OUR CORRESPONDENT – The Telegraph
Darjeeling, July 24: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has overturned its decision to close down indefinitely all government offices in the hills involved in collecting state and central revenues.
However, while employees can attend these offices and carry out administrative work, they will not be allowed to collect taxes.
“We have allowed the offices to remain open so that pending administrative work can be completed. However, those sections involved in collecting taxes will remain shut indefinitely as announced earlier,” said Raju Pradhan, an assistant secretary of the Morcha.
Although the Morcha had initially called a strike in all government offices since July 7, those not involved with taxes were allowed to open from Monday.
Today’s decision means that while offices like the registration department will remain open, no one will be allowed to register their property, which is done for a fee. The telephone exchange and the electricity department, too, will not be allowed to receive payment of bills.
“We have also decided to keep the tax collection window of the State Bank of India closed. This department usually accepts government taxes,” said Pradhan.
The new diktat will also affect the motor vehicles and excise departments.
Roshan Giri, the general secretary of the Morcha, said employees of these departments would be allowed to prepare their salary slips.
With the Morcha calling for a total boycott of taxes, including telephone and electricity bills, as part of its non-cooperation movement, the Bengal government is losing crores every month. The electricity department alone collects about Rs 2 crore from the hills in that period.
Male red pandas wait for mates
VIVEK CHHETRI
Darjeeling, July 24: John has just fathered two lovely red pandas in Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park and has more than one reason to feel proud, having fought off 11 other males to catch the attention of Sheetal, one of only two reproductive females in the zoo.
The skewed sex ratio among the pandas is now beginning to worry the zoo authorities.
“We have 15 pandas out of which 12 are males. We are not sure of the gender of the new ones as they were born as recently as July 6,” said A.K. Jha, the director of the zoo.
Jha admitted that for any animal, it was “desirable” to have an equal sex ratio.
“So far there have been no reports of any unnatural behavioural tendencies being shown by the pandas. Even then, it is desirable to have an equal share of both the sexes,” said the director.
Two of the female pandas are aged four and nine. However, the problem is that the third is 14 years old and not fit for breeding. This essentially means that 12 males have to compete among themselves for the attention of two females, a task in which John, who was rescued from Sikkim and brought to the zoo in April 2007, has apparently excelled.
If the two cubs turn out to be females, the zoo authorities can breathe easy. “The newborns are not even a month old and have not yet opened their eyes. We prefer to stay away from them during the initial period,” said Jha.
There have been instances of panda parents disowning newborns that came into contact with humans too early.
The authorities are, however, confident of finding soulmates for each of the male pandas lodged in the zoo. “We have contacted zoos in Australia and New Zealand so that they can send us two female pandas. The paper works are at a preliminary stage,” said the director.
However, such exchanges do not come free and in return for the two female pandas, the Darjeeling zoo will have to send two males to the facilities in Australia and New Zealand.
According to sources, there have also been proposals to capture some female pandas from the wild and release a couple of the males in protected forest areas. However, the zoo is waiting for a final nod from higher authorities.
The Darjeeling zoo has in the past earned laurels for being the first one in the country to release captive animals in the wild. As part of the red panda project, it had then released four female pandas in Singalila National Park in 2003-04.
Apart from the red pandas, a 10-year-old Siberian tiger at the zoo is also looking for a male companion.
Former jawan sues bank for ATM fraud
RAJEEV RAVIDAS
Kalimpong, July 24: A former jawan today filed a complaint with the District Consumer Disputes Redresal Forum against the State Bank of India (SBI) for failing to pay him the Rs 1.23 lakh that was withdrawn from his account in an ATM fraud case.
Baraily said he discovered the fraud on May 13 while updating his passbook. “The SBI, Kalimpong, is entirely responsible for all the withdrawals through an ATM card by an impersonator whose identity was not verified by the bank. The bank, because of its own negligence, issued an ATM card to a third party without verification,” he alleged.
Baraily said he was forced to approach the Forum since the bank authorities had turned a deaf ear to his repeated pleas. “I am a retired person and was in the process of constructing a house when the fraud took place. Not only has my house remained incomplete because of the lack of funds, I am also finding it difficult to pay the medical expenses of my ailing wife,” he added.
Sushanta Chakraborty, the chief manager of SBI’s Kalimpong branch, said the bank was sympathetic towards Baraily, but nothing could be done till the case against Robin ended.
