Monsoon back on track
;Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, 1 JULY: Setting speculations at rest, the monsoon has arrived in north Bengal and would have its usual run of the season, said meteorological experts. Siliguri and its adjoining areas have already experienced over 150 ml of rain over the past two days and more is likely. Other parts of north Bengal are expected to have normal rainfall this year too.
According to the North Bengal University meteorological specialist Dr Subir Sarkar, the hindrance effect of the cyclonic storm Aila on the advent of monsoon is over and the moisture, sweeping into the atmosphere, has gained enough strength to help the monsoon deepen into its normal course. “Normally north Bengal experiences around 3,200 ml rain a year and if the initial volume of rain is any indication, this figure would not vary much this time around,” he said.
Meanwhile, some low-lying areas of Jalpaiguri town have been waterlogged as torrential rains lashed over the past two days. Like every year, rainwater has inundated localities like Vevekananda Palli, Sukanta Colony and some parts of Panda Para. Siliguri is so far free from the waterlogging menace though.
According to the deputy mayor, Siliguri Municipal Corporation, Mr Dilip Roy, the sewerage system in the town is strong enough to absorb the rainwater.
“Unless there is some kind of a flood in the nearby rivers, Siliguri would remain free from water-logging. We are, however, on our toes to spare the town the inconveniences associated with heavy downpours,” he assured.
Tuesday's rain wasn't monsoon: Experts
Times of India
Was it a monsoon shower that lashed Kolkata on Tuesday evening? The Met office claims it was, but weather parameters tell a different story. The rain approached Kolkata from the north-west and was caused by a low-pressure area, rather than monsoon clouds, believe experts. Had it been a monsoon shower, the clouds wouldn't have disappeared and the rain would have continued on Wednesday, they argued.
"It was a Nor'wester caused by a low-pressure area. Had it been a full-fledged monsoon shower, the rain would have continued on Wednesday morning and the sky would have been cloudy. But neither happened. Monsoon rains don't disappear after a spell of shower. Also, the rains were not uniformly intense across the city, which again indicates that the shower was not the result of the monsoon," said weather researcher Swapan Chatterjee, who has been studying the monsoon pattern of the country for the last 12 years.
The Met office, on the other hand, said the shower was the result of monsoon clouds. But officials added that the city will not receive heavy rainfall in the next two days. "There will only be a few scattered showers in south Bengal. Murshidabad, Nadia and Birbhum could get heavy showers, but not Kolkata. Darjeeling, Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri in North Bengal will receive heavy rainfall in the next two days," said G C Debnath, director, Alipur Met office.
Had it been a monsoon shower, it would have been followed by a drizzle at least, said experts. "The rain on Tuesday was preceded by a thundershower, which is a sign of a Nor'wester. It came to an end with a series of lightning strikes. Monsoon rains are different. They continue for a much longer period and return in the form of drizzles. But the sky has been clear since Tuesday night," added Chatterjee.
The Met department had earlier claimed that the Aila had sucked out the atmospheric moisture, weakening the monsoon clouds. It announced the arrival of monsoon last weekend but other than three locational showers, the city received no rainfall till Tuesday evening. "The monsoon is here and this was not the first shower this season," Debnath said.
Trek on escape route to peace park
- New Rendezvous for tourists AVIJIT SINHA
Siliguri, July 1: Forests and hamlets, hilltops and plains — all in one circuit ready to be relished.
For the first time a trekking trail will start from the Dooars and extend up to Kalimpong. The forest stretch from Oodlabari to Neora Valley is dotted with several idyllic hamlets, belonging to different communities.
Called Noam-Chel-Teesta Tourism Peace Park, the project promoted jointly by the West Bengal Forest Development Corporation and Help Tourism, will arrange for the treks and the stays at the hamlets.
“The idea is to provide an opportunity to tourists to enjoy nature, trek through the foothills, relish local cuisine, stay with the villagers and have bath in the rivers, rivulets or even in the waterfalls,” said Raj Basu, the driving force behind the concept and an official of Help Tourism.
He said the project involving the local community was the first-of-its-kind in north Bengal.
Those who want to escape from the hustle and bustle of cities can hide in this “peace park”, surrounded by greenery, the tranquillity vitiated only by chirping birds and gurgling rivulets or waterfalls.
