Monthly Archives: June 2012
GTA ELECTION UPDATE: Trinamool to contest all 45 seats
FROM INDIAN EXPRESS
BY MADHUPARNA DAS
KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress — which entered into an alliance with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) for the Assembly polls last year — has decided to field candidates in all 45 seats in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) election scheduled on July 29.
Though the GJM is yet to announce it officially, it appears that its leaders have already decided to participate in the GTA polls. However, the party leadership made it clear that the GJM will not go for an alliance with the Trinamool in the hills.
GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said, “We will win all 45 seats. It does not matter to us which party is fielding candidates and which party is not. Trinamool is our ally and despite that, they fielded candidates. Moreover, they did not discuss the issue with us. They took a unilateral decision. We have nothing to say. We will wait and watch how things develop. But we know the people of the hills are with us.”
GJM president Bimal Gurung said all political parties have the right to field candidates and expand their organisation in new areas. However, he confirmed that GJM will not go for an alliance in the GTA election.
DARJEELING HILLS: GTA election on 29 July
DATE OF ELECTION: 29th July 2012
ELECTION FOR: Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Sabha (GTA Sabha)
DESCRIPTION OF GTA Sabha: The GTA Sabha will consist of 45 elected members and five members nominated by the Governor to give representation to members of SC, ST, women and minority communities. The MPs, MLAs and chairpersons of the municipalities were to be ex-officio members of the GTA Sabha. The GTA Sabha will have a tenure of five years.
GTA Sabha will act as a ‘deliberating body’ and will not have specific authority to legislate. The general administration of the GTA will be run by the Executive Body of the GTA which will consist of a Chief Executive who will nominate 14 members out of the elected / nominated members as the Executive Members. The Chief Executive will also have the authority to nominate from among the Executive Members one Deputy Chief.
CONTESTING PARTIES: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), Trinamul Congress
At present there are no indications that other parties viz All India Gorkha League (AIGL), Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxist (CPRM), Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) among others will be contesting.
SEATS: 45 seats
ELECTION TO BE HELD IN: Darjeeling subdivision, Kalimpong subdivision and Kurseong subdivision.
TOTAL NO. OF VOTERS: 5,90,755
DARJEELING SUBDIVISION – 153732 (male) 144602 (female) Total 288334
KURSEONG SUBDIVISION – Kurseong subdivision – 68068 (male) 68563 (female) Total 136631
KALIMPONG SUBDIVISION – 84532 (male) 81358 (female) Total 165890
TOTAL- 296332 (male) 294523 (female) Grand Total 490755
DARJEELING HILLS: GJM Trinamool Showoff on GTA elections
THE HIMALAYAN BEACON
DARJEELING: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) President Bimal Gurung yesterday made it clear that there was no doubt in the fact that the GJM will be contesting the GTA election. Speaking to scribes at Bagdogra Airport Gurung said, “We will contest the GTA election for peace in the hills.” When asked about the fate of the 396 mouzas that the party had demanded be incorporated into the GTA from the Dooars Terai and the Justice Shyamal Sen (Retd.) committee had only proposed the incorporation of 5 mouzas thereof, Gurung said that he had faith in the Fact Verification Committee that will be set up to look in Justice Shyamal Sen Committee’s report.
GJM’s desire to contest the GTA election has also boasted Trinamul Congress’s (TMC) desire to enter into electoral politics in the Hills. The party already bolstered with opposition leaders from the hills particularly from GNLF and AIGL making beeline for the party. The party will be contesting head to heat with the GJM in the hills during the GTA elections.
According to political observers in the hills TMC is keen on establishing a political base in the hills. Even if the party is able to win a handful of seats in the GTA Sabha it will be seen as a major political victory of the TMC.
PHOTO FEATURE: Bimal Gurung returns home with assurances from the CM – “We will contest GTA election for peace in the hills”
On 29th of June 2012 Bimal Gurung returned to the hills after meeting the Chief Minister. He said, “We will contest GTA election for peace in the hills”
CRIME WATCH: 2 men robbed near police headquarters
FROM HINDUSTAN TIMES
An uncle-nephew duo from Sikkim was robbed of their cash and other belongings at knife point allegedly by a group of miscreants in a Toyota Innova car near Delhi Secretariat late on Wednesday.
