Darjeeling toy train cuts a man into halves near ‪Sonada‬

10:52 PM

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Sonada

Man Mowed Down by Train Near ‪Sonada‬

Reports: Tenzing Sangayla Bhutia

17 June 2016 Darjeeling Sonada: The World famous UNESCO's World Heritage Darjeeling toy train cuts an unidentified man in half and drags one half of the body all the way to Sonada while the other the half of his body was found near 8th Mile 4 km from Sonada.

People in Sonada were in for a shock when the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) also known toy train pulled in tonight. Along with the train came the dead body of a male which was stuck to the lower half of the train.

People would later find that the train had cut the man in half, with half of his body being found near 8th Mile, which is 4 kms away from Sonada town and the other half got pulled along with the train to the station.

The police have cordoned off the train and are currently trying to ascertain who the dead individual is.

Darjeeling toy train cuts a man into halves near ‪Sonada‬

The Railway authorities in collaboration with the pulled out the dead body from underneath the train.

Darjeeling toy train cuts an unidentified man in halves

Via The DC

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After Kalimpong district demand to upgrade more hill areas

9:37 AM

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Sonada

Writes Vivek Chhetri

Darjeeling, June 10: The state government's decision to create Kalimpong district and Mirik subdivision has triggered demands to upgrade Bijanbari block to a subdivision and carve out Sonada-Rangbull block out of Sukhiapokhari.

The demand is being raised not only by political parties like the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the Trinamul Congress (Hills) but also by local people who have formed organisations like the Bijanbari Subdivision Demand Committee and Block Establishment Co-ordination Committee (of Sonada-Rangbull).

The convener of the Bijanbari committee, L.M. Lama, said: "Bijanbari is one of the biggest blocks in the region. While we welcome the state government's decision to upgrade Mirik to a subdivision, we request the government to look into our demand to make Bijanbari a subdivision."

Darjeeling Map 

The committee wants the government to create three blocks - Bijanbari, Rimbick-Lodhama and Rangneet-Lebong - in the proposed Bijanbari subdivision.

Currently, Bijanbari block is in Darjeeling (Sadar) subdivision.

The Block Establishment Co-ordination Committee has raised a similar demand for Sonada Rangbull.

Committee general secretary Rajesh Chauhan said: "Since 2009, residents of Sonada-Rangbull area have been demanding a separate block. People of areas like Namsu, Balasun and Margaret Hope have to take three vehicles to reach Sukhiapokhri (for administrative work). This causes great hardships to them."

The Morcha and Trinamul (Hills) have backed both the demands.

N.B. Khawash, general secretary of Trinamul (Hills), said: "We have submitted a written request to the district magistrate of Darjeeling (on June 8) for creating a Sonada-Rangbull block, bifurcation of Kurseong block and the upgrade of Bijanbari to a subdivision."

The hill subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong have eight blocks.

Gorubathan is the largest block (442.72sqkm), followed by Bijanbari (known as Darjeeling-Pulbazar) spread over 416sqkm. The population of Bijanbari (1.26 lakh) is more than Gorubathan (60,663).

Kurseong's Mirik, which is set to become a subdivision, is the smallest block in the hills (119.30sqkm with a population of 46,374 according to the 2011 Census.

Source Telegraph

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Unknown Dead Body Found in Sonada

10:23 AM

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Sonada

The Sonada police have recovered the dead body of an unknown individual from Upper Johnson Hatta, Thalthaley which is around 3 kilometers above Sonada.

The police have stated that the body of an unknown individual whose approximate age could be 40 years, height around 5 feet 2 inches, wearing a blue t-shirt, pant and blue slippers was found, but they have no clue as to who the dead individual could be.

Apparently there is no marks on the body, other than a saline water plaster indicating that the individual could have been a patient at a hospital somewhere. But till the writing of this report, they had been unable to ascertain who the individual was.

If anyone know who this individual is, please contact the nearest police station.

Source: DC

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Sonada and Sukhia Pokhari in Darjeeling Hills should have declared municipalities

9:20 AM

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Sukhay Pokhari

Former state urban development minister Asok Bhatacharya today questioned the exclusion of Jaigaon, Atharokhai, Birpara and Karimpur in the list of 22 new municipalities the state government announced yesterday. He said the state government selected the other places to “gain political advantage.”

Asok Bhatacharya

“The Left Front government had earlier already decided to declare 16 of the 22 new areas as municipalities. So actually, the state government yesterday announced only six new municipalities. 

It, however, excluded four areas--Jaigaon, Atharokhai, Birpara and Karimpur. Rapid urbanization has taken place in Jaigoan and Atharokhai in the past few years, while commercial activities have gone up in Jaigaon.” 

“There are several important educational institutions–North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, North Bengal University, BEd colleges and at least seven high schools in Atharokhai (near Siliguri). It is beyond our understanding why these places were not included in the list,” Mr Bhattacharya told a Press meet here today.

According to him, the state government declared only six new municipalities--Gazole, Buniadpur, Tarapith, Mallarpur, Baxirhat and Thakurnagar.

"The government should have declared Sonada and Sukhia Pokhari in Darjeeling Hills as municipalities. The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration should have recommended this to the state government," he said.

Mr Bhattacharya added that the state government has failed to prepare a policy on urban development.

"It seems that the state government announced the municipalities in all those places to gain political mileage. It left out those areas where it thought gaining such political mileage was difficult. 

Three years since the TMC government in the state, it still does not have any vision," he added.
Talking about the withdrawal of a proposal to grant tribal status to 10 communities in Darjeeling Hills, Mr Bhattacharya said it was the “state government's move for political interests.”

"It (proposal) was a political stunt ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The government did it for politics of vote bank," he said.

Source: STATESMAN

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Israeli Embassy denied visa to Darjeeling women calling citizens of Nepal

1:30 AM

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sukna

In a shocking development, the Israeli Embassy has denied visas to 10 women from Darjeeling alleging them to be Nepalese nationals.  The women, who had been waiting for their visas to fly to Israel to work there, received a shock when the embassy turned down their requests calling them “citizens of Nepal”. The women including Radhika Rai, Priya Thapa, Reshma Gurung, Ranju Rai and Kavita Sharma, among others had reached Delhi four months ago. They said despite furnishing all the necessary documents, including their Indian citizenship certificates, the embassy denied them the visas.

 Expressing utter disbelief and pleading helplessness over the baseless and ‘hurtful’ denial of the visas, Priya Thapa said they are feeling “politically victimised”. She said social organisations and political parties should step forward to speak against this “gross injustice”. “We are being tagged as foreigners in our own land, while many from Nepal are flying to Israel with fake Indian citizenship certificates,” said Thapa, which is true to a far extent. She said the 10 women had invested a lot of money to get a job abroad, but their aspirations have been shattered by the “unexpected” development.

Livid over the denial, Thapa added, “We feel humiliated as our visa applications have been turned down on a baseless allegation, that of being Nepalese citizens. Darjeeling and its people seem to have no recognition and identity in Delhi.”

The 10 women hail from Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong, Mirik, Sukna, Salbari and Sonada, and almost all of them had taken loans in the hope of repaying them quickly. Even as the lack of job opportunities in Darjeeling is forcing the hill folk to venture outside the hills and even abroad in search for work, the foreigner tag has only added to the smouldering resentment of the people, which, if not addressed quickly and in earnest, may conflagrate into uncontrollable proportions.

Source: EOI

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