Residents of 10 tiny hamlets located on hilltops and in the plains are involved in the project that covers the Baikunthapur forest on the north-eastern side of the Teesta.
“The area is a classic example of unity in diversity, if we consider the population pattern. Gorkhas, Tibetans and Adivasis live in the villages, with each having its own culture,” said Basu. “Our intention is to involve them in promoting tourism and in preserving this vast area of the eastern Himalayas. Tourism, unlike some circuits in the Dooars and in the hills, did not flourish in this area. The project gives local people the avenues to earn revenue.”
At present, boarding arrangements for the tourists have been made in three villages — Manabari, Chuikhim and Yelbong.
“At least 30 houses have bath-attached bed rooms. The attractions on offer include a three-day trek in forests where wildlife and rich flora can be sighted. We have already fixed routes for the trek, erected signboards and selected youths to work as guides,” said Basu. He added that there were options to drive through the villages also.
For trek enthusiasts, the route passes through places like Manabari, Turibari and Patharjhora. Those who take the road can start the journey from Oodlabari and reach Bodaganj through Gajaldoba and Mechbusty.
The expenses would be in the range of Rs 500-800 per day with different tailor-made packages on offer.
“It will be a wonderful experience to trudge through the picturesque villages like Chuikhim and Yelbong. The forest is unspoiled here,” says Klause Schaette, a German, working on waste management methods on the trek routes of the Himalayas.
Panchayat polls fuel LF fears
;Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, 1 JULY: Disappointed by the drubbing in the Siliguri mahakuma parishad elections coming close on the heels of the parliamentary poll debacle, the Darjeeling district Left Front leadership today said that the anti-incumbency torrents sweeping across the state were reflected in the panchayat polls.
While the principal constituents of the Front sounded apprehensive over the persistence of the anti-Left wave, the CPI-M put up a brave face attributing the lacklustre performance to the “unholy and opportunistic alliance of all the ethnic outfits propelled into an anti-Left poll platform, principally by the Congress.”
Commenting on the outcome of the panchayat elections in Siliguri sub-division, the state urban development minister and CPI-M MLA from Siliguri Mr Asok Bhatttacharya said that the Left Front's success, however marginal, could not be slighted when viewed against the backdrop of ethnic identity-based outfits like the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha, the Adivasi Vikas Parishad and the Kamtapur Progressive Party forming a clandestine alliance with the Congress. “Our party could have fared better had we gone for the politically rewarding strategy of tickling the ethnic chord. But we, the Leftists, have refrained from divisive stratagem,” he said.However, the other Front constituents sounded morose with the outcome.
“We, of course, did not expect a spectacular performance in these elections, but the persistence of the anti-Left Front wave portends ill for us,” said the district Forward Bloc president Mr Smritish Bhattacharya.
Echoing the view, a senior district RSP leader Mr Bikash Sen Roy said that the marginal victory was more due to the egotistic rivalry between the Congress and Trinamul Congress than to any positive popular mandate in the Left Front's favour. “A strain of arrogance which has become almost our second nature would bring even greater disasters in times to come unless we are sincerely resolved to turn over a new leaf,” the RSP leader warned.
The CPI district secretary Mr Ujjwal Chowdhury said that the Left forces must delve deep to churn out an effective strategy to reverse the fast deepening popular disaffection.
Left Front loses further ground in Bengal municipal elections
Business Standrad
Riding on the strong anti-Left sentiment the combined opposition of TMC and Congress won 13 out of 16 municipalities in the state as results were declared today. The election in these 16 municipalities was held on June 28. The Left suffered yet another defeat in West Bengal within one and half months of the Lok Sabha election.
Buoyant with the election verdict the opposition leader Mamata Banerjee said at Delhi today that “the CPI(M) should draw lesson from this verdict and step down from power.” Echoing his party leader’s voice, the opposition leader in the state legislative assembly and the TMC spokesman Partha Chatterjee said at Kolkata that the chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee should own up the moral responsibility of the electoral defeat and resign.
Demoralised by the back to back electoral defeats, the state CPIM leaders were not forthcoming with their reaction. Only, Subhas Chakrabarty, a minister of the present Left Front government, said that “the people have punished us for our misdeeds.”
