(A chicken that was hatched with four legs at Jog Maya Tea estate near Ghayabari, Kurseong sub. division. Picture by Bhusan Chettri, DT Correspondent)
Gurung surrenders for threat speech
- Morcha president gets bail in suo motu case filed by police before polls OUR CORRESPONDENT - The Telegraph
Darjeeling, June 29: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung today surrendered in the judicial magistrate’s court here in connection with an election speech that police had found inciting.
On March 30, Gurung while addressing a convention of party supporters at Gymkhana Hall had said: “Our Tibetan brothers have for long been voting blindly for the Congress, but all the hill people, including our Muslim brothers, should only think about Gorkhaland as this is their place too.”
In his “advice” to these communities, which The Telegraph had reported, Gurung had said his party would keep an eye on every vote during the election. At the same meeting, the Morcha president had “requested” former Congress Lok Sabha member Dawa Narbula not to file nominations for the general elections. The Morcha leader had earlier accused Narbula of not uttering a single word in support of Gorkhaland in Parliament.
While there were protests from the CPM in the plains against Gurung’s speeches, the Darjeeling Sadar police filed a suo motu case against him under Section 171F of the Indian Penal Code the same day.
Today, judicial magistrate Debjyoti Mukherjee granted bail to Gurung till August 24, the date for the next hearing. Gurung’s defence lawyer Dinesh Chandra Rai said the bail was granted on a bond and surety of Rs 500.
Gurung had arrived in court without any announcement and surrendered around 10.30am. His lawyer said the Morcha president was there till about noon, when the formalities were completed.
Section 171F deals with the “offence of undue influence of personation at an election”. Although the section is bailable, if found guilty one can be imprisoned for up to a year and fined or can face both penalties.
Senior police officers, refused comment on today’s development, saying that it was subjudice.
A day after the speech, municipal affairs minister Asok Bhattacharya had slammed the Morcha president and accused him of threatening voters a day after the speech. The Darjeeling CPM had also lodged complaints with the Election Commission of India, the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Minorities soon after.
Today, Bhattacharya, did not have much to say. “I am hearing about the development from you. What can I say? Let the law take its own course,” Bhattacharya said.
Rohini road: A deathtrap for passengers
Kurseong, 29 June: Kurseong-bound passengers from Siliguri can save minutes off their journey time by taking the Rohini bypass road. However, the road currently poses a risk to life and limb. For the last few months, the Rohini road has been in a deplorable condition, with cracks at every step.
After seven years of construction work, the road was inaugurated by the DGHC on 16 July, 2007. Rs 10.42 crore has been spent on the road.
Since the Pankhabari road has been announced as one-way till 5.00 p.m. by the administration, most of the Darjeeling-bound Siliguri vehicles ply via Rohini road. Hence, it is one of the busiest roads in the region.
One passenger, who was a regular visitor to Kurseong from Siliguri, said it's been a year since he last visited Kurseong. "Nowadays I try not to think about visiting Kurseong as most of the vehicles use Rohini road, which is uncomfortable and unsafe." Another passenger said that besides proper repair works, the road needs several parapets, since a lack of parapets along the slope of the road makes passengers fear the journey.
A driver, Mr Pramod Chettri, said that the rough conditions of the road make it difficult to drive on and consume a lot of fuel. Passengers are also afraid of accidents. Residents of the area feel that, besides the ongoing agitation, political parties should concentrate on development for the benefit of the common people.
When questioned, the GJMM, vice-president, Mr Pradeep Pradhan, said: “Keeping in mind the interests of the common people, we have already complained and demanded to the authorities regarding immediate repair works on the Rohini road.”
In this connection, the Kurseong SDO, Mr Dibyendu Das said that the matter has already been conveyed to the concerned authorities as well as the DGHC Construction Division. The DGHC Construction Division, executive engineer, Mr Kumud Giri, said that the fund had not been sanctioned so far and the work will be started as soon as this occurs. ;SNS
Ballots pour as voters brave rain
OUR BUREAU - The Telegraph
Siliguri, June 28: Rain could not dampen the voting spirit today with 80 per cent of the electorate casting their ballots for the three-tier elections to the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad till 9.30pm. The percentage is expected to rise as voting continued well into the night.
Except for an incident in which ballot papers were misplaced, voting was incident-free.
Thousands queued up in front of the 470 booths across the four blocks of Siliguri sub-division from the morning despite the shower. Subir Sarkar, the in-charge of the weather station at North Bengal University, said in the past 48 hours, Siliguri had received around 300mm of rainfall.
