News Of Jalpaiguri
West Bengal rehabilitates surrendered Kamtapur rebels
Jalpaiguri (West Bengal), Apr 20 : West Bengal Government has launched a special scheme at Jalpaiguri to rehabilitate the surrendered rebels of Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), a banned militant outfit.
To herald this project, a function was organised here when the surrendered persons interacted with district administration officials, the top brass of the police and also the media persons.
They are being trained in productive vocations under a scheme named Rashtriya Sam Vikash Yojana (RSVY).
Biswajyoti Das, the coordinator of this programme said that the initial response has been quite encouraging and they are hopeful reforming almost all the surrendered KLO persons.
Out of the 150 and odd surrendered KLO rebels, 52 have been attending the rehabilitation programme mooted under RSVY.
"Although we have expected around 100 surrendered persons to undergo this special rehabilitation programme, presently we have 52. Actually when the Chief Minister visited Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and other regions in north Bengal he wished to know whether we have maintained any contact with the surrendered and former KLP rebels. He prompted the Commissioner to lend a fillip to this rehablitaion programme and it has been going on well," said Das.
Das further said that there is ample scope for the former KLO activists to become enterprising individuals in the society.
"Yes, with rupees 30,000 bank loan there is hope for these surrendered persons. We have tried to find out and spot the talent among them to learn some trade or the other like carpentry, tailoring, electrical work etc. with which we could send them to ITI (Industrial Training Institutes) for further training. With the bank loan of rupees 30,000, there is scope for them to become entrepreneurs," he added.
In the public interaction, a couple of the former KLO activists said that they wished to avail more of concrete assistance from the government of West Bengal in addition to training in some trade.
Duringr a span of 15 days they in be trained with farming, animal husbandry and other activities.
The KLO had been one of the major terrorist outfits operating beyond Malda and in the Cooch Behar region of West Bengal. The KLO, prior to its ban, used to train its activists in the jungles bordering Assam, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
The prime objective of KLO was to carve out a separate Kamtapur State comprising six districts - Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, North and South Dinajpur and Malda of West Bengal and four contiguous districts of Assam - Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Dhubri and Goalpara.
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Purulia, Jalpaiguri provided
maximumjobs under NREGA
The districts have provided 64 days of jobs under the 100-day job scheme as against the state average of 45 days.
"Apart from Purulia and Jalpaiguri, good number of jobs were provided in Birbhum (56), Burdwan (55), North 24-Parganas (54), South Dinajpur (53) and West Midnapore (52) districts," joint secretary in state panchayat and rural development department Liakat Ali told PTI.
Officials said Rs 2110.40 crore (Rs 21.1 billion) was spent on jobs under NREGA this year which was Rs 940.39 crore (Rs 9.4 billion) last year.
Jalpaiguri district spent the maximum amount at Rs 201.5 crore (Rs 2.01 billion) and Howrah district spent the lowest of Rs 14 crore (Rs 140 million).
Villagers living in Howrah which is predominantly urban, got the least number of 15 days jobs under NREGA, he said adding that the number of people getting jobs in Hooghly (30), South 24-Parganas (29) and Murshidabad (29) is low.
A total of 34.75 lakh (3.47 million) households got jobs in the schemes in West Bengal where maximum 3,60,000 households got jobs in Murshidabad district and the lowest 55,921 households got job in Howrah district.
Besides the Gorkhaland agitation, Jalpaiguri is also hit by frequent bandh called by Kamtapuris and Adivasis.
"But the agitators did not hamper NREGA work much and villagers in remote Kalchini block bordering Bhutan too got jobs," district magistrate Vandana Yadav said.
Purulia district also provided an average of 64 days of jobs to the villagers belonging to predominantly backward classes and tribals.
About Rs 138.4 crore (Rs 1.38 billion) has been spent behind wages and durable asset creation in Purulia.
Projects which provided more wages and less material cost were selected, district magistrate Avanindra Singh said.
Maoist presence has affected eight out of 20 blocks in Purulia where the average days of work provided was 55 days this year up from last year's 24 days, he said.
NREGA programmes here were meant to create assets like tanks, ponds, irrigation wells, check dams, roads, social forestry, farmland creation and wage employment to the villagers in Purulia, sources said.
Officials said 60 per cent of the job card holders came forward to work in villages.
Officials said technical supervision and faster payment of wages were needed to sustain NREGA works and curb corruption in the state.
Officials called for a policy change in the existing practise of paying for every 15 days for NREGA work to help villagers who still depend on local moneylenders for immediate need of money.
RSP’s Dasharath Tirkey inducted,
courtesy LF quota
If the move to induct Dr Saumendranath Bera in the Left Front ministry was primarily to relieve Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee from some of the ministry work, Dasharath Tirkey’s induction was more to do with the quota system prevalent in the Left Front — number of ministers allotted to a Left Front constituent.
Tirkey (43) from RSP was sworn in as the Minister of State for PWD on Tuesday, replacing Manohar Tirkey who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kalchini in Jalpaiguri district. Kshiti Goswami of RSP is the Minister-in-Charge of PWD.
A graduate from Ranchi University, Tirkey became a member of the RSP in the year 1998. Born in Kumargram in Jalpaiguri, Tirkey had always been involved in trade union movement in the tea gardens at Jalpaiguri.
It was from the trade union movement that he joined the RSP. Salip Topko, his cousin, introduced him to politics, said the newly inducted minister.
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to press for
settling territorial demarcation
Kolkata: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), spearheading a campaign for a separate Gorkhaland state, today said it will press for settling demarcation of territory for the proposed interim set-up at the May 14 tripartite talks and emphasised it will not forgo its demand for inclusion of Siliguri, Dooars and Terai.