Viewed as a part of the build up to the coming state assembly election in 2011, this municipal election result will definitely consolidate the opposition and demoralise the ruling Left. Prior to the assembly election in May 2001, next year, around this time, another 80 municipalities including Kolkata Corporation will go to poll. Thus the Left will get hardly any respite to reorganise their rank and file and meet the challenge.
The result of municipal election clearly shows that the anti-Left sentiment which was evident during the general election is still very much active in the state. Of the 16 municipalities which went to poll on June 28, the Left got only three, and the opposition got 13. In previous term the Left had control over 10 out of 16 municipalities. The most significant victory of the opposition took place in Asansol Corporation, which falls within Burdwan district.
So far the district of Burdawn was unaffected by growing the anti-Left sentiment and even during the general election the Left could retain all three Lok Sabha seats there. But this time the fall of Asansol Corporation to the opposition indicates that the anti-Left sentiment is fast spreading into other parts of the state.
Of the 13 municipalities won by the opposition, 9 are in the region which became ‘killing field’ for the Left in Lok Sabha election.
The opposition won all but one municipality in this region, while the Left barley managed to scrape through in Rajarhat-Gopalpur municipality.
Simultaneous election was also held for Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad, a truncated 3-tier panchayat administration in Darjeeling district, where other three sub-divisions--Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong—were brought under the Gorkha Hill Council. Though the Left could retain the Mahakuma Parishad with a slender margin, it fared poorly in the lower tiers, i.e., at panchayat samiti and gram panchayat level.
All these indicate to one point that the Left support base is steadily weakening and giving way to the sustained opposition pressure. Sensing the moment, Mamata Banerjee said today that “despite the presence of the CPI(M) cadres, the people have once again supported us within a short period of the Lok Sabha election.”
She had requested the Prime Minister to take steps to unearth illegal weapons in the state. She reminded all that a huge cache of firearms and bullets and other lethal weapons were unearthed from a place in Rajarhat on the eve of the municipal poll.
Cong wins three mahakuma parishad seats...
... but blames break-up of pact for power loss OUR CORRESPONDENT - The Telegraph
Siliguri, July 1: The Congress managed to secure three of the seven berths in the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad, the first time any party other than the CPM making an entry since the rural body’s inception in 1989.
The Congress, however, missed the chance to form the board because of lack of co-ordination with the Trinamul Congress.
The CPM has retained control by winning four of the seven SMP seats, much to the relief of the party unit in Darjeeling. For minister Asok Bhattacharya, the SMP fight was an acid test after the CPM’s miserable show in the general elections.
The Congress made further inroads into the panchayat samities by bagging Naxalbari and Phansidewa, both CPM bastions since 1989.
The SMP came into existence a year after the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill council had been formed, cleaving the district into two administrative zones at the panchayat level.
The Left Front, however, retained Matigara and Kharibari. Supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad also cut into the Left votes, especially in the tea belt of Naxalbari and Phansidewa.
Shankar Malakar, the Darjeeling district Congress president, said: “Winning three seats is definitely a major achievement for us as for the first time, non-CPM representatives will step into the SMP.”
“We could have taken control of the board had we won one more seat. The Trinamul leadership will also have to take responsibility as they fielded two candidates, violating the alliance and did not work wholeheartedly for our candidates. None of their candidates could win the elections,” said Malakar.
Gautam Deb, the Darjeeling district president of Trinamul, said his party could not strike an absolute alliance in the SMP elections, leading to a close miss. “But I do not want to get into a blame game.”
Jyoti Tirkey of the CPM has won with the highest margin of 4,784 votes in Seat 1 of the SMP. Both Trinamul and the Congress had fielded candidates in the seats. The Congress secured 9,101 votes, while the Trinamul got only 975 votes. In the seat, the BJP secured 3,953 votes and an Independent, backed by the Parishad polled 2,433 votes.
In Seat 2, CPM’s Bikashkali Biswas won by a margin of 981 votes. The candidates of the BJP and the KPP secured 981 and 1,928 votes respectively. In Seat 3, the Congress candidate, Prerana Singha, has emerged victorious, beating the CPM candidate by 2,010 votes.
The CPM retained Seat 4 where Sudhir Burman defeated Trinamul candidate by 1,222 votes. Seat 5 and Seat 6 were won by the Congress with the margins being more than 3,000 votes.
The CPM managed to keep the seventh seat, where Pascal Minj, the sahakari sabhadhipati of SMP, won by 1,536 votes.
