used the opportunity to highlight the problems and prospects of the floriculture industry in Kalimpong.
Fonning said the major problem is the lack of adequate infrastructure. “In order to maximise the potential of Kalimpong in floriculture, we need to have cold storages and grading facilities. Otherwise, we will continue to be stagnant,” he added.
The KHS president said apart from providing transport subsidy, there was a need to enlarge the plantation area by providing quality-planting material at subsidised rates to interested farmers. The KHS is also looking to set up a floriculture park and an orchid sanctuary in Kalimpong to give boost up the industry.
“The potential Kalimpong has in floriculture is best explained by the fact that high-altitude plants and desert plants grow together here,” he said.
Top
Kalimpong, Nov. 18: Pratap Khati, the president of the ABGL’s youth wing, was today granted an interim bail by the assistant chief judicial magistrate’s court where he was produced a day after a Delhi police team arrested him in connection with a fraud case.
Granting him bail, the judge, S. Mondal, directed Khati to appear before the Delhi court, which had issued an arrest warrant against him, before November 25.
The youth leader, in his late thirties, was arrested on charges of cheating in which a Delhi-based placement agency, Real Service, is alleged to have duped eight persons from the hills of about Rs 16 lakh.
The victims are believed to have paid the money to the placement agency in 2003 through its Kalimpong franchisee, Global Placements, which was run by Khati, a lawyer. The franchisee is now closed.
Police said Khati was produced in court today by the crime branch of the Delhi police to secure a transit remand. “We are only providing logistical support to our colleagues from Delhi. We are no where in the picture in this case,” said an officer.
An officer of the four-member Delhi police team, refused comment. “We are not authorised to speak to the media,” he said.
Today, when Khati was brought to the court under police escort, a large crowd of people, including some of the victims of the fraud and their family members, had gathered on the premises. They shouted slogans “Pratap Khati murdabad” (go down) and demanded that he be meted out exemplary punishment. Posters also appeared in the town in the name of Kalimpong Youths, urging lawyers not to take up Khati’s case.
About a month ago, Khati’s Maruti van was turned on its side and his house was pelted with stones allegedly by the youth wing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which has been at loggerheads with the ABGL.
Yesterday, the ABGL leader was questioned by the Delhi police team at the Kalimping police station. The case under section 420 of the IPC is over three years old. In November 2006, a Delhi police team had visited the hill town in connection with the same case.
Khati had maintained his innocence in the past. He had claimed to have lodged a complaint against the Real’s managing director, S.D. Sharma, at the Kalkaji police station in Delhi on August 23, 2005, accusing him of not getting jobs for his clients despite accepting the money.
However, some of the victims The Telegraph have spoken to in the past are not happy with Khati’s role in the entire episode. “He waited for more than two years before acting against Sharma,” one of them had said.
Home secretary
Bengal home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti on Tuesday said that he would visit north Bengal from November 23 to 25 to prepare a report on the situation in the hills. The report would be sent to the Centre prior to another tripartite meeting with the Morcha.
“I will be in Siliguri and Cooch Behar for three days to prepare a report on the condition there,” he said at the Writers’ Buildings.
Kalimpong, Nov. 14: The employees of water works department will abstain from duty for six days next week as part of the ongoing agitation by the Janmukti Asthai Karmachari Sangathan (JAKS) for the regularisation of the jobs of DGHC staff.
The strike is part of a series of programmes announced today by JAKS to kick off its second phase of agitation, demanding that the contractual workers of the hill council be made permanent.
The next phase beginning tomorrow will see all development activities carried out by the various departments of the DGHC being stalled indefinitely. The contractual employees of the hill council have been on a pen-down strike since November 6 under the banner of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-affiliated JAKS.
However, essential services like water supply and hospitals had been exempted from the purview of the strike.
The announcement of the new agitation programmes was made by the JAKS president, Machendra Subba, at a rally at Damber Chowk here. “We will continue our movement till our demand is met,” said Subba.
He added that the employees of the public health engineering (water works) would not be reporting for duty from November 17 to 22.
