Kurseong N F Railway Printing Press has a glorious history, not many are aware of it. Suprakash Lama a second-generation railway employee of the N.F. Railway Press, acquaint us with this amazing heritage of ours.
In this crucial time of the COVID 19 that rendered thousands of migrant labourers, students, medical patients as well as travellers in a difficult situation outside their home, many states including Sikkim has already taken an initiative to bring them back home but with strict norms of 14 days quarantine at designated quarantine centres.
The COVID19 pandemic has been claiming lives and livelihood around the Globe at an alarming rate. Global & National Action Plans and initiatives to combat the pandemic have already been underway. Its success ultimately depends upon the effective and prudent actions undertaken at the Regional and Local level to implement it.
I don’t know much about the markets in other hill regions like Kalimpong, Kurseong, Sikkim etc, but I am astounded and shocked to hear the prices of apparels in Darjeeling nowadays, as we say in our lingo “Tarsiney daam”.
We, the people of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts, wholeheartedly welcome the initiative to initiate Constitutional Amendment to implement the three-tier Panchayati Raj in these two districts. Panchayati Raj has been the backbone of Indian democracy. It envisaged incorporating all the villages and its population in the nation-building processes. Further, as the majority of the population lived in the villages it was an endeavour to make them equal stakeholders in the decision-making the process and the developmental activities. Panchayati Raj system came into existence when the Community Development Programmes failed due to the lack of governance and monopoly of the few. Panchayati raj was implemented to decentralise democracy.
Darjeeling MP Raju Bista has demanded that Article 243M section 3 of the constitution which prevented the holding of 3-tier Panchayat Election in the hills is scrapped.
As the push for a nation-wide National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise gets stronger, there are growing concerns among the Indian Gorkha community settled in various pockets across the country. The discussions are gaining more ground after Assam published its final NRC list on August 31, 2019, the process which was monitored by the Supreme Court of India. As reported by different media organisations, of the estimated 25 lakh Gorkhas living in Assam, about 1 lakh were excluded from the final list.
West Bengal Cabinet’sdecision 31st of Oct 2019 permits for 15% of the land in tea gardens to be used for “tourism purposes”. They have further said that the maximum land that can be diverted to tourism should not cross 150 acres. The WB Cabinet has further mandated that the tea garden owners can make construction in 40% of this land.
Darjeeling Everyday is a delicious feeling. Here in Darjeeling, the festive seasons are almost to end and we are now at the best part of the entire season – the Tihar days. Everything about this time of the year is beautiful – bright sunny days, smiling mountains, milky white clouds (if any), delicious food, selrotis, flowers, vailo, dewsi, vai tika, dakshina, drinks and what not? If you get greeted by pleasant weather mixed with the aroma of saipatris added to a clear view of the mountains, you are here.
On August 17, West Bengal tourism minister Gautam Deb addressed a press conference at Mirik in Darjeeling. Exuding his obvious concern for the Gorkhas and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) issue, he said, “If NRC is implemented in the Darjeeling hills, the hills will become empty, out of 15 Lakh people there will be no one to live there. Most Gorkha brothers and sisters and senior citizens they will be driven out from Darjeeling hills, both Darjeeling and Kalimpong, including Kurseong and this Mirik [sic].”