“We were confident of winning at least five seats as the contest was really tough in the SMP seats in Phansidewa and Naxalbari. We ended with four seats as the Congress had tied up with the Morcha and the Parishad,” said Bhattacharya.
He added that a decision was yet to be taken on the sabhadhipati.
Jalpaiguri results
The results of three byelections held in Jalpaiguri district on June 30 were also announced on Wednesday. In two panchayat seats of Churabhandar and Ramsai in Mainaguri block, the RSP and Trinamul emerged as winners. The BJP bagged a seat of the Dhupguri Panchayat Samiti, defeating the CPM and Trinamul.
CPI-M routed at ballot box
;Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, 1 July: The limitless arrogance of party leaders, and the anti-poor image of the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority (SJDA), headed by the state urban development minister, Mr Asok Bhattacharya, have finally taken a toll on the CPI-M citadel in north Bengal at the gateway of Siliguri.
After a 20-year monopoly of the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad, held since the rural body came to existence in 1988, the CPI-M has suffered a major setback in all three tiers of the panchayat system, with the Congress-Trinamul Opposition combine snatching away a major share.
Of the seven mahakuma parishad seats in Siliguri, the CPI-M has lost three seats to Congress. In the four panchayat samities, the ruling Communists already stand defeated at the Phansidewa segment to Congress, and is trailing at Matigara and Naxalbari. At the Khoribari panchayat samity, the fight is reported to be neck and neck. The CPI-M previously held power in all four panchayat samities.
The counting of ballots for the 360 gram panchayat seats is yet to start, but given the trend, the CPI-M is surely heading for a rout at the lowest panchayat tier as well. In the mahakuma parishad seats, the CPI-M has retained two at Matigara, one at Naxalbari and one at Khoribari. Congress has snatched two seats at Phansidewa and the remaining one seat at Naxalbari.
The panchayat samity figures show that, at Phansidewa, the Congress has snatched 12, the CPI-M, 8, and 1 independent has been returned. The total number of PS seats at Phansidewa is 21.
These defeats were specifically suffered by the CPI-M, as the candidatures of other Left constituents were negligible in this Siliguri panchayat poll. Moreover, both the two Assembly segments of Phansidewa and Siliguri in the sub-division are currently occupied by the CPI-M.
While it will take some time to get a detailed postmortem report of this rout, the general observation is that the limitless arrogance of the Siliguri CPI-M leaders and the anti-poor image of the SJDA, were primarily responsible for this poll debacle. Further, the SJDA's role in acquiring land for a mega real-estate project at Kawakhali near Siliguri has never gone down well with the rural mass.
Danger tag stays with Manas
Our correspondent - The Telegraph
Guwahati, July 1: Manas National Park will continue to be burdened with the tag of World Heritage Site in Danger.
The 33rd meeting of the World Heritage Committee which concluded at Seville in Spain yesterday said only a clear upward trend in the population of key wildlife species would justify the park’s removal from the danger list.
It said the population of 27 species of mammals submitted by the Centre to the committee provides no information on the data collection techniques used or the statistical accuracy.
The report also does not include information on the tiger population in the park, but states that the average population in the hills and Brahmaputra flood plains, which includes Manas, is estimated at 70.
For several key species, the population estimates are significantly lower than at the time of inscription. For instance, the current estimated elephant population in the park and surrounding buffer areas stands at 1,284, while this population was estimated at 2,000-3,000 in 1990.
The heritage committee said the data seems to confirm the conclusion of the 2008 monitoring mission that the wildlife population at the park had just begun to pick up.
Tim Badman, International Union for Conservation of Nature’s special adviser on World Heritage, said in an email that site managers at the park need enough resources, training and political support to monitor poachers.
“Illegal trade in wildlife in the region needs to be stopped and traffickers prosecuted and prevented from contributing to the disappearance of tigers and other endangered wildlife,” Badman said.
“At the same time, their (the animals’) habitat which includes areas outside the property, is shrinking and with more development comes into easier contact with humans who kill them or reduce food available. This was also the case for the rhino, which had to be reintroduced at a high cost,” he said.
The Manas Wildlife Sanctuary was inscribed on the list of World Heritage in Danger in 1992, during a prolonged period of political unrest and insecurity, which resulted in poaching and a dramatic decline in wildlife, as well as deforestation and habitat degradation.
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