Given the scarcity of potable water in the hills, residents may be forced to buy water at higher rates for the major part of next week. “I hope the water suppliers will desist from jacking up the price,” said a resident. People living in the heart of the town buy water at Rs 80 for 500 litres now.
The contractual employees attached to the health department will also cease work from November 22 onwards for an indefinite period. “If they go ahead with their strike, the hospitals will be greatly affected as the state government staff alone cannot run the show,” said an employee of the Kalimpong Subdivisional Hospital. The majority of paramedics in hospitals, according to source, are DGHC employees.
In his speech, the JAKS president slammed the urban development minister, Asok Bhattacharya, for threatening to withhold the salary for the agitating DGHC employees. “Instead of talking about no-work, no-pay, the government should give us salary and other allowances which will be on a par with those of the state government employees.”
Kalimpong, Nov. 6: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung has appointed Sunil Pradhan as one of the three men to look after the party’s youth affairs in the Kalimpong subdivision.
Pradhan, who is from 6th Mile here, replaces Basant Singh who had been suspended from the outfit for his alleged anti-party activities about two months ago. The other two at the helm of affairs in the youth wing are Topden Bhutia and Nima Tamang.
The decision to appoint Pradhan was taken at a meeting of the Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha’s Kalimpong branch here last night that was also attended by Gurung.
The Morcha president held separate meetings with the members of the party’s Kalimpong branch committee, its women’s wing and central committee from the subdivision.
A source in the Morcha said Gurung had held the series of meetings to strengthen the party organisations in the subdivision, which, according to him, had given him the headache most. “During the course of the meetings, he reiterated there should be no wavering from the demand of Gorkhaland,” said a source.
In his meeting with the members of the women’s wing, the Morcha chief decided not to make any changes in the officer-bearers of the wing, though its president Nanita Gautam had been absorbed in the central committee of the party. “Gautam, Gurung said, would continue to head the wing in the subdivision at least for the moment,” said the source.
Gurung also ordered stopping of all development work in the hills from tomorrow, the last day of the party’s month-long cultural movement. “I don’t know how will that be worked out at the practical level. But the president spoke about not allowing any development activities in the hills to intensify the on-going agitation,” the source added.
Special training for budding archers - 28 schoolchildren from hills dream to be another Paril
at 6:44 PM Labels: kalimpong newsKalimpong, Nov. 3: Twenty-eight wannabe archers from Kalimpong and its surrounding areas were introduced to a specialised training for over a month in the hope that they become another Paril Lepcha.
The 16-year-old archery sensation from the hills, Paril, had represented Bengal at the National Games in Guwahati in 2007. She had also won one gold, two silvers and a bronze at the 26th sub-junior national archery meet at Ajmer in 2005.
The training that concluded here yesterday was the brainchild of Chujang Lepcha, who had coached his daughter Paril into national prominence. The programme was organised under the banner of the Gorkha Archery Training Centre (GATC), which was formed earlier this year by Lepcha and a few archery enthusiasts.
The youngsters Under-10, Under-17 and Under-19 categories were trained by a four-member coaching team headed by Lakik Lepcha who was assisted by Paril herself, Ongdup and Jigme Lepcha.
“The youngsters were trained to use bow and arrows made from bamboo in what we call Indian round of archery. Once they master this particular round, they can shift to fibre-based equipment and modern archery,” said Ongdup, who is a Sports Authority of India-trained archer.
However, given the huge cost of equipment, the youngsters will have to excel and come under the wings of organisations like SAI to avail of modern bows and arrows.
“Although they used bamboo-made equipment, switching over to the fibre ones used by the national-level and international archers will not be difficult,” said Chujang, who is also the secretary of the GATC.
During the training, the youngsters were put through strenuous physical and mental exercise. “To improve their concentration, the trainees were also taught yoga,” said Chujang.
According to him, the GATC will organise more training camps for the youngsters, who are mostly school students, during the two-month-long winter break beginning early December. “In the next phase, we plan to introduce inter-school archery competition to spot more talents.”
Fourteen-year-old Kaban Lepcha, a Class VIII student of Kalimpong Girls’ High School, said she thoroughly enjoyed the training and would take up the sport depending on the opportunity. “I decided to try archery because of Paril didi. Since I come from her area, she is a huge inspiration.”
