Today around 10.30 morning, at Bhanutole , kurseong fire broke by gas cylinder leakage. No damage to the property. The owner, Gatuam Chettri, suffered s mild Burns.
firefighters in help
Photo credit : KURSEONG TELEVISION.
damage cylinder
damaged kitchen
| The Telegraph |
| OUR CORRESPONDENT |
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Alipurduar, Aug. 19: Men and monkeys today brought traffic to a standstill on the NH31 for several hours, the first kind causing a pile-up, the other damaging vehicles. The humans, specifically residents of Mill Road near Falakata, were angry with the bad state of the highway that was last repaired three years ago. The apes seemed furious because one of their kind was found dead on the road, believed to have been hit by a truck. The local residents put chairs on the NH31 and sat there for nearly nine hours from 7am to protest the lack of repairs on the stretch between Falakata and Cooch Behar. The resultant snarl blocked 500 vehicles on each side. The NH31 connects Assam’s Guwahati to Barhi in Bihar. It crosses Siliguri, Falakata, Cooch Behar town and Dalkhola in North Dinajpur in Bengal before entering Kishanganj in Bihar. The road is so potholed that 60 per cent of private buses have stopped running on this route. The 100-odd residents of Mill Road near Falakata, about 35km from Alipurduar town, withdrew the blockade after 4pm when police came and assured them that they would speak to PWD officials about the repairs. The PWD looks after maintenance of the NH31 on behalf of the National Highways Authority of India. Earlier, when asked why no repairs were done for three years, the PWD had said it had not got funds from the NHAI. About 20km away from the Mill Road protest, some 200 monkeys descended on the highway around 9.45am. The animals sat near the body of a dead monkey. The spot where the monkeys sat is between two tea estates — Tasati and Dalgaon. Garden hands said one monkey was run over around 9.30am. In 15 minutes, nearly 200 monkeys had swarmed the area. Some agitated drivers tried to shoo them away, which seemed to anger the animals more. According to eyewitnesses, the monkeys threw stones at the vehicles. Tea garden staff, in the mean time, contacted forest officials. Around 10.30am, Manosh Acharjee, the range officer of Dalgaon, reached the spot with a big team. Initially, the monkeys refused to leave the spot, or perhaps the forest guards proved ineffective. The animals scampered away when fire crackers were burst. Acharjee expressed surprise at how the monkeys had behaved. “I have been in the forest department for several years now but this was the first time I saw monkeys block a road as if in protest.” The Mill Road residents said they would block again if the highway was not repaired soon. The monkeys, thankfully, did not leave any such message. |
| The Telegraph | ||
Siliguri, Aug. 19: Plains tribal leader John Barla today proposed an alliance with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in the Dooars and Terai for the coming panchayat polls and expressed its wish to contest the majority of seats. Barla’s group has decided to contest under the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha symbol and the decision to be in a tie-up with the hill party was announced by the tribal leader after a meeting with his colleagues at Birpara today. “The JMM has decided to tie up with the Morcha and field our own candidates in the ensuing polls to all three tiers of the panchayat system in the Dooars and Terai. We intend to carry out extensive development work under the panchayat system and meet some of the basic demands of the tribal and Gorkha people in the two areas. We will ask the Morcha to allot most of the seats in all three tiers (panchayat, panchayat samiti and zilla parishad) to the JMM,” said Barla. Barla will discuss the matter with the Morcha in Darjeeling tomorrow. He will receive the Sadbhawana Award from the Janmukti Asthayi Karmachari Sangathan, an affiliate of the Morcha, tomorrow for strengthening ties between the adivasis and the Gorkhas. “We will talk to senior Morcha leaders and apprise them of our proposal for a joint contest. We hope if candidates are fielded jointly by the JMM and the Morcha, they can draw the maximum number of votes from the adivasis and the Gorkhas,” said Barla. JMM leaders hope the party can pacify its supporters who felt let down by the government’s decision to bring only five of the 396 mouzas demanded by the Morcha under the GTA if it can contest in the maximum number of seats in the panchayat polls. “The Morcha has successfully formed the GTA and has set in motion the launch of many development plans in the hills. This has built pressure on our part as our supporters, who fought shoulder to shoulder with the Morcha for the inclusion of more mouzas in the GTA, have got nothing in return. That is why we want to field as many as adivasis in the polls,” said a JMM leader. |
| The Telegraph | ||
Darjeeling, Aug. 19: Bimal Gurung has warned 14 executive members of the GTA Sabha that he would not hesitate to replace them if they failed to perform in a year. Gurung, the GTA chief executive, gave the warning while addressing all 45 elected members of the Sabha at an event organised by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s Darjeeling subdivisional committee at Gymkhana Club yesterday. “Both the elected and nominated members of the GTA must work together. The public, the Opposition parties and even the state government are closely monitoring the functioning of the GTA. The biggest challenge is to fulfil the expectations of people and if the executive members fail to perform to the best of their ability in a year, I will not hesitate to replace them,” Gurung said. The GTA Sabha has 50 members — 45 elected and five nominated — and 14 of them have been made executive members and been given charge of various departments. The chief executive, however, said it would take time for the GTA to function smoothly and called upon the employees of the now-defunct DGHC (who are with the GTA now) to improve their work culture. “I find that some of the employees of the DGHC do not work properly. Old habits have to be changed. I, too, will work day and night and I expect the same from the employees. I will make surprise visits and if I find that the employees are not working properly, we will take immediate action.” The chief executive stressed the need to free the GTA of corruption, terming it as the biggest bane of the DGHC. “I have zero tolerance towards corruption. Even the GTA members should ensure that there is no corruption. The members should also ensure that there is no nepotism in the GTA,” he said. Gurung reminded the GTA members that they were no longer agitators and they had to now deliver as administrators. “Earlier, we used to go door-to-door calling upon the public to raise slogans and participate in the agitation (for Gorkhaland). The time has now come to ensure that development reaches the doorstep of the people.” A GTA Sabha member, who didn’t wish to be named, said he welcomed Gurung’s warning. “Everyone has already realised that if we don’t perform, the people will not forgive us. We have to ensure better administration and development for the region.” Gurung also demanded that development work related to gram panchayats which were being undertaken through the BDO be vetted by respective GTA members. Even though the panchayat and rural development department were transferred to the DGHC, elections haven’t been held to gram panchayats in the hills since 2005. The department is now with the GTA. “We will soon make a representation to the government as well as submit deputation to BDOs saying development work by the panchayat and rural development department must be carried out through the elected GTA Sabha members,” said Gurung. Observers believe it wouldn’t be difficult to meet Gurung’s demands as the panchayat and rural development department is with the GTA. |
Hi: 28°Widely scattered tstorms. There is a 30% chance of precipitation. Cloudy. Temperature of 28°C. Winds SW 9km/h. Humidity will be 71% with a dewpoint of 22° and feels-like temperature of 30°C.
Lo: 24°Scattered showers. Mostly cloudy. Temperature of 24°C. Winds SSW 4km/h. Humidity will be 96% with a dewpoint of 23° and feels-like temperature of 24°C.
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