FROM THE TELEGRAPH

The Karala in Jalpaiguri. Picture by Biplab Basak

Jalpaiguri, Dec. 30: Water will be disgorged into the Karala from the Teesta barrage through an aqueduct tomorrow to reduce the river’s pollution level.

The flow of the Teesta water is expected to sweep away the garbage accumulated in the Karala. Thousands of fish had floated up dead on the river in Jalpaiguri on November 28 because of the river’s pollution by endosulfan.

The superintending engineer of the Teesta Barrage Project, Gautam Chattopadhyay, said about 350 cusecs of water would be released tomorrow from the Mahananda-Teesta link canal.

“We will start releasing water from 11am tomorrow. With the flow of 350 cubic feet per second, pollutants will be flushed out of the Karala,” he said.

The water from the barrage will join the Karala 26km upstream from Jalpaiguri. Chattopadhyay said the barrage officials would keep a watch along the river to see if the water release would cause a deluge.

“The duration of the release will depend on the feedback from the officials. If there is a possibility of flash floods, we might stop the operation and resume the release after a few hours. The operation might continue on Sunday as well if required,” said the superintending engineer.  Read the rest of this entry »

Siliguri, Dec 30 (ANI): Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) General Secretary Roshan Giri has said that his outfit would never drop the issue of separate state of Gorkhaland from their agenda.

Addressing mediapersons on the sidelines of an event here, Giri said that they are adamant over their claim for a new state.

“With respect to the movement of Gorkhaland, our memorandum or agreement states that our demands would be entertained without dropping claim for creation of separate state of Gorkhaland. We have not dropped that demand. Both the issues of Gorkhaland and GTA (Gorkhaland Territorial Administration) are in their own respective places,” said Giri.

He further said that the new state government of West Bengal led by the Trinamool Congress has so far been cooperative towards their cause.

“The new government is working in cooperation with us and our relations are very good indeed,” he added. Read the rest of this entry »

THE HIMALAYAN BEACON [BEACON ONLINE]

GJM leaders at the 37th Annual Conference of the All Assam Gorkha Students Union held at Udalguri, Assam. (From the left Dr. Harka Bahadur Chhetri, Benoy Tamang, Roshan Giri and Bimal Gurung). Click on the image to enlarge.

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THE HIMALAYAN BEACON [BEACON ONLINE]

BY DARJ MAN

Sub: Darjeeling District /backward area/Backward Tracts 1870 – legal right to a state.

It is most surprising to read, in The Telegraph 24 December 2011, the article concerning, “Govt to seek backward tag for Darjeeling” based on the appeal from the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJM) delegation. Whether it is known to all or neither others, Darjeeling District, since its earliest inception in 1866/67 as a administrative unit was treated as a backward area, and later this status was constitutionally reframed as “Backward Tracts” in 1870 for application of a separate administrative setup within the general administration of British India.

This has been explained many times over by this writer, in the numerous articulations on the subject of the legality of Darjeeling District in constitutionally demanding a state. In fact, the derivation of statehood for particular areas in British India and later in independent India after the Constitution of India was promulgated there were certain areas in India which were not brought into the ambit of the general administration applied to British India. Meaning, on the eve of independence in 1947 there were 16 Provinces in British administered India, along with a multiplicity of 562 independent princely Indian States with whom the British Government was bound by various treaty terms and obligations. It is most interesting to note for those not aware of this information, that there were certain areas outside these territories which were governed and administered under the Government of India Act 1935 as “Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas” which areas were lawfully cited as such by an Ordinance 1936. In total there were eight (8) Excluded Areas and twenty eight (28) Partially Excluded Areas which territories were situated mainly in the Northeast and in pockets of concentrated hill peoples throughout India.  Read the rest of this entry »