“Polling across the mahakuma parishad area was peaceful save for a minor incident of misplacement of ballots,” said Sharad Dwivedi, the subdivisional officer of Siliguri who was also the returning officer. “Although the official time for voting is from 7am to 5pm, we apprehend that polling in some booths may continue even after the scheduled hours as unlike the parliamentary polls, one has to cast three votes and it takes time. We have information that a large number of voters are still standing in queues and orders have been passed to continue polling. ”
The misplacement of ballots was reported from two booths (29 and 29A) at Amiya Palchoudhury Smriti Vidyalaya in Matigara block. “By mistake, 10 ballots meant for the panchayat of another booth, located in Mohorgong-Gulma Tea Estate, were packed with the ballots of these two booths,” a senior official said.
As the news spread, the Congress insisted that the election should be allowed to continue, while the CPM demanded a re-polling. “As soon as we came to know that ballot papers of another booth have come to ours, we asked the presiding officer to stop polling and inform his superiors,” said Babul Bhowmik, a CPM leader.
Soon CPM and Congress supporters started hurling abuses at each other and police from Pradhannagar arrived. A magistrate, too, reached the spot with the subdvisional officer’s message that a re-election would be held in the two booths for the panchayat level.
“It was a minor problem but we had to halt polling for three-four hours. It was decided later that voters of these two booths will exercise their franchise for panchayats on Tuesday when repolling would be held,” the official said.
EVM malfunction
Voting was disrupted for 30 minutes in three booths of the Malbazar Municipality because of the malfunctioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs). Apart from the delay, polling was peaceful in the Gangarampur, Islampur and Kaliaganj civic bodies that also went to polls on Sunday.
Despite heavy rain, Gangarampur in South Dinajpur recorded 88 per cent voting in its 18 wards, while North Dinajpur’s Islampur and Kaliaganj registered 85 and 84 per cent polling, officials said. Both the civic bodies have 17 wards.
In the 15 wards of Malbazar, 74 per cent voters cast their ballots. In some places, polling continued after scheduled hours as many voters queued up just before the official close of voting at 3pm.
CII wants Siliguri on air map
- Bagdogra rename cry OUR CORRESPONDENT - The Telegraph
Siliguri, June 28: The CII’s north Bengal zonal council wants Bagdogra airport to be renamed Siliguri airport or after some eminent personality.
“Even though Bagdogra is internationally known, Siliguri is not on the air map of the country in a true sense. Many people are still unaware that Bagdogra caters for the town, which is the gateway to the Northeast. We want the airport to be renamed Siliguri airport or named after prominent personalities like it is in Calcutta, Delhi and Mumbai,” Ramgopal Jajodia, the vice-chairman of the council, said at a seminar on Economic Scenario – Adversity to Challenges on Friday.
According to him, the tickets printed by airlines that run flights to Bagdogra also display the same location and not Siliguri. “Unlike Calcutta, where tickets display the metro’s name and not Dumdum, we want the civil aviation ministry to pass on instructions to the airliners so that they print the origin and terminus as Siliguri and not Bagdogra. This alteration will help increase the popularity of Siliguri, as international flights have started operating from here,” Jajodia said.
From June 18, the Drukair of Bhutan have been operating flights between Paro and Bangkok via Bagdogra four days a week. Yesterday, Bagdogra came into the news once again when the right wingtip of a Kingfisher Airlines Airbus A320 hit a grass-camouflaged air force bunker near the runway while taxiing for takeoff at 3.30pm. Although all 178 passengers and six crew members of the Bagdogra-Delhi flight were safe, “the aircraft suffered structural damage and the bunker wall cracked,” airport officials said. Following the incident, aircraft movement was stalled at the airport for more than an hour.
The CII members urged urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya, who was at the seminar, to take up the matter with the Centre. “We request you to take up the renaming or the change in ticket display with appropriate quarters and ensure its early implementation,” one of them said.
Sources in the CII said the trade body would soon write to civil aviation minister Praful Patel and Bhattacharya on this matter.
The Bengal minister, who had spoken earlier at the seminar, requested realtors of the region not to resort to abnormal profit-making.
“One of the emerging sectors in the region is real estate, which is generating employment as well as helping economic growth. I like to request the realtors to maintain limits and not to resort to abnormal profit-making. This trend was noticed in the US before the economic meltdown and if similar trends are witnessed here, it will affect the economic growth. Maintaining a standard rate of profit will help sustainable development of the sector,” he said.
| About Us | Contact Us |
Set as homepage 
|
Add to favorites 
|
(Posted by Narayan Gopal, July 12, 2009, 1:03 AM)