"The interim set-up, which would function till December 31, 2011 should have no interference from the West Bengal government and be given authority to look after law and order," Asha, wife of GJM chief Bimal Gurung, said.
She claimed the response from the Centre on this was 'positive' and refused to elaborate.
The sixth round of tripartite talks will be held on May 14.
Asha said the GJM would not budge an inch from its stand on the inclusion of Siliguri and parts of Dooars and Terai in Jalpaiguri district where Gorkhas are predominant in the interim set-up apart from the three hill sub-divisions of the Darjeeling hills.
"If our demand is not accepted, we will realise our goal through a forceful agitation," she warned.
When reminded that mainstream political parties in West Bengal are opposed to a further division of the state, she said, "Gorkhaland is a just demand. It is a demand which is more than 100 years old. We will not rest till we achieve our demand."
Agreeing that the Siliguri corridor was strategically very important, she promised if the government acceded to the statehood demand, the GJM would keep the area secure.
Asha denied having any truck with the Maoists in Nepal and said neither did it subscribe to the Maoist brand of politics in India.
"It is shocking that so many CRPF jawans were killed by them in Dantewada in Chhattisgarh. We also codemn the killing of EFR jawans at Shilda in West Bengal," Asha, who is also the president of the GJM's Nari Morcha, said.
According to her, GJM was now maintaining a distance from Kamatapur People's Party, agitating for a separate Kamatapur state, and the Greater Coochbehar Democratic Party, which wants a Greater Coochbehar state, with which it had forged a common platform sometime back.
She said the GJM would strive to achieve its statehood goal through the Gandhian principles of non-violence and by keeping within the provisions of the Constitution.
Demanding adequate compensation from the Left Front government for the families of the 24 EFR jawans killed in the February 15 attack at Shilda in West Midnapore district, she said GJM functionaries had paid homage to the slain at the
base of the martyrs column at College square in north Kolkata yesterday.
GJM central committee member Asha Gurung told PTI in Kolkata that the organisation would also bargain for allocation of powers to the interim set-up similar to that of a state.
"The interim set-up, which would function till December 31, 2011 should have no interference from the West Bengal government and be given authority to look after law and order," Asha, wife of GJM chief Bimal Gurung, said.
She claimed the response from the Centre on this was 'positive' and refused to elaborate.
The sixth round of tripartite talks will be held on May 14.
Asha said the GJM would not budge an inch from its stand on the inclusion of Siliguri and parts of Dooars and Terai in Jalpaiguri district where Gorkhas are predominant in the interim set-up apart from the three hill sub-divisions of the Darjeeling hills.
"If our demand is not accepted, we will realise our goal through a forceful agitation," she warned.
When reminded that mainstream political parties in West Bengal are opposed to a further division of the state, she said, "Gorkhaland is a just demand. It is a demand which is more than 100 years old. We will not rest till we achieve our demand."
Agreeing that the Siliguri corridor was strategically very important, she promised if the government acceded to the statehood demand, the GJM would keep the area secure.
Asha denied having any truck with the Maoists in Nepal and said neither did it subscribe to the Maoist brand of politics in India.
"It is shocking that so many CRPF jawans were killed by them in Dantewada in Chhattisgarh. We also codemn the killing of EFR jawans at Shilda in West Bengal," Asha, who is also the president of the GJM's Nari Morcha, said.
According to her, GJM was now maintaining a distance from Kamatapur People's Party, agitating for a separate Kamatapur state, and the Greater Coochbehar Democratic Party, which wants a Greater Coochbehar state, with which it had forged a common platform sometime back.
She said the GJM would strive to achieve its statehood goal through the Gandhian principles of non-violence and by keeping within the provisions of the Constitution.
Demanding adequate compensation from the Left Front government for the families of the 24 EFR jawans killed in the February 15 attack at Shilda in West Midnapore district, she said GJM functionaries had paid homage to the slain at the
base of the martyrs column at College square in north Kolkata yesterday.
News From ThaindianNews
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/left-front-led-strike-inhuman-unethical-mamata-banerjee_100354877.html
Left Front-led strike inhuman,
unethical: Mamata Banerjee
Kolkata, April 27 (IANS) Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Tuesday criticised the ruling Left Front for using “strong-arm methods” to enforce the strike against rising prices in West Bengal. The Front, however, said people had responded spontaneously to the shutdown.”What they have done is inhuman. They committed atrocities on train passengers. They forcefully stopped trains. At the Kolkata airport, they locked the toilets to prevent passengers from using them,” Banerjee told reporters.“What they have done at railways stations and the airport is a mockery of democracy. It is inhuman, unethical and unconstitutional,” she said.
“What we have seen today is a state-sponsored bandh which did not have the support of the people.”
Left Front chairman Biman Bose, on the other hand, claimed the strike was a success and that people had responded spontaneously to the strike call. According to him, the situation remained peaceful barring a few stray incidents.
He admitted that the strike call did not evoke the same response it got in earlier years in the tea gardens of Jalpaiguri district.
“Out of 153 tea gardens, in 50 the strike was total. Seventy four others were open, while 29 saw a partial strike,” he said.
Bose described Banerjee’s sharp criticism of the strike as “infantile”.
“There is no need to comment on such observations. Only those who rely on drama in their political journey can make such comments,” he said.
The 12-hour nationwide strike was called by 13 opposition parties to denounce the government over rising food prices.
In West Bengal, flight and train services were inoperative and vehicles kept off the roads. Two train passengers were injured in a clash with strike supporters at Pundooah station, railway officials said.
The streets in Kolkata and district towns were deserted and shops, markets and offices remained closed.
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