‘Interim’ proposal shunned; Cops unaware of Morcha night meet

‘Interim’ proposal shunned
OUR CORRESPONDENT - The telegraph

Kalimpong, Feb. 8: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s revelation that the “secret document” it has sent to the Centre pertains to an interim arrangement has evoked strong reactions in the hills with the ABGL iterating that the so-called stopgap measure is only an alternative to the DGHC.

Citing the seven-point resolution adopted at the end of the third round of tripartite talks in October, ABGL president Madan Tamang said Point 2 of the document clearly mentioned that an alternative administration would be formed after repealing the DGHC.

“It is the same thing Subash Ghisingh (GNLF president) wanted to thrust on us. The only change is in the nomenclature. It (the new set-up) will be known as the Gorkha Tribal Autonomous Council,” he claimed. Calling on the people to foil the Morcha’s alleged design, Tamang warned it would be futile to protest once the task was accomplished.

The ABGL president said in the alternative council, the Gorkhaland Personnel would be converted into village police since the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) would not be applicable to Sixth Schedule areas. “The West Bengal government will then rule by proxy with the (help of) terror tactics of Bimal Gurung and his people,” he alleged. Tamang urged the people to make a success of the janta curfew called by his party tomorrow. “By staying indoors we must make it clear that we are not going to go for that sort of arrangement. Our demand is separation from Bengal.”

C.K. Pradhan, the president of the GNLF (C), too, said he had serious reservations about the interim arrangement. “An interim arrangement is a stopgap measure to run the administration once the decision to form a state is made. In this case, the government has taken no such decision. So where is the need to go for an interim arrangement?” he asked.

Another point, Pradhan said, was that the official position of the Morcha had all along been Gorkhaland or nothing. “They (Morcha) are now saying they will run the interim arrangement…. Gorkhaland has been a 103-year-old demand. Will they keep on talking for another 20 years?”
The Morcha said it would accept an “interim arrangement” only if it was strictly time-bound.
 


Cops unaware of Morcha night meet
- Bandh & arrest fail to stop gathering
OUR CORRESPONDENT - The telegraph


An office kept open on Monday in Darjeeling, where the Morcha has imposed a ban on the plying of government vehicles. Picture by Suman Tamang
Alipurduar, Feb. 8: Supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha “successfully” held a memory meeting at Birpara last night, hours after they had been arrested for assembling for the purpose flouting a prohibitory order and released on bail.

The Adivasi Vikas Parishad had observed a dawn-to-dusk bandh in the Dooars to thwart the meeting, but the Morcha members gathered at the Birpara Nepali High School grounds about 8pm. Police said they had no information about the gathering.

The meeting was organised in memory of Akbar Lama who had been killed in a clash between the members of the Morcha and the Parishad on February 7 last year.

The Morcha had sought permission for the meeting at the same venue, but the police refused and imposed Section 144 in Birpara.

Later, another group of Morcha members numbering around 100 were taken into custody while marching to the Birpara police station to demand the release of those arrested earlier. All were taken to Alipurduar and released on bail in the evening. They again started for Birpara, 65km from Alipurduar, and offered tributes to Akbar Lama.

Shyamal Gurung, the organising secretary of the Morcha in the Dooars, Saroswati Pradhan, a central committee member, and Ranjit Thapa of the outfit’s youth wing, delivered speeches. Every speaker criticised yesterday’s police action and congratulated the local leaders for organising the meeting in a short time. The supporters were exhorted to participate in the movement for Gorkhaland more actively.

Microphones and lights were used for the meeting that continued for two hours.

The police claimed ignorance about the evening gathering. “Section 144 was imposed in the Birpara police station area, but we had no information that the Morcha supporters would again assemble at the school ground and hold the memorial service. We had arrested at least 350 Morcha supporters throughout yesterday,” said David Lepcha, the Alipurduar subdivisional officer of police.

The Parishad said the bandh was successful and its supporters had left for homes by 6pm. “So, nobody was available to stall the evening gathering. The Morcha plans to organise a meeting at Kalchini tomorrow and we have told the police that they will be responsible if any violence occurs,” said John Barla, the president of the Dooars-Terai Coordination Committee of the Parishad.

KPP rally

Supporters of the Kamtapur Progressive Party, led by president Atul Roy, on Monday demonstrated in front of the residences of 15 MLAs and MPs from north Bengal, reports our Siliguri correspondent. The rallies were organised to demand a separate Kamtapur state and to protest the alleged failure of the MPs and MLAs to raise the issues concerning the Rajbangshi community in Parliament and the Assembly.