Namchu, another trainee, too, echoed Kaban. “I will continue with my practice,” the 13-year-old said.
Kalimpong, Oct. 29: The Kalimpong Municipality has identified a plot of 10 acres at Lower Bhalukhop, about 5km from the town, to set up a permanent dumping ground.
The new site is not far from Lower Newargoan, which had been identified by the previous GNLF board headed by C.K. Kumai. However, unlike the old site, the new one, which is close to Melli, is easily accessible, although the road leading there needs to be made fit for travel.
Municipality chairman Norden Lama said negotiations were being held with the owners of the land and things would be finalised after Tihar festivity was over.
“Once we get the possession of the land, it will take only two months to get the site ready for the dumping,” said Lama.
Besides the work on the approach road, the site itself will have to be developed as a proper dumping ground.
The civic authorities have been hunting for a site ever since the people of Bhalukhop protested against their place being used for the dumping of garbage nearly five months ago.
Kalimpong, Oct. 22: The Kalimpong Municipality will construct four additional storage tanks in town to facilitate better distribution of water to residents.
The civic body will make use of the Rs 60 lakh it had received from the Bengal municipal affairs department about two years ago. “The previous board had received the money, but had diverted some of it to other purposes. The funds were replenished only a few days before C.K. Kumai resigned as the civic chief,” said Norden Lama, the municipality chairman.
The new tanks will be set up at CarMichael Ground, Mission Compound, Haat Ghar and Lalgully. “We have issued tenders and once the formalities are completed, we will release work orders,” Lama said.
The capacity for the Haat Ghar tank will be 10,000 gallons water and the ones at Mission Compound and Lalgully will be 15,000 gallons each. The CarMichael Ground tank will store 1 lakh gallons, sources said.
The daily requirement of Kalimpong town is nine lakh gallons, while the municipality gets five lakh gallons a day. The shortfall has led the civic authorities to supply water to the residents on alternate day for an hour or so.
Lama, however, said the municipality can do very little to meet the shortfall as the distribution of water is the responsibility of the DGHC’s public health engineering (water works) department. “The authorities of Neora Khola Drinking Water Scheme (which brings water from the source to two reservoirs) and the department (which supplies water from the reservoirs to the storage tanks) must increase the volume of water to make optimal use of the tanks.”
Kalimpong, Oct. 21: A Rs 5-crore scheme has been launched by DGHC to set up infrastructure in little known tourist spots near Kalimpong to woo more visitors.
The project for the integrated development of the tourism sites, funded by the central government, had been approved about two years back, but its implementation was delayed by the Subash Ghisingh-headed DGHC dispensation.
Works under the scheme, launched six months ago, are moving at a rapid pace.
The existing facilities in the riverside village of Relli, 8km from here, are being upgraded for Rs 1.27 crore. The additions to the spot are a swimming pool with rooms for changing and an amusement park. Relli already has lodging facilities at Gorkha Hut and a coffee house.
DGHC tourism secretary Sripriya Rangarajan said the existing tourist sites had been selected for the upgrade after carefully studying their potential.
“The Union government had sanctioned the funds to improve the existing facilities as part of the Destination Kalimpong project,” she said over the phone from Darjeeling.
Another major site being developed is the Changey Falls, located about 40km from here, and Rs 3.49 crore has been earmarked for augmenting the infrastructure there.
“We have already released 80 per cent of the funds and works on fencing and illumination are in progress. An angular footpath is also being constructed there,” said the tourism secretary.
At Deolo Hills, about 5km from the town, a musical fountain is being erected for Rs 16 lakh. A popular tourist lodge there is also being given a face-lift with new interiors.
There are plans to carry out river protection work, construct a picnic ghar and a children park in Chitrakut-Tarkhola area near the border with Sikkim.
“The project has not taken off as the forest department is yet to give 2.5 to 3 acres of land,” said Rangarajan.
Once the infrastructure is ready, Chitrakut-Tarkhola and Relli will be promoted as destinations for adventure tourism like paragliding and river-rafting, she said.