Police said the incident was reported to the police control room around midnight. The victims were travelling in an auto rickshaw.
Duk Nath Nepal, a resident of Gangtok in Sikkim, and his uncle Madhusudan had arrived in the city to attend a seminar. The two, a senior police officer said, were headed towards Paharganj from Anand Vihar interstate bus terminal in an auto rickshaw when they were intercepted by the assailants.
“The miscreants intercepted the auto rickshaw and two of the accused overpowered the auto rickshaw driver. Three others robbed the victims of their laptop, mobile phones and Rs. 14,500 in cash after pointing knives at them. After robbing the victims, the assailants fled in their Innova car,” said the senior police officer. A case was registered at the IP Estate police station.
The complainants said there were five men in the car who were aged between 20-30 years.
SPORTS WATCH: I never thought that Olympics would come so soon for me: Shiva
I never thought that Olympics would come so soon for me: Shiva
FROM INDIANSPORTSNEWS.COM
New Delhi: Two months before the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games, a 16-year-old Indian jabbed, hooked and punched his way to silver medal at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. Shiva Thapa is now going to be the country’s youngest boxer to compete at the London Olympics.
Thapa himself didn’t imagine that things could happen so fast. The Guwahati-born pugilist had set his sights at the Rio Games four years from now and he couldn’t believe it when he made it to London by winning the Asian qualifiers two months ago in the 56 kg category. Overnight he is also seen as a potential medal winner.
“I never thought it (Olympics) could come for me so soon. My parents and I were looking at Rio 2016. Now that I have qualified, I am putting everything in my effort to win a medal. Even when I won the silver in Singapore, the ultimate goal was to do well at the Olympics,” Thapa told IANS from Dublin, where he is training with six other London-bound boxers and other promising boxers from Ireland, Tunisia and Russia.
BENGAL: State regularizes transfer policy in colleges
FROM TIMES OF INDIA
Kolkata: If you have dreams of pursuing your career as a college teacher, don’t aspire to start with colleges like Maulana Azad or Goenka.
The state won’t allow such appointments in government colleges, even if the new teacher has the best academic record. The person has to begin her/his career with government colleges far away from the city, like Jhargram or Darjeeling, and then come closer to the city after a specified tenure.
The transfer norms got the form of a written policy on Friday with the government specifying the parameters.
The Mamata Banerjee government has also done away with the undeclared ban on appointment of male teachers in government colleges for women. From now on, the male members who are visiting faculty or part time teachers in colleges like Lady Brabourne or Bethune, may get a berth in the faculty. However, this will be done in “extreme situation”, a senior higher education official said. Illustrious professors like Sushobhan Sarkar used to take classes in Bethune College earlier. But that didn’t happen later. The government has tried to reintroduce such a clause.
DARJEELING: Quota cry by hill SCs and tribes
FROM THE TELEGRAPH
BY VIVEK CHHETRI
Darjeeling, June 29: The Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities have alleged that the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the state government “betrayed” them by failing to reserve a single seat for them in the GTA Sabha and decided to hold a protest rally here on Sunday.
The SC and ST communities said reservation in elected bodies was their constitutional right and they were planning to take legal recourse to ensure the quota in the GTA Sabha.
N.B. Kalikotey, the general secretary of the All India Nepali Schedule Caste Association, said: “We had been repeatedly telling the Morcha and the chief minister that reservation was a constitutional right given to the community. We now find that no seat has been reserved for the SCs and STs in the GTA Sabha.”
He blamed both the Morcha and the chief minister for turning a deaf ear to the demand. “We had told the Morcha leaders, especially the MLAs, and the intellectuals linked to the party about our demand several times. We had also raised the demand with the chief minister when she had visited the hills on October 11, 2011. Everyone has betrayed us,” said Kalikotey.
Both the communities have formed the SC and ST Joint Action Committee to press for the demand and nominated M.S. Bomzom and Kalikotey as the president and joint secretary respectively.
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