---

Asok at CM door for talks date
OUR CORRESPONDENT - The telegraph

A stage erected by the Morcha for the memorial meeting in Birpara. Picture by Anirban Choudhury
Siliguri, Feb. 8: Urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya has urged the chief minister to talk to the Centre and announce the date of the fifth round of tripartite talks with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

“I have talked to the chief minister this morning over the phone. He has told me that he will discuss the issue with Union home minister P. Chidambaram, who will meet the chief ministers of Maoist-affected states in Calcutta tomorrow. I have also apprised him of the present situation in the hills and conveyed the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s demand for a tripartite meeting at the earliest,” Bhattacharya told reporters here today.

The minister, the CPM MLA of Siliguri, was reacting to the claim made by Morcha president Bimal Gurung that the date of the next round of talks would be announced by February 10.

Sources in the Union home ministry today hinted that an agreement with the Morcha might be reached at the fifth round of talks, the date for which will be announced after a cabinet committee meeting in Delhi on Wednesday.

Bhattacharya welcomed the Morcha’s proposal of an “interim arrangement” till the Assembly election in 2011. “I have come to know about their (Morcha’s) latest stand through the media and I welcome the move that they have agreed to an interim arrangement. I feel it is a positive response from their side,” he said.

Sources in the home ministry, however, said a “separate Gorkha state was out of question”.

In Darjeeling, however, Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said yesterday that the “secret” proposal sent by Gurung to the Centre pertained to an “interim arrangement” for the area the party wants as Gorkhaland till the Assembly election in 2011. “Every point in our proposal will have to be accepted. However, there will be no compromise on Gorkhaland,” he said.

The minister, however, refrained from commenting on the areas that the Morcha wants as Gorkhaland. “It will be too hypothetical to comment on the issue as nothing has been decided and the dialogue is going on,” Bhattacharya said.

The CPM leader reacted sharply to the Morcha president’s remark at a public meeting in Kalimpong yesterday. Gurung had warned that he would not accept someone like Bhattacharya representing the state government at the talks.

Bhattacharya said: “In that case, I, too, can adopt a similar stand of not participating in any meeting where he (Gurung) is present. However, I am not going into any confrontation with them as the representative of the state government will be decided by the chief minister.”

On the Morcha’s threat to chase out the civil and police officials of the district if the fifth round of talks failed, the minister said any move like this would only affect the congenial environment necessary for dialogue. Morcha leaders should try to understand that peace is the pre-condition to hold any dialogue, he said.

Earlier, the minister handed over a cheque of Rs 12,500 to each of the 162 families of Matangini Colony as a financial assistance from the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority. The families had become homeless after a fire broke out in the slum in October.

---

Home Ministry team to review execution of Bodo Accord
The Assam Tribune

 KOKRAJHAR, Feb 8 – As per official schedule, a team of Union Home Ministry led by GK Pillai, will reach Kokrajhar on February 10 to review the implementation of the Bodo Accord, inaugurate the newly constructed BTC Secretariat building and take part in a public meeting along with the Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on the day, said Hagrama Mohilary, chief of BTC here on Friday.

Talking to mediapersons, Mohilary informed that the issues of declaring ST status for Bodo-Kacharis in Karbi Anglong, construction of a parallel National Highway along the Indo-Bhutan border, direct funding to BTC in respect of Centrally sponsored schemes, transfer of State Excise Department to BTC, finalisation and inclusion of additional 95 villages in BTC as per the agreement signed between the Government and BLT among others should also feature in the review meeting, he added.

It may be mentioned here that DoNER Secretary Jayati Chandra will also take part in the review meeting at Kokrajhar in which funds released by the Ministry of DoNER under the special package to the BTC and their utilisation will be under focus.

Meanwhile, the chief of BTC informed that brisk preparations are on to celebrate the 8th Bodo Accord Day on February 10 at Kokrajhar with a day-long programme.
He stated that many leaders of militant groups under ceasefire like ULFA, NDFB, DHD, Birsha Commando Force, Adibhasi Cobra Militants, etc., along with Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha, leaders of Darjeeling have been invited to the celebration of Bodo Accord Day.

He further mentioned that tableaux of different departments of BTC and Central troupes of the region would be showcased on the occasion among many other events.

---

 
Sikkim faces extremism of being hold hostage: Chamling
Voice of Sikkim

GANGTOK, February 7: Drawing the attention of the highest level of collective governance of the nation that had gathered at New Delhi to deliberate on internal security, Chief Minister Pawan Chamling on Sunday said that the border State of Sikkim, so far immune from external threat, has to face another kind of ‘extremism’-being held hostage and rendered isolated from rest of country.