The Kalimpong Consumers’ Association is confident that Baraily will receive a favourable verdict. “The man is suffering for no fault of his,” said Praful Rao, the KCA secretary.
The former rifleman of Eastern Frontier Rifles retired last year and opened the SBI account on January 28 this year with Rs 1,500.
In the course of the next few months, Baraily deposited his entire retirement benefit of Rs 4 lakh in the account. Once he got hold of the card, the accused, a peon in a local school, and his two accomplices, withdrew the amount in phases between April 9 and May 13, when the fraud was discovered.
Action demanded against errant teacher
Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, July 24: Trinamul Congress activists today gheraoed Mr NK Singh, teacher-in-charge, Subha Maya Surya Narayan (SMSN) High School, Bagdogra for two hours demanding strong and immediate action against Renu Singh, an English teacher, who allegedly beat up a class-VIII student, Janaki Biswakarma and made her stand in the sweltering heat outside the classroom yesterday for applying ‘mehendi’ on her palms.
The girl fainted during the punishment and had to be admitted to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital yesterday.
Mr Surinder Singh, headmaster, SMSN High School denied that Janaki had been punished for applying ‘mehendi’. According to him, Janaki, who was a psychological patient and had fainted in school thrice before, had been pulled up for not completing her homework.
The headmaster said that they had submitted a written declaration of Janaki’s father, Man Bahadur Biswakarma, in which the 47-year-old tea garden worker of Tiger Basti in Bagdogra had clearly admitted that his daughter was a psychological patient, to the police. The Trinamul leader Mr Ghosh, however, alleged that the headmaster had forced Janaki’s father to sign the declaration, as the errant teacher was his daughter.
India to serve tea, mascot in Beijing Olympics
There would be areas other than athletics events in which India would be involved in making the Olympics a grand success. Indian tea, better known as the Makaibari tea costing Rs 7000 per kg would be sent to Beijing for dignitaries.
MeriNews
THE BEIJING Olympics 2008 are scheduled to begin in another few days time – August 8 to be precise. Indian contingent for different events has been named and we keep our fingers crossed and hope that they return home with medals – whether these would be gold, silver or bronze is immaterial. A medal is a medal.
There would be areas other than athletics events in which India would be involved in making the Olympics a grand success. Tea will be sent for dignitaries to sip – Indian tea, better known as the Makaibari tea priced at Rs 7000 per kg. A Hyderabad city-based company is also supplying inflatables of ‘Huanhuan’, one of the five Olympics mascots.
Special guests at the Beijing Olympics will not only sip on the famous Makaibari tea, but thousands of them will also be presented with flavoured brew from Darjeeling and Assam as souvenirs…. a reputed company of Assam has been trading in ’speciality tea’ with China for years The company is readying boxes containing a packet each of Darjeeling and Assam tea. Each packet weighs 250 gm. In total, 5,000 boxes will be prepared and sent to Beijing. … Unlike the Rs 7,000-a-kg Makaibari tea, which will be served at the Games, the contract given to Lochan Tea is for souvenirs. Already 333kg of second flush green tea from the Makaibari Tea Estate has been sent to China through the Calcutta airport.These boxes, along with aromatic Chinese tea, would be distributed among distinguished guests arriving from across the globe for the Olympics scheduled to start from August 8.
Regarding the mascots of the Olympics — ‘Huanhuan’, symbolises the Olympic flame and is placed in the centre among four other mascots and is believed to be a personification of the Olympic spirit. A crimson coloured child, he inspires athletes to run faster and jump higher.
The other four mascots are: ‘Beibei’, in the blue Olympic ring symbolising a fish or water; ‘Jingjing’ – black ring represents a Panda symbolising strength; ‘Yingying’ – yellow ring represents an antelope symbolising agility; and ‘Nini’ – green ring represents a bird, symbolising a gymnast’s grace. These five mascots represent the five Olympic rings with ‘Huanhuan’ representing the red ring in the middle.
EOMA consignment of 50 inflatables of ‘Huanhuan’ has already been airlifted to Beijing. The inflatables are cool air inflated and are three-metre high. It took 18 days to manufacture the inflatables worth Rs. 65 lakh. This is a hat-trick for the company because it had supplied mascot inflatables for Olympics in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) as well.
Darjeelingtoday 