“While there have been no terrorist or extremist acts, the State has had to face another kind of extremism-i.e. of being hold hostage and rendered isolated from rest of the country for no fault of ours and for no reason that we acknowledge,” said Chamling during the Chief Ministers’ conference on internal security held at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi today which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and attended by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.

The ‘hostage’ stand of the Chief Minister is in line with his series of earlier statements given to Centre and national media on the National Highway 31A blockade highlighting the woes of Sikkim and Sikkimese people whenever its sole lifeline is ruptured during the ongoing agitation in the neighbouring hills, incidents which had occurring of lately in the past two years.

Reiterating his stand on protecting Sikkim’s sole connectivity link which passes through the Darjeeling district of West Bengal, the Chief Minister highlighted that Sikkim’s socio-economic pace has been adversely affected for more than two decades by political movement for a separate State in the neighbouring district. “Therefore, our quintessential worry is that in spite of rationality or constitutional validity for or against the formation of statehood as claimed by the pro and anti agitationists or their affiliated units, why do we as the citizens of this great country are frequently disrupted in our free movement, denied our basic right and dignity or denied our right to seek fulfillment as part of national pride”.

Chamling added: “The loss we have suffered due to frequent blockades of National Highway 31A- our only link with the national mainstream cannot be measured in quantifiable terms alone”. The acute mental agony and trauma that we suffer and the fear elements mostly remain unaccounted for across board, he said.

Communicating the concerns of the State in the important meet, the Chief Minister recalled that ever since the intensification of the agitation in the neighbouring areas of the State in 1986, the agitationists have not only blocked the national highway at will but also created a kind of fear psychosis amongst the people of Sikkim. He pointed out that truck owners plying on the highway have faced recurrent demands for payment of ransom.

“Since last year, they have raised their own police personnel who have also subjected our people to checks of vehicles and uncalled for harassment on the pretext of curbing drug trafficking causing unnecessary panic amongst the general public”, Chamling said. He also informed the meeting that the alcoholic products of Sikkim are not allowed movement outside the State. “With the blockade of our only lifeline, all our development works are being pushed to a standstill causing loss to our working hours,” he said.
“This heavily hampers our development tempo. Besides, Sikkim is always prone to natural calamity and the recurrent blockade along our national highway adds salt to injury by the man-made calamity”, Chamling said.

In his speech, the Chief Minister also underlined the feeling of grave uncertainty among the Sikkimese people due to ‘incidents of murder and loot taking place across the border along the contiguous areas like Okhrey, Ribdi Bhareng, Sombaria, Mangsari, Tharpu, Sibsu-Budang, Naya Bazar in West Sikkim, Jorethang, Majhitar, Melli, Lower Pamphok in South Sikkim and Rangpo, Kamarey, Reshi and Rhenock in East Sikkim’.

“Groups of anti-social elements have frequently crossed the inter-state border and indulged in criminal act. They indulge in illegal timber felling and overnight shifting across the porous border”, Chamling said. He also raised the incident of March, 2009 where a mob from Melli, West Bengal ransacked the Melli police post on Sikkim side after an accused smuggling kerosene from Sikkim was checked at the inter-State border. On denial of bail to those arrested in the subsequent case, a group of agitators blocked the national highway, he added.

“My purpose in highlighting the above incidents is to draw attention to the state of lawlessness prevailing in the area and that something needs to be done about it. It is because of the disturbed environment that pro and anti agitationists are seeking to isolate us on the slightest pretext and make unreasonable claims. The State has joined not only geographically with the Indian Union in 1975 but has also emotionally integrated to it during the last 15 years. Therefore, attaining emotional integration along with the prevailing peace and tranquility has been our biggest achievement”, said the Chief Minister.

Chamling said that recurrence of the disturbances have started affecting the eco-friendly tourism and floriculture industry of Sikkim resulting in losses over Rs. 100 crores every year raising the cumulative monetary loss to over Rs. 1000 crores. “We can well imagine the quantum of loss that we have suffered since 1986. If such blockades continue, it will not be long before this State gets sucked into the culture of violence witnessed in other region. In order that Sikkimese people receive due respect and dignity as guaranteed under the Constitution, it is necessary that governance be restored in the troubled area across the border”, he said.

Earlier in his inaugural address, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh called for effective coordination between the Centre and the States to face the